Short, Long, and Segmented Learning Videos: From YouTube Practice to Enhanced Video Players

Abstract

AbstractIn the literature, one can find many claims about how long a learning video should be, but only a few valid reasons and even less empirical evidence. It is argued that a video should be as short as possible according to the learners’ attention span. Short videos shall prevent the learner from becoming too passive. The Segmenting Principle postulates the division of longer passages into smaller, separate sections as an alternative to shortening. In this article, we present two studies. In the first study, we examined the video length and segmentations of the entire 895 German and a sample of 524 English channels from YouTube Education (83,558/154,370 videos). We clustered the videos by length into three groups and identified a series of videos by their titles. Short Videos with up to 14 or 22 min of playing time can be considered common practice. About 8 % of the videos with short lengths were part of a series of segmented videos. Videos of medium length were part of a series in 21 % and 14 % of the cases. We conclude that dividing comprehensive video-based learning resources into multiple segments is a common practice. In the second study, we investigate two design variants for structuring longer videos into segments: (i) video with an additional chapter overview, visible chapter boundaries, and navigation options for the segments, and (ii) sequence of segmented videos of suitable length. An online user study compared these two variants with non-segmented video players (N=22). Segmented videos resulted in higher learning gains than the non-segmented version of the same video. The participants perceived the segmented videos in conditions (i) and (ii) better structured. The question of video length is not crucial for learning outcomes as long as the video can be provided in meaningful segments within the video player.