GUEST EDITORIAL

VIDEO-BASED LEARNING AND OPEN ONLINE COURSES

Video-Based Learning and Open Online Courses

http://dx.doi.org/10.3991/ijet.v9i1.3354

Michail N. Giannakos1, Konstantinos Chorianopoulos2, Marco Ronchetti3, Peter Szegedi4 and Stephanie D.
Teasley5
1
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
2 Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
3 Università degli Studi di Trento, Trento, Italy
4 Trans-European Research & Education Network Association (TERENA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands
5 University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Abstract—In this article, we provide an overview of the classroom” and to provide hands-on activities during class
emerging research area on Analytics and Video-Based time. Other uses include showing videos that demonstrate
Learning. Although there are many and diverse ways of course topics and providing supplementary video learning
designing learning videos, there is limited understanding of materials for self-study. Although there are many and di-
the efficacy and usefulness of each method. Therefore, we verse ways of designing learning videos, there is limited
survey the state-of-the-art in the design, development and understanding of the efficacy and usefulness of each
evaluation of open and video-based courses. The main ob- method.
jective is to highlight the importance and benefits of analyt-
ics and to support instructors with the appropriate re- II. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF VIDEO BASED COURSES
sources for improving the use of their courses. This can be
Developing a video-based course is a complex process
achieved by combining and analyzing learners' interactions
that requires thorough planning and clear implementation
with other available data obtained from learners, as such
procedure. Knowledge of learning theories and instruc-
video analytics open new avenues for research on open and
video-based courses. In addition to the guidelines for video-
tional implications is a pre-requisite for successful realiza-
based analytics we have selected five indicative case-studies
tion of the learning content with the most appropriate de-
that provide in-depth analysis.. livery components. There are several instructional design
models and theories applied in e-learning [2, 3, 4]. How-
Index Terms—MOOCs, Video-based learning, Review of ever, for instructional design in the context of video
research. courses we need to specify a simple but also effective way
to incorporate this technique into practice.
I. INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES In an attempt to provide explicit guidance to teachers
and curriculum designers about how to develop their video
Video-based learning is becoming more prominent in
courses, we will review some important key developmen-
the world of education. Videos in education make it pos-
tal principles of a course creation. Such a review may shed
sible to overcome practical real-world constraints and
light into the crucial points of course development and
explore the far greater possibilities provided by digital
lead to useful guidelines for the creation of an effective
spaces. They promote student-centered learning either
and attractive course.
within the classroom or at home. Videos can also be inte-
grated in online learning systems (LMS, portal, e-class, Video is not a recent medium for teaching, but devel-
etc.) and can be combined with other services. For in- opmental principles have not widely specified. Most of the
stance, learners can use in parallel video and an online principles that apply to the traditional classroom delivery
chat room, forum or even video conferencing to com- method also apply to learning from videos. However, the-
municate with their instructors. The combination of video se principles need to be extended to accommodate the
with other learning services has great potential to provide rapid changes in technology and teaching practices.
to students with an integrated online learning space. A. Technical and Technological Characteristics
The use of video for learning has become widely em- Video courses, as any other technological media prod-
ployed in the past years [1]. Many universities and digital uct, must follow specific conditions regarding the quality
libraries have incorporated video into their instructional of sound and video. Moreover, the design of the screen,
materials. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are the text flow and the other activities must be structured in
becoming an increasingly important part of education. In a reasonable size and duration. Herein, there are certain
order to support video learning, various technological thresholds regarding the sound and video quality [5]. In
tools have been developed such as Matterhorn and Centra. addition, there are rules regarding the appearance of the
These tools provide an easy way for a learner who has titles and the images of the videos [6, 7]. Concluding, the
missed a lecture to catch up, but also enable others, espe- whole combination of different media (media integration)
cially slow learners, to review difficult concepts. must produce an effective and cohesive final multimedia
Many instructors in higher education are implementing (text, graphics, audio, video etc.) product.
video lectures in a variety of ways, such as broadcasting
lectures in real time, augmenting recordings of in-class B. Cognitive Characteristics
lectures with face-to-face meetings for review purposes, Knowledge of the target learners’ cognitive characteris-
and delivering lecture recordings before class to “flip the tics is very important for developing an effective learning

4 http://www.i-jet.org
 GUEST EDITORIAL
VIDEO-BASED LEARNING AND OPEN ONLINE COURSES

medium [8]. As such, the course creator should have in knowledge, their success rate in each section, their emo-
mind the following crucial questions regarding the learn- tional states, the speed at which they submit their answers,
ers’ cognition: which video lectures seemed to help which students best
• What knowledge and skills do they already have? in which sections, etc. — new avenues for research in the
intersection of video-based learning and analytics are now
• What knowledge and skills must they acquire? possible.
Other cognitive characteristics of learners, such as visu- In particular, guiding research questions and themes in-
al literacy (e.g., ability to perceive graphics), general atti- clude:
tudes towards technology and functional literacy (e.g.,
reading level) must be taken into account before the de- • What might next generation of analytics enhanced
velopment of the video course. video learning tools look like?
• What kind of data can be collected from open
C. Personality Traits online video courses?
Learners’ personality traits can facilitate or inhibit the • How these data can help us to better understand and
effective use of learning strategies [9] and thus improve or improve the value of video-based learning?
deteriorate their performance. Moreover, personality traits
can provide the motivational basis for using or not using IV. THIS ISSUE
particular learning strategies [10]. Knowledge about
learners’ characteristics regarding motivations (to learn The five papers selected to be part of this special issue
with computer) and attitudes (towards content, technolo- on Video-Based Learning and Open Online Courses are
gy, learning), could potentially help the course creator to briefly described below.
develop an effective and adapted learning experience. A. Interaction with a Problem Solving Multi Video
D. Demographic and Cultural Characteristics Lecture: Observing Students from Distance and
Traditional Learning Courses
The last but not least instructional factor to consider for
the development of video-based courses is the learners’ The first paper describes a system prototype that allows
demographical and cultural characteristics. In every learn- the recording of several video streams associated with a
ing method, learners’ physical characteristics play an im- lecture, including the instructor, projected slides, and in-
portant role in the overall success [11]. There are physical formation presented by the instructor via a computer
characteristics, such as fatigue, that instructor can only (software or other videos, for instance). The several video
handle in synchronous teaching. However, several charac- streams, orchestrated using contextual and control infor-
teristics of the learner such as, visual and auditory abili- mation, are used to produce an interactive multi video
ties, age and sex, can provide useful information to the object. In addition, the paper presents how a group of
course creator, in order to adapt the video course into students interacted with a learning object captured from a
learners’ capabilities. problem solving lecture, and provides suggestions about
how navigation facilities and visualization tools can assist
III. ANALYTICS ON VIDEO AND OPEN ONLINE COURSES us to include more contextual information during the
Today millions of learners enjoy videos from different presentation.
platforms (e.g., YouTube) on a diverse number of devices B. EyApp & AndrEyA – Free Apps for the Automated
(desktop, smart phone, tablets) that create traces of bil- Recording of Lessons by Students
lions of interactions. This amount of activity might be
converted via analytics into useful information for the This article introduces new prototype applications for
benefit of all video learners. As the number of learners automated recording of lectures using mobile devices.
watching videos on Web-based systems increases, more These applications were developed based on the experi-
and more interactions have the potential to be gathered ences gained by the International Centre for Theoretical
and analyzed. Capturing, sharing and analyzing these in- Physics (ICTP) Science Dissemination Unit (SDU) in
teractions (as datasets) can provide scholars and educators Trieste, Italy with its open source “Enhance your Audi-
with valuable information the process of learning [12]. In ence” (EyA) recording system. ICTP has more than
addition, the combination of learner profiles with content 10,000 hours of automated educational recordings in the
metadata provide opportunities for adding value to learn- fields of physics and mathematics. Based on empirical
ing analytics conducted on data from video-based learning experimentation this study shows the strong differences in
activities. video size outputs with respect to video recordings using
iPads and EYA app.
Existing empirical research [1] has begun to identify the
educational advantages and disadvantages of video-based C. Developing a Framework for Creating Effective
learning. However, there still remain many essential un- Instructional Video Podcasts
explored aspects of video-based learning and the related This study proposes a comprehensive, theory-based
challenges and opportunities; such as, how to use all the framework for creating effective instructional video pod-
data obtained from the learner, how to combine data from casts. Sixteen design characteristics were organized ac-
different sources, and so on. One of the main challenges is cording to four categories and then used to develop 59
to make sense of users’ experiences and practices in order pre-calculus videos for 856 university freshmen. The re-
to redesign and optimize the settings and systems of video sults indicated that, overall, students had positive attitudes
learning. toward the use of worked-example video podcasts, noting
By taking into account learners' interactions and many they were useful and improved their understanding of pre-
other data—such as students' characteristics of gender, calculus concepts. Although more research needs to be
ethnicity, English-language skills, prior background conducted to establish a direct link between the remaining

iJET ‒ Volume 9, Issue 1, 2014 5

 GUEST EDITORIAL
VIDEO-BASED LEARNING AND OPEN ONLINE COURSES

design features, student attitudes, and learning perfor- ! Patrick Jermann, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lau-
mance; this proposed framework provides a valuable start- sanne (EPFL), CH
ing point.
! Robin Kay, University of Ontario Institute of Technol-
D. Looking at MOOCs Rapid Growth Through the Lens ogy, CA
of Video-Based Learning Research ! Apostolos Koutropoulos, UMass Boston, MA, USA
This paper provides a review of the video learning re- ! Wolfgang Mueller, University of Education
search over the last few years based on a selection of peer- Weingarten, DE
reviewed published academic papers. Authors propose a
categorization based on the collected research papers, de- ! Evangelos Niforatos, Madeira Interactive Technologies
lineating some basic characteristics of video learning. The Institute, PT
categorization attempts to look at MOOCs rapid growth ! Schulte Olaf, ETH Zürich, CH
through the lens of video-based learning research. The
! Mirko Raca, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lau-
paper concludes by providing directions for future re-
search related to the use of video learning. sanne (EPFL), CH

E. What Tweets Tell us About MOOC Participation REFERENCES

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6 http://www.i-jet.org
 GUEST EDITORIAL
VIDEO-BASED LEARNING AND OPEN ONLINE COURSES

AUTHORS
Michail N. Giannakos is ERCIM/Marie Curie Fellow
in the Department of Computer and Information Science
at Norwegian University of Science and Technology
(NTNU), NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway (e-mail:
[email protected]).
Konstantinos Chorianopoulos is Lecturer in the De-
partment of Informatics at Ionian University, GR-49100,
Corfu, Greece (e-mail: [email protected]).
Marco Ronchetti is a CS professor at the Department
of Information Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Trento, , IT- 38050, Trento, Italy (e-mail:
[email protected])
Peter Szegedi is Project Development Officer of Trans
European Research and Education Network Association
(TERENA), 1017W, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (e-
mail: [email protected])
Stephanie D. Teasley is a research professor at the
School of Information and the director of the USE Lab at
the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI-48109-1285,
Ann Arbor, USA (e-mail: [email protected])
Submitted 10 November 2013. Published as re-submitted by the au-
thors 11 February 2014.

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