Designing Tutorial Videos to Support Students’ Learning of Reaction Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry

Abstract

Understanding and using domain-specific representations is a key challenge in science disciplines. Tutorial videos can provide a possible approach to support students in working with these representations. Incorporating multimedia learning principles, aspects of cognitive load theory, and combining a specific visual display with a well-structured scientific explanation increase the accessibility of this learning resource for students. Regarding the visual display, specific highlighting techniques can guide students’ attention to relevant parts of a representation. Our empirical findings, based on designing tutorial videos to support students’ understanding of reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry, suggest that students with low prior knowledge particularly benefit from this kind of support. In terms of increasing students’ learning gains, the verbal explanation presented in the video also has a great influence. Purposefully scripting these verbal explanations allows specific student needs to be addressed, for instance in terms of compensating low prior knowledge (e.g., by sequencing or enriching different levels of the explanation) or language capabilities (e.g., in case of second language learners). Furthermore, these explanations are a learning resource in themselves, as such a tutorial renders the structure of an expected explanation transparent, and thus accessible to students.