Table 4.

Focus group themes. Numbers in brackets refer to individual participants. Participants 1–7 took part in the first focus group, 8–13 participated in the second focus group.

Theme	Sub theme	Quotes
Emotional effects of lecture recordings	Dependency	‘And, so, yeah, especially for fast paced lectures where you're like, you know, what was that? If I didn't have a stream capture, I wouldn't be able to understand any of it probably’. [3] ‘I wouldn't be able to do as well without lecture streams’ [8] ‘I couldn't imagine not having the stream capture’. [12] ‘A panicked feeling [if there is no recording]’ [3] ‘I do get stressed when it's not recording’ [1] ‘it's like really stressful […] if you miss it you've missed it, and that could affect your grade’ [3] ‘I feel like I would be quite stressed sitting in there knowing that was the only time I was going to hear the lecturer saying it’. [12]
	Reducing stress	‘Sometimes when you go to a lecture you have that tendency to make, you know, word by word what the lecturer has said rather than actually enjoying the lecture. So, the lecture capture gives you like an opportunity to enjoy the lecture, also making notes, and if you miss something out of the lecture, but not avoiding the enjoyment of the lecture’. [6] ‘Yeah, it makes you less stressed knowing that it's there’ [3]
How students use lecture recordings	Time spent on watching recordings	‘I usually go through [the recordings] like two or three times while we're revising’. [2] ‘Like even though it's like a 45 minute lecture it will take me like two hours to get through it.’ [1] ‘I spend a lot of hours doing stream captures, doing notes’. [9] ‘I spend around one quarter of my whole study time on stream capture’. [11]
	Targeted watching	And then if there's a bit that I haven't perhaps understood, I'll go over that bit. Or if the whole lecture was just—you know, I couldn't understand any of it, then I'll have to do the whole thing again and pause it like a hundred times. [3] I never really like watch a whole stream capture, it's more just like I'll write down the time of like a specific part that I just missed or like daydreamed over or if it's too fast. So, I tend to just like focus on that one bit and then don't watch the rest of it. [1]
		‘I usually watch the lectures that are like sort of like a complicated subject, so it's like something I'd need more explanation on and where I'd didn't really understand as much in the lecture’ [13]
	Timing of watching	‘I would keep up with it during the term and then I'd have all my notes ready and perfectly made, and then I'd revise from what I've understood. Like I wouldn't want to, when I'm revising, be like oh I've missed something, and then have to go to the stream capture when I'm in the middle of revising’. [1] ‘Like my percentage [of time] definitely goes up during revision time when I want to review the work that we've already done, but I won't use it an awful lot during the actual semester, I think’. [7] ‘During like term time I'll only watch lectures that I missed on stream capture, and then during like when revising I'll go back and just watch the lectures that I've found most difficult’. [12]
Purpose of watching	Revision	Yes, and for me it's like I'm actually going to the lecture capture straightaway, you know, it's ready for your revision [6] I feel like going [to watch] stream capture and like just understanding what the lecturer said word by word is probably going to be the revision. [13]
	Note taking and understanding	Because you can write it out in more detail if you have the lecture capture, so you can probably have done an overview during the lecture and then you can go back into more detail, because you can pause and go back and write word for word what they've said and it makes more sense. [4] Like in a way you'll understand it rather than rushing to write it down and then being like oh, I didn't actually understand any of that. [3] [without lecture capture] There would just be like loads of like gaps in my notes [1] When you watch the lecture back you're pausing it and writing notes and that's so much better than when you're in the lecture and like not understanding the concept and you go onto the next one. [9]
Behaviour in lectures	Note taking during lectures	I also take notes during the lecture, and I just use the stream capture to just make some additions [11] I do like all my notes in lectures handwritten, so if there's like a bit that I've missed or can't understand I just do like lots of question marks in the margin where I can come back to it. [10] In first year I made notes like by hand, as in wrote them out, so therefore I had to just re‐watch all of them because I was so slow at writing. And then the second year I started typing it and I was a lot better, and then just looked at sections of it. So yeah, I can't keep up if I'm just writing. [4]
	No change in behaviour	People don't like to ask questions [3] I wouldn't put my hand up if it was recording or not. [4] I wouldn't answer if it was being recorded or not recorded [12] No, I wouldn't say it affects my concentration because I'm concentrated on getting everything down and understanding it there so that I don't have to re‐watch it. Because I'll try and save myself time if I can so I'm focusing fully when I'm in there to try and make sure I don't need to re‐watch it. [12]
What affects use of recordings	Approach changes between year 1 and year 3	I used to re‐watch all of them, but now it's—now that I've gotten better, I don't, I just watch bits, so that's changed. [2] Definitely in first year, I felt like I had to go over everything, even if I'd made the notes, I was like oh, because I didn't know what the exams would be like, because I was very stressed about it. [3] And I kind of feel like now like in second year you do need to read more around like certain things […], not just […] listening to the stream lecture. [2] First year there weren't as many assignments so I had more time and I was like what can I do to be benefitting my studies, as sad as that is. […] like so I'd go back and watch them and made sure that my notes were like immaculately like thorough, whereas like now I think I've got more the hang of that I've like got to make not necessarily word for word notes, but more like key structured notes which I can do [8]
	Impact of assessment	It's like that at any point there could be something, one sentence come up that you could be tested on, so I'm just like I should probably watch them all [2] But in my first and second year I didn't do any extra reading of anything really, although they sort of suggest it in second year. And then in third year it becomes like mandatory to do it and there's like marks for showing that you've read something else, so you have to do it. [3] I think it depends on the module as well, the exam that you're doing, you know that it's going to be an essay, then they're going to look for outside reading and for you to reference that. Whereas if it's going to be like short answer questions that's probably going to be more specific to the lecture capture so I'm less likely to read around it [7] I think it's definitely different from first year to third year. Like in the first year people would definitely need to get all of the details because—because they were multiple choice questions it could be pretty much anything they've said [12] You're just kind of doing what you think is the best use of your time to get the best grade you can [8] It's like you're not necessarily focused on always understanding it, you're focused on what they're going to ask in the exam [12]
Using other resources	Time constraints	I mean, I could read textbooks but I'm still trying to catch up, so I don't really end up having time to look at textbooks [9] After going over [the recording] like for two hours, you can't then on top of that spend two hours looking at things that could be related to the topic as that could be anything [3] I don't really end up having time to look at textbooks [9] There's just not enough time in the day. [10]
	Convenience	I prefer listening to somebody talk [3] It takes far longer, I find, reading research papers than it does just listening to the lecture. [2] But it takes a long time to read around a subject when you could just put on lecture capture and watch that instead [4] How would you know you were reading the right thing? [3] […] if you read something then a lot of the time it's really difficult to read… It takes far longer reading research papers than it does just listening to the lecture. [2] Obviously it's just like the easiest thing to do is just to go to stream capture [1]