The use of instructional videos in K-12 classrooms: A mixed-method study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of instructional videos in K - 12 classrooms. This study sought to determine how often the use of instructional videos occurred in K - 12 classrooms, how the instructional videos were used, teachers' perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of using instructional videos, and the frequency with which the cognitive theory of multimedia learning recommendations were included in the design of the videos that were being used.

A mixed-method study was used to answer the research questions. The superintendents at two different school districts in southwestern Pennsylvania distributed an online, researcher-created survey via a mass e-mail system. A total of 324 classroom teachers were invited to participate in the study, and 73 teachers responded to the survey creating a 23 % response rate.

Based on the findings, 85 % of the K - 12 educators who responded used instructional video technology for educational purposes. The frequency of use results indicated that the teachers used instructional videos frequently and maintained a collection of different video titles. Teachers reported using instructional videos to reinforce, motivate, meet student needs, provide authentic content, and demonstrate. Advantages to using instructional videos included maximize instructional time, teacher and student control, multi-modal instruction, and motivation. Teachers reported the following disadvantages to using instructional videos: lack of access, full group viewing, lack of interaction, and learning barriers.

The cognitive theory of multimedia learning is a theory of how people learn from multimedia messages and defines specific design features that, based on empirical research, improve learning. This study investigated the use of the design principles recommended by the cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Although the principles of voice, politeness, pre-training, personalization, and signaling were present the majority of the time in the instructional videos used by K - 12 teachers, the principles of redundancy, spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, coherence, and segmentation were used less frequently.