Evaluating the effects of documentary clips on student learning outcomes and attitudes in an animal behavior course

Animal behavior courses that focus on how and why animals behave as they do in nature can benefit from opportunities for direct observation. While some university animal behavior courses include lab components that allow students to observe behavior first-hand, the logistical considerations for animal behavior labs are considerable, and therefore in many cases animal behavior courses consist only of lecture. We hypothesized that showing documentary clips in lecture, an inexpensive and easily implemented tool, would enhance student learning. To test this hypothesis, we showed selected documentary clips illustrating specific concepts during lecture and compared student performance on quiz questions covering those concepts with performance on control questions covering concepts without associated clips. In addition, we conducted a qualitative survey to evaluate student enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the clips. We found no relationship between lecture content presented with documentary clips and student performance, but these results should be interpreted cautiously because of the small sample size and other study design limitations. On the other hand, students reported positive perceptions of the clips and believed they supported their learning. Consequently, documentary clips may represent a low-cost, accessible tool for increasing student engagement.