Effect of the Presentation of Learning Videos on Content Understanding

Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, most university courses have shifted from a classical classroom or lab context to an online format. While some courses and lectures are still taught in real time via live streaming or video conferences, many lecturers have seized the opportunity to change their courses to an asynchronous format with pre-recorded video snippets of certain topics. This video-on-demand format makes it possible for students to pause the video, replay certain parts, or adjust playback speed to their liking. Opposed to a live stream or in-person lecture, the recording can be watched at any time.

Furthermore, different lecturers have different preferences on how they present content, e.g. some might support their lecture with a set of slides while others just talk to a camera.

But how do those new possibilities and different presentation styles reflect on student's learning behavior and content understanding?

In this project, different styles of presenting learning videos in the context of online courses are to be compared in terms of student's behavior and their learning success. This question can be approached with a controlled user study presenting participants different styles of learning videos and assessing their behavior and content understanding with a short test.

Another interesting contribution would be to investigate how well university lecturers are actually equipped for the production of educational videos and how the Covid-crisis has changed this.

TBD

• media production (recommended)
• survey and study design

[1] Hansch, A., Hillers, L., McConachie, K., Newman, C., Schildhauer, T., & Schmidt, P. (2015). Video and Online Learning: Critical Reflections and Findings from the Field. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2577882