Abstract:

In recent years videos have become important tools in education. Educational videos help increase student engagement and facilitate deep learning [1]. As usage of videos in education is increasing it brings us to the question of how to improve the effectiveness of educational videos. It has been found that images in videos should be directly related to the concept for improving effectiveness of videos [2].

This study investigated which characteristics of educational videos influence the accomplishment of educational objectives. We produced a series of educational videos for high school biology. To evaluate the educational applicability of the videos, four videos were selected based on specific criteria. Videos differed from each other by quality of sound and images, style of editing, animation and presence of summarizing texts on titles that support the visual and auditory information. Our aim was to find out how these characteristics of audiovisual materials influence what students notice and remember from the videos. We assumed that videos with supportive titles would help students memorize the information and animations help to understand abstract processes in biology. On the other hand, swapping the frames and lack of supportive texts would decrease learning and understanding of the topic.

A qualitative study with 24 students (ages 15 to 18) from three different schools was conducted. In a focus group, students watched a video, wrote down what they saw and heard and then participated in an interview. After the interview students took a test. The whole process was videotaped for later analysis.

The results of the study demonstrated that supportive titles and animations helped students memorize the information and understand the subject. At the same time quick frame motion weakened memorizing the information.

References:
[1] Clifton, A., Mann, C. (2011). Can YouTube enhance student nurse learning? Nurse Education Today. 31 (4), 311-313.
[2] Afonso Ferrer, G., García – Barrera, A. (2014). Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom Videos. Proceedings of INTED2014 Conference 10th-12th March 2014.

Keywords:

Educational video, improving classroom teaching, high school biology.