Effects of interactive video annotations on students' browsing behavior and perceived workload

Abstract

The use of video as instructional content has become popular in web-based learning environments. Even though video is an established media, the way users access and interact with video vary among systems and may influence how students experience and engage on courses. Previous studies have focused on analysing the effects on students' engagement, learning performance and interaction behavior of static features, such as the length of the video and the type of use (e.g. main or supplementary material), and also of interactive features, such as quizzes and annotations. Considering that there are fragments of a video lecture that may be of particular interest, in our study we analyzed the effects on interaction behavior and on students' perceived experience of providing an instructional video enriched with an interactive timeline highlighting points of interest. We offered a content test for a control group and an experimental group. In the former, participants used a video player with a conventional timeline. In the latter, participants used a video player with an additional interactive timeline indicating points of interest, corresponding to topic transitions in the lecture, which provided direct access to the point where a topic is introduced. Our findings indicate that the annotated interactive timeline affected students' behavior and improved their personal experience and efficiency in terms of interaction in video-based tasks. The experimental group significantly performed a lower number of clicks to find information and also reported diminished perceived workload scores when compared to the control group. Also, participants in the experimental group presented a more predictable and patterned search behavior than participants in the control group.