Abstract:

The use of audiovisual learning objects in higher education scenarios has experienced a steady growth in the past years. Not only are they essential in online courses, but they are also important in blended learning contexts. All professionals participating in the instructional design process now need to deal with a new type of language: the audiovisual one. Audiovisual products require specific skills and a peculiar set of knowledge that are not always easy to acquire. Even professional video makers who never had to comply to educational purposes may struggle with these videos at the beginning, as they need to conjugate technique with didactic objectives by creating and/or using special tools that foster the achievement of the educational goals.

The main trends in the audiovisual production for educational purposes conform to the ways the human brain processes new information and data which may be acquired depending on the cognitive load of the product, active learning and student engagement. Starting from these premises, this presentation aims to support the design of learning video-objects in relation to the principles of cognitive load, active learning and student engagement through a comparative analysis of 600 videos excerpted from the federica.eu and coursera.org platforms.

Keywords:

Video, videolecture, MOOC, aduiovisual products.