Students perception of videos in introductory physics courses of engineering in face-to-face and online environments

Abstract

Digital videos have an important (and increasing) presence in learning processes, especially within online universities and schools. However, creating videos is a time-consuming activity for teachers, who are usually not expert in video creation. Therefore, it is important to know which kind of video is perceived as more satisfactory and useful by students, among the videos that docents usually create. In this paper we show a structural model with the relation between satisfaction, the way in which a video has been created, the kind of video (with or without the hands of the teacher and with or without the body/head of the teacher), perceived usefulness, contents of the video (theory or problems) and the potential impact of videos on passing rates. The experiment has been performed in an introductory Physics of Engineering course with over 200 first year students in both: at 100% online university, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC); and at a face-to-face university, Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS). Tests have been performed with around 100 videos of two types: videos created with a digitizing tablet and screen capture, and videos created by recording the hands of the teacher. Results have been quantitatively analysed. The research shows that results are independent of the environment and that students prefer videos with hands. On the other hand, little effect has been found regarding the content of the video in the perceived usefulness or satisfaction. The performance results show that videos can improve the chances of passing the subject. Thus, the paper shows that videos with hands are a useful complement to challenging subjects, like introductory physics in Engineering, to effectively assimilate scientific knowledge. The main contributions of this paper are: to analyse the perception that students have of video in a specific context, introductory course of Physics in Engineering, in different environments; and to analyse the perception of the video regarding the way in which it has been created, and the kind of content.