Abstract:

This work presents the preliminary results of a survey on students’ perceptions about the use of video as educational tool in a Portuguese Higher Education institution. The research was developed in the scope of the EU project Relobie: Reusable Learning Objects in Education (2014-1-FI01-KA200-000831) that aims at improving the adult and higher education through strengthening instructors’ knowledge and skills in using videos in education. The project gathers experiences and views of students and faculty and use the provided feedback to develop better tools, skills and know-how on video production and use in teaching and learning.

The survey includes four general sections, the first section addresses socio demographic characteristics of the participants, the second section focuses on the technological background and level of use, namely familiarity with technology, and time spent interacting with technological devices, expertise in developing activities involving technology as well as its use with educational purposes. The third section addresses video usage in studies and includes issues as frequency or characteristics of the videos used for teaching and learning and pedagogical models associated. Finally, the fourth section aims to describe students’ perception of incentives and barriers to the educational usage of videos and their attitudes towards videos usage in teaching and learning. The participants in the study were approx. 100 students from social sciences graduation courses of a Portuguese university. The preliminary results point to the importance and value of videos as an educational tool for teaching and learning. Students refer that videos can be reused, foster knowledge retention, deepen understanding, personalization, motivation and promote good climate in class. However, some barriers must be considered, namely the time and competences needed.

Keywords:

Students perceptions, videos, higher education, pedagogical and technological barriers.