Potential Usefulness of Video Lectures as a Tool in Improving the Online Learning at the Post Graduate Level: A Case for Design Domain Students

Distance learning in modern day requires online educational systems as a major support.During recent COVID19 pandemic, educational system survived through online educational systems. Video lectures have been considered a great utility as part of system. The current research focused on MSc Sustainable Environmental design students who come from a variety of formal design and engineering educational systems and explored the usefulness of video lectures given to technical master's level students. As a result, they faced major issues to adapt to the online system immediately and encountered communication and comprehension problems throughout the lecture session as a result of internet and related connectivity problems. The researcher used independently created video lectures for the relevant subject areas and distributed them to the students via subject-specific Whatsapp groups and a Youtube channel. In a later survey, students were asked whether the lectures had helped them understand the material better and had generally improved their learning process. Over 80% of the students expressed appreciation/satisfaction for the work and asked that it be incorporated into the broader system. The students were beforehand informed of the goal of the research and an online questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data. It was concluded that video lectures should be regarded as an essential component of the lecture sessions and that they must be made available beforehand to ensure better lecture delivery. Additionally, it was recommended that the current system be improved to accommodate the accessibility of these video lectures through the portal. For teachers to create high-quality video content that can adequately cover the subjects and courses taught, training is required.