Abstract:

In this study, the activity of watching short video lectures was analyzed at engineering mathematics context. The topics studied were:
• How much the students utilized the short video lectures?
• How the viewing activity was distributed between different course score classes?
• By comparing the course scores, does there seem to be any differences between the test and the control groups.

A total of 129 students participated in this study, in which 41 students were representing the group A, 29 the group B and 59 the group C. The groups A and B were the test groups and the group C the control group. The traditional classroom teaching was organized for all the groups but additional short video lectures were offered only for the test groups. The control group was educated with traditional approach without any video content.

During the course, 13 short video lectures, concerning the total length of 70 minutes, were released for the group A and 12 video lectures, overall about 60 minutes for the group B. This means that averagely 1,5 short videos were released per each teaching week of the courses.

Of the participants of the test groups (n = 70), 86% watched short video lectures. Additionally, 90% of those, who watched the short videos, watched more than one times video lectures. However, half of those, who watched the videos, watched 10 times or more the videos. These percentages were mainly the ones expected. As the videos were additional resources, it was expected that not all of the students would utilize the video materials.

The total of 560 videos were watched during the course including also multiple views. This amount excludes pausing and repeating of videos. The viewing activity between the groups A and B distributed unequally. By comparing the average video views per participant, the views in the groups A and B were 9,2 and 6,3, respectively. By turning the total viewing figures into hours, the total viewing time was nearly 35 hours for the group A and slightly over 15 hours for the group B, being total of 50 hours. These figures are quite significant as the total in-class sessions were about 36 hours.

By comparing the average percentages of views between different final grades, the most active video watchers have been the students with the grades 2 and 3. In addition, the students with the grade 0 have watched only few videos as well as students with the grade 5. However, by considering the nature of videos, it was assumed that the students with the grade 5 do not benefit significantly from the video content.

The passing rate of course was higher in the test groups than in the control group. Furthermore, the average score of the test group (mean = 16,1; sd = 5,32) was significantly higher than of the control group (mean = 14,3; sd = 5,5) using unpaired t-test for equal variances (t = -1,85; p = 0,03). These results indicate that the test groups performed significantly better.

Also the distribution of the scores was examined. About 58% of the control group’s students got less than 15 points from the examination. Also in this case, the test groups performed better as about 36% of students got less than 15 points. By comparing the higher scores (scores between 20 - 30), the test groups performed better even though the performance difference was not that significant. By comparing the score distribution, the most typical score in the control and the test groups was between 10,5-15 and 15 – 20 points, respectively.

Keywords:

Mathematics learning, short video lecturing, screencast.