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.