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

The use of educational technology has changed the landscape of higher education. Lecture capture, a method of recording in-person lectures for viewing outside of class, has been used extensively in health professions education. However, little is known about how lecture capture is used in physician assistant/associate (PA) education or to what degree, if any, does offering recorded lectures affect attendance policies.

A link to a four-question online survey was emailed to all PA program directors listed on the PA Education Association online member directory, and the survey response rate was 41%.

There is an even distribution of programs that provide recorded lectures (49.6%) vs. those that do not (50.4%). The most common rationale for providing recordings was to offer an additional resource, while the highest ranked reason for not offering recordings was the concern for passive learning. Most PA programs (93.4%) require attendance for in-person didactic lectures. The primary reason for doing so is out of concern for academic performance. Of those programs that provide recorded lectures, 90.2% require attendance (55/61). Of those programs that do not provide recordings, 96.8% also mandate didactic lecture attendance (61/63).

These results suggest (1) only half of the PA programs offer recorded in-person didactic lectures, (2) most PA programs require attendance at in-person didactic lectures, and (3) providing students with lecture recordings does not increase the likelihood of mandatory attendance.