The effect of time and place dependence when utilizing video lectures

Abstract

In many learning institutes, diversification of teaching with the help of various technologies has become an essential part of educational arrangements. With the increase in the use of networks for teaching purposes, the use of streaming videos is now one of the possibilities to be reckoned with in trying to increase flexibility in studies. Specially recorded on-demand videos provide the students with better chances to decide when, where and how to study. Information on how students use on-demand videos can be obtained, apart from student questionnaires, from the log files of a media server. These files offer an information source that, on the one hand, is diverse but, on the other, cumbersome and less used. This article examines, with the help of the log files of the media server, matters related to time and place dependence and the use of videos by the students. The investigation is based on the analysis of the log data entered about videos transmitted during the master's education programme in information technology in 2008.