Abstract:

The use of instructional videos to learn how to perform a particular task is widespread. It has been proved that video is a very appropriate didactic tool to communicate facts or explain procedures. In addition, users can review its content as often as necessary, at the moment they deem appropriate and at the pace that best fits their needs. These qualities and the availability of screen recording software, which allows the creation of digital videos in a simple way (screencast), have promoted the use of videos as a valuable resource in many areas in formal education.

In this work, the use of videos as complementary material to problem solving sessions is analyzed. The experience was performed with 180 students of the courses of Physics and Electricity of the first year of Electronic and Automatic Engineering Degree of Universitat Politècnica de València. The objective of these videos is to show the methodology that is applied in the resolution of some type of problems related to the lessons in the syllabus. In the course of Physics the videos were uploaded in the corresponding folder of each lesson in the university virtual platform, with no guidelines for their use. However, in the course of Electricity, each video was introduced by the instructor when the corresponding lesson was explained, so students were advised to watch it to increase their understanding of the topic. In this way, a work plan was established for the visualization of the videos, which are integrated with the rest of the scheduled activities of the course.

The analysis presented in this work focuses on how students have used these videos and in what way the existence of a programmed sequence for their visualization has an influence on their performance. For this purpose, a tool to analyze access to web pages, surveys and interviews with students have been used.

Keywords:

Video, screencast, virtual platform, problems.