Zoom lecture attendance patterns during the 2020 lockdown in New Zealand

Abstract

We use a dataset on student attendance of live zoom tutorials, lectures, recordings and student characteristics, drawn from 3 tertiary, second-year economics courses during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 in New Zealand, to analyse lecture attendance patterns. Our analysis shows a relatively homogeneous student population who attended less than half of their (unrecorded) zoom tutorials and less than a third of live zoom lectures, with disproportionate more females present in the 2 largest courses. Up to 34% of students, with males approximately 3 time more likely, attended none of their lectures and tutorials in the two largest courses. Irrespective of gender, students utilized recordings nearly 3 times as much as zoom lectures, and largely as a substitute. Our estimations consistently show ability to be a strong predictor of utilizing lectures and recordings; as well as of the proportion of unattended lectures viewed.