Lecture Recording and Mandatory Attendance Policies in Physician Assistant/Associate Education

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Educational Technology

Background:

• Educational technology, including lecture capture, is transforming higher education.
• Lecture capture is widely used in health professions education, but its application in physician assistant (PA) education is less understood.
• The impact of recorded lectures on attendance policies in PA programs remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the utilization of lecture capture technology in physician assistant (PA) education.
• To determine the prevalence of recorded lectures in PA programs.
• To examine the relationship between offering recorded lectures and mandatory attendance policies.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was distributed to PA program directors via the PA Education Association directory.
• The survey achieved a response rate of 41% among program directors.
• Data were collected on the provision of recorded lectures and attendance policies.

Main Results:

• Approximately 49.6% of PA programs offer recorded lectures, while 50.4% do not.
• The primary reasons for offering recordings were to provide additional resources, whereas concerns about passive learning were highest for not offering them.
• The vast majority of PA programs (93.4%) mandate in-person attendance, primarily to ensure academic performance.

Conclusions:

• Only about half of PA programs currently provide recorded didactic lectures.
• Most PA programs maintain mandatory attendance policies for in-person lectures.
• The availability of lecture recordings does not appear to influence the enforcement of mandatory attendance in PA programs.