Our blog

Online education videos need to be short, succinct and personal and followed up with activities to engage learners

The brain is more as multiple information sources are introduced visually and as audio in an online course
The cognitive theory of multimedia learning proposes that learning is more effective when complementary information is presented

Further research has been published by the Australian Catholic University about videos improve student learning in higher education.


Online education videos need to be short, succinct and personal

The cognitive theory of multimedia learning proposes that learning is more effective when complementary information is presented visually as well as with sounds. This makes videos a form of media that can assist students with more effective learning (Mayer 2008).

MIT researchers Guo, Kim and Rubin (2014) analysed 6.9 million video watching sessions finding that short videos were more engaging (preferably when a video was 6 minutes or shorter in time), students found videos that were solely not just slides more engaging and more informal videos with a personal feel where the speakers had a high amount of enthusiasm had greater engagement.

Short video + Activity = Engaged learner

ACU researchers have taken the MIT research a step further emphasising the importance of not simply having a video without a learner engagement activity stating "passive viewing has been shown to be less effective than active engagement [...] the results suggest that moving content to video is more effective when teachers maintain, or even increase, the level of active learning offered to students"

Ammonite's unique Validity and Authenticity Technology allows a course designer to team learning videos with different sorts of learning questions to fully engage the learner with the task by learning the content and answering the questions with confidence.

Engage your online learners

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to see how Ammonite, Australia's leading LMS, can help you to engage your online learners.

References

Guo, P., Kim, J., Rubin, R. Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning @ scale conference March 2014. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556325.2566239

Mayer, R. E. (2008). Applying the science of learning: Evidence-based principles for the design of multimedia instruction. The American Psychologist, 63(8), 760–769. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.8.760

Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Sanders, T., Parker, P., Cruz, B., Lonsdale, C. (2021). Video improves learning in higher education: A systematic review. Review of Educational Research. February 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654321990713