The methodology of the Harvard research that used secret cameras to study class attendance has concerned some faculty members. But putting aside the question of whether the methodology was ethical, what did the researchers learn about classroom-attendance patterns from their study, and what were the motives behind the experiment?
Some answers to those questions can be found online because Harvard filmed and archived a talk by Samuel Moulton, director of educational research and assessment for the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, who presented the study’s findings on September 16 at the initiative’s annual conference.
The rationale for conducting the study, Mr. Moulton said during the talk, was to explore how engaged students were in classes that use a lecture format. The researchers’ hypothesis was that lecture attendance is a measure of behavioral engagement.
Peter K. Bol, vice provost for advances in learning and a professor of East Asian languages, said in a written statement this week that he wanted to explore how faculty members might make lectures more interactive and engaging.
The study’s data reflect 10 courses involving 2,000 undergraduates.
The results were somewhat mundane, and some might call the project’s findings predictable. For instance, the researchers found that more students show up for lectures on Wednesdays than on Fridays, with an average drop of 10 percent between those two days, according to Mr. Moulton. Over all, lecture attendance declined over the semester studied.
Only 60 percent of the students showed up for any given lecture, he said, when averaging across the 10 courses. But he said he found it more significant that the range in average attendance varied widely, with 35 percent attendance in one course and 95 percent in another.
The factors most likely to influence student attendance? The course’s grading policy and students’ motivation for enrolling in the course to begin with. The three courses with the highest average attendance included attendance as part of students’ grade calculations, and more than 50 percent of each of those classes was made up of students who said they had enrolled to fulfill a pre-med requirement.
Although Mr. Moulton said professors whose classes were involved in the study gave permission to share their identities and the courses studied, he declined to do so during the presentation.
He noted that he thinks one of the well-attended classes has “very accessible, appealing content, amazing lecturer, gets the highest ratings of any of these courses,” and “only makes lecture videos available the week before exams.”
But he also said that “these differences do not appear to be a product of the instructor directly. They appear to be structural aspects of the course.”
Mr. Moulton could not be reached for comment this week, and a Harvard spokesman declined to comment.