Abstract:

During the COVID-19 period, how to use technology and instructional design to allow learners to express themselves like face to face is an issue that educators should take seriously. Danmaku is a comment system which allows users to add real-time comments to specific points in the video. This mechanism provides a sense of synchronicity and makes users feel like they are learning with others. When comment increases and moves, it appears like a bullet on the screen, so it can also be called ‘bullet screen’. Refers to cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (CATLM), Danmaku mechanism may be able to enhance emotion and motivation, which in turn enables students to learn deeply. This study took watching TED-Ed science videos as an example to test the impact of Danmaku in learning. Eleven undergraduates were recruited, and they used Danmaku while watching the video. As the number of subjects increased, there would be more and more Danmaku comments, for example: The second subject would see Danmaku comments of the first subject, and the third subject would see Danmaku comments of the first subject and the second subject. This study collected the number and content of Danmaku comments left by each subject, as well as the scores of the comprehension test (including retention test and transfer test). The results of Spearman's rank correlation analysis indicated no significant difference between the number of Danmaku comments which subject see and comprehension test. However, the results of Spearman's rank correlation analysis indicated a significant negetive correlation between the number of Danmaku comments which subject leave and comprehension test (p = .005). This trend only occured in the transfer test (p = .001), but not in the retention test. These results seem to show that it is difficult to achieve deep learning simply by increasing the number of Danmaku comments. In addition, the more subjects were immersed in the interaction provided by the Danmaku mechanism, the less they seemed to be able to perform effective cognitive processing of information. Although the Danmaku mechanism provides many novel features for the video, there are some things that can be improved to promote learning. Especially in reconciling interaction and cognitive processing.

Keywords:

Danmaku, bullet screen, video learning, cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (CATLM).