Interactive educational videos to learn about psychological theories: effects of learner control and feedback features on extraneous cognitive load and knowledge acquisition
- Educational videos hold great potential to support learning in psychology education. However, viewers typically process the content passively, as opportunities to interact with videos are usually restricted to simple control features. H5P, a technology to enhance videos with feedback features, may foster learners’ engagement in generative activities and in more constructive ways of learning. Yet, research on H5P remains limited. A field study with N = 109 university students investigated the effects of educational videos on their learning of psychological theories. Three conditions were compared to determine whether the level of interactivity affects extraneous cognitive load, self-assessed and externally assessed knowledge: In one condition, students could not interact with the video, whereas in the second condition, the video granted simple learner control. In the third condition, viewers could engage with the video using the same learner control features, but also with additionalEducational videos hold great potential to support learning in psychology education. However, viewers typically process the content passively, as opportunities to interact with videos are usually restricted to simple control features. H5P, a technology to enhance videos with feedback features, may foster learners’ engagement in generative activities and in more constructive ways of learning. Yet, research on H5P remains limited. A field study with N = 109 university students investigated the effects of educational videos on their learning of psychological theories. Three conditions were compared to determine whether the level of interactivity affects extraneous cognitive load, self-assessed and externally assessed knowledge: In one condition, students could not interact with the video, whereas in the second condition, the video granted simple learner control. In the third condition, viewers could engage with the video using the same learner control features, but also with additional H5P-feedback features. Results showed that extraneous cognitive load was significantly higher when users could not interact with the video compared to the other conditions. Contrary to our expectations, students in the three conditions did not differ in knowledge gain. Further research is needed to clarify how interactive features in educational videos can best enhance knowledge acquisition in psychology.…
