Evidence of Improving Knowledge Retention with Interactive Video

Matthew Jorgensen is the Director of eLearning at Saint Stephen’s College, Gold Coast, Australia.

Saint Stephen’s is recognised as a leader in online, blended and flipped learning in the K – 12 space, and was an active user of H5p.com in the Beta trial, providing feedback to help finetune the product.

You can connect with Matthew on Twitter (@jorganiser) and LinkedIn

Context

Interactive video involves a teacher adding questions, tasks or information at strategic moments in a video playback whereby the students must remember recently presented information to progress through the video successfully.

The very nature of an interactive learning environment implies an increased cognitive load on the learner due to the number of activities required and decisions needed (Schwan & Reimpp, 2004). If learning is to occur, and information is to be coded effectively by the cognitive system for long-term retention, it is imperative to design and construct the learning tool in a way that correctly utilises the cognitive attention mechanisms. To achieve this, one needs to design learning with the ‘Three C’s of Learning’ in mind: Control, Challenge, and Commitment (Dror, 2008). When learners have control over their learning, they are more involved and participate in the learning process which is critical in maximising engagement. Similarly, when the learners are challenged and are committed to the learning process, then they are active and the cognitive system is utilised properly (Dror, 2008).

Summary of Findings

• Adding interactivity increases effectiveness, expands the attention span of learner
• Increased Interest and variety of Blended Learning (with academics actively participating in designing, implementing, reviewing, and updating their own blends)
• Interactivity is an essential element of learning
• Increase in student pass rates with students achieving higher grades.
• Increase in student interaction with the online learning environment (number of students using the online space, as well as the duration of time engaging with content on the space).
• The interactive layer allows learners to significantly extend their attention span
• Interactive video has more impact than traditional video
• A greater percentage of students accessed the online content when it was interactive.
• Students also spent a longer duration of time engaging with the online content when it was interactive.
• Addition of interactivity significantly improved completion percentage as well as average viewing time for both ‘long’ and ‘short’ video lecture groups
• The ability to track and analyse behaviour of learners is paramount for improving the effectiveness of learning environments
• The use of interactive video to enable learning through the process of experiencing failure has great potential for fostering ‘deeper learning’, accelerating the process of skill acquisition
• Interactive learning environment - increased cognitive load on the learner due to the number of activities required and decisions needed
• When learners have control over their learning, they are more involved and participate in the learning process which is critical in maximising engagement
• When learners are challenged and are committed to the learning process, then they are active, and the cognitive system is utilised properly

Source 1

McDonald, T., Wilkie, Dr. S. and Zakaria, G. H5P Online Interactive Activities Provide an Alternative to Lectures, Victoria University, HERDSA Conference 2018.

Project Background

‘Delivering content to students via face-to-face lectures is a teaching method that is employed at many universities. This is the standard way that units were traditionally taught, combined with tutorials, workshops, and lab classes.’ Due to modern lifestyle pressures, Victoria University investigated an asynchronous, interactive, online learning strategy using H5P interactive video content. ‘Attendance to tutorials and prac sessions is consistently high, however, attendance to lectures declines over time.’

‘The students need other methods to obtain the information delivered in the lectures, and have greater flexibility for undertaking their learning, than was provided by the traditional delivery method of face-to-face lectures.

It was decided to transform the curriculum with a design focusing on greater flexibility for teaching and learning, and enabling students to learn at their own Pace, Place & Mode.

A Flipped Classroom model with a focus on active learning was adopted which combines online interactive activities to support or replace the delivery of lecture material, and to enable students and staff to maximise their face-to-face time on campus.’

‘Work with academics (and support staff) to design & develop units in according to the Blended Learning Project and Strategy. 160 Units - designed & developed in 2016, delivered 2017

First Year College Project and Strategy

• To redesign all 160 units in the FYC
• Block mode (3 x 3hr session, 4 weeks)
• Active learning
• Blended learning
• To provide students with flexible learning experiences Pace / Place / Mode
• Improve academic digital Literacy Skills’

Student Engagement & Progress

• Academics are able to build (and share) their own interactive learning objects
• Established a Shared Community of Enquiry
• Increased Interest and variety of Blended Learning (with academics actively participating in designing, implementing, reviewing, and updating their own blends) 

Staff Feedback

• “Thank you for showing me how to use this tool.  The initial learning curve was steep, but it was worth it”
• “I like being able to create and edit my own online activities, as and when needed”.

Student Impact

• Positive student feedback regarding engaging online interactive content (activities to support their learning)
• Increase in student pass rates with students achieving higher grades.
• Increase in student interaction with the online learning environment (number of students using the online space, as well as the duration of time engaging with content on the space).

Student Feedback

• “Thanks for the maths support videos, they were immensely helpful.”
• “They are great - I like the interactive nature”
• “Great flexibility”
• “It consolidates what I have heard in lectures, read in lecture notes / textbook”

Source 2

Burmeister, Nora, (2018). NCLA DLS Webinar Wednesday: Creating accessible online learning objects with H5P, North Carolina Library Association, https://youtu.be/a6UkhP0OCOw.

‘For the past year, CCCC has been growing its embedded online learning program by creating an integrated series of online interactive learning modules to embed into the Blackboard courses of both seated and distance classes. These modules allow students to actively engage with information literacy concepts from anywhere they have an internet connection. These modules were created using H5P, a free open-source content authoring tool which allows users to create interactive content on literally any topic.’

• 2 different English Classes
• Flat – threaded, YouTube, PDF
• Dynamic – H5P
• C- to B- difference in knowledge retention via assessment quizzes
• students in the version with the H5P modules had higher scores on their final research assignments*
• difference of 80.5% in the H5P class to 70.3% in the flat module class
• * these two courses were taught by two separate instructors

Source 3

Geri, N, Winer, A, Zaks, Beni. Challenging the six-minute myth of online video lectures: Can interactivity expand the attention span of learners?, Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, http://www.iiakm.org/ojakm/articles/2017/volume5_1/OJAKM_Volume5_1pp101-111.pdf, viewed 21 June 2018.

‘Preliminary results show that addition of interactivity significantly improved completion percentage as well as average viewing time for both ‘long’ and ‘short’ video lecture groups by more than 20%. Furthermore, the average viewing time of the ‘long’ group grew to over 10 minutes. The contributions of this study are twofold: it demonstrates the potential of learning analytics to identify ways to improve learning processes, and it provides empirical support for the potential of adding interactive elements to the videos to expand the attention span of learners.’

‘One of the disadvantages of online video lectures is that it is hard for learners to passively watch them. Adding interactivity increases the effectiveness of the lectures and expands the attention span of online learners (Cherrett, Wills, Price, Maynard, & Dror, 2009; Dror, Schmidt, & O'connor, 2011; Kim et al., 2014). Interactivity has been considered for years an essential element of learning (Moreno & Mayer, 2007; Sims, 1997).’

‘This study examines the effect of interactivity on attention and video retention rather than the effect of interactivity on learning. Furthermore, current online learning environments challenge e-learners with many obstructions that may divert their attention. These concerns suggest a higher possibility of additional distraction that may be caused by in-video interactivity.’

‘we investigate if interactivity and video length are substitutes in the sense that adding interactivity and shortening online video lectures are two options that either could be used to increase the effectiveness of the lectures.’

‘The data in Table 1 shows that the addition of interactive elements to the videos increased their viewing metrics. The statistical analysis indicated that the changes are significant.’

Conclusion

‘Our preliminary results indicate that the addition of interactivity significantly improved completion percentage as well as average viewing time for both long’ and ‘short’ video lecture groups by more than 20%. The analysis included the first 51 calendar days after the interaction, and as mentioned above, this period was during the summer break, before the beginning of the academic year. Yet, in addition to the promising completion percentage results, the data presented in Table 1 shows an increase in the average views per calendar day from 391 to 452 views after the intervention.’

‘the average viewing time of the ‘long’ group grew to 10.81 minutes, and even the average viewing time of the ‘short’ group increased to 6.85 minutes.

‘This study contributes to both theory and practice by demonstrating the potential of learning analytics to identify ways to improve learning processes, and by providing empirical support for the potential of adding interactive elements to online video lectures to expand the attention span of learners.’

Source 4

Geri, N, Winer, A, Zaks, Beni. Probing the Effect of Interactivity in Online Video Lectures on the Attention Span of Students: A Learning Analytics Approach, Chais Conference 2017, https://www.openu.ac.il/innovation/chais2017/a2_3.pdf, viewed 21 June 2018.

‘Interactivity is perceived as increasing the attention span of learners and improving the quality of learning. This study employs a learning analytics approach and investigates the influence of adding interactivity to online video lectures on students’ attention span.’

‘Interactivity is a crucial element for improving the quality of online learning (Guri-Rosenblit, 2009; Siemens et al., 2015). Furthermore, empirical studies demonstrated the effectiveness of interactivity in extending the attention span of learners and enhancing their achievements (Cherrett, Wills, Price, Maynard, & Dror, 2009; Dror, Schmidt, & O'Connor, 2011). Conversely, interactivity may be regarded as an interruption, which distracts students’ attention (Davenport Beck, 2001).’

Conclusion

‘Our findings suggest that interactivity may increase the attention span of learners, as measured by the average online video lecture viewing completion percentage, before and after the addition of interactivity, for both basic and advanced English for Academic Purposes courses. ‘

‘The relative short time after the intervention limits the ability to draw conclusions from the results. From a pedagogical point of view, we have shown that the interactive layer, which was added to video lectures, allowed learners to significantly extend their attention span. However, interactivity involves additional cost and adds complexity to the production process. ‘

‘This study demonstrated the potential of learning analytics to identify ways to improve learning processes, and to provide important insights to decision makers. The ability to track and analyze behavior of learners who are presented with new features and capabilities is paramount for improving the effectiveness of learning environments, as well as supporting productive allocation of resources.’

Source 5

Cherrett, T., Dror, I., Maynard, S., Price, j., Wills, G., Making Training More Cognitively Effective: Making Videos Interactive, University of Southampton 1 School of Civil Engineering and the Environment 2 School of Electronics and Computer Science, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fb8a/3d59c8302796e229b3352ab4dacf99c2301e.pdf, Viewed June 21 2018.

‘This article describes the development of an interactive video in which learners take an active role. While observing the video, they are required to engage, participate, respond, and be actively involved. The formative results suggested that the learning experience could be enhanced using interactive videos.’

‘Interactive learning environments can also generate effective instruction and a flexible and motivating learning experience (Wong et al, 2006) which is important for knowledge acquisition. The use of interactive video to enable learning through the process of experiencing failure (Schank, 1997) has great potential for fostering ‘deeper learning’ (Bloom, 1956) and enabling a more effective application of principles learned in the workplace, accelerating the process of skill acquisition (Schwan and Reimpp, 2004).’

Sixty five percent of the students ‘strongly agreed’ that the lecture and video combined were an effective combination of learning tools for new students with 75% stating that the interactive video had enhanced their learning experience.

References

References under each source may be looked up in the original source. References for the context part:

• Dror, I.E (2008). Technology enhanced learning: The good, the bad, and the ugly. University of Southampton, https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.16.2.02dro
• Schwan, S., and Riempp, R. (2004). The cognitive benefits of interactive videos: learning to tie nautical knots. Learning and Instruction, http://bit.ly/2B3AcwQ

What to do next?

• Read the February release note
• Read the February status update
• Check out the H5P Conference 2018 summary
• Join the H5P Beta Testers team
• Contribute to the H5P Community