Choosing Videos: What do students find most engaging?
Videos were initially chosen based on conceptual links to course material and illustration of the process of science (how scientists develop, test, and evaluate a hypothesis) (Table 2 ). One of the purposes of requesting feedback from students on each video was to gain an understanding of what components of the videos were most important to the students. Not surprisingly, students identified clarity of content, interest and engagement with the topic, and narration by a charismatic speaker as important traits for videos. These comments are consistent with evidence-based suggestions that videos should reduce cognitive load and promote student engagement for highest learning success (Brame 2016).
Interestingly, with one exception, all videos that focused on a particular taxon or habitat of study received positive comments specifically about the taxon or region. The exception was the Virus Adaptation video, which may not have been considered by students to be a ‘taxon’ of study. This effect was enhanced when the video focused heavily on the organism itself, including many photos or videos of the organism. It should be noted that the taxon effect could be reversed if the video highlights an organism commonly feared by students (ex: spiders).
Generally, students preferred documentary-style videos to lecture-style videos; however, even lecture-style videos received numerous positive responses when they featured a charismatic speaker (ex: FindingTiktaalik ) and when they related directly to current environmental issues (ex: Consequences of Amazon Deforestation). In addition to enjoying the ‘feel’ of documentary-style videos, students also responded positively to seeing the scientists ‘at work’ gathering data in the field and seeing organisms of study in the wild. These components could be incorporated into lecture-style videos via photographs or embedded videos of field work and study organisms.
The Great Elephant Census hit nearly all of these points - it is a short, documentary-style video, focusing on an extremely charismatic species, whose conservation importance is well-known to students. Additionally, this video illustrated the use of transect and quadrat sampling methods, which the students had recently used in their laboratory activity. Amusingly, several student comments seemed surprised that the methods they learned in lab were a real data-gathering technique. Consequently, this video was consistently highly rated across most of the positive categories.