Videos and Learning
Live lectures in large theatre with hundreds of bums on seats cramming close together are no longer possible, given the current disruption from pandemic. It appears that educational institutions are forced to change the way education is delivered. Videos in education have now been used more widely. The important question is that…
What happens when videos replace classes?
There’s a systematic review that looked into this issue. It excluded learning outcome measure using opinion (student satisfaction score might not have anything do with student actual performance) and non-randomised studies (such studies suffer from unknown confounders and biases). This review was, therefore, focused on outcome that matters based on high quality studies.
There have been 83 studies that replaced some type of teaching with videos. About 75% of the time students learned more when given a video instead of a class. On average, the effects are small (about +2 marks) but consistently favour videos. Effects are much larger when videos replace books (+7 marks), or when videos are used to teach skills (+6 marks) instead of knowledge. This directly applies to dentistry as a lot of what we teach students are about how to do things.
Screencast of endodontic emergencies video lecture
This systematic review showed that videos were consistently good for learning.
Why?
Students learn by seeing and hearing. They learn from video using both channels. This is in contrast to books, websites, and podcasts. Multichannel learning has been shown consistently to be better delivery method than single-channel.
Editing gives time for teachers to perfect messages. We are not all great orators. Editing and retaking allow all of us to appear like ones (given enough time to prepare, of course).
Students move at their own pace. Even though they attend the same class, they are not necessarily the same. They may need a different time frame to digest new information. Self-paced learning puts students in driver seats. They will be able to go fast, if the lessens are easily understandable for them. They’ll be able to take a break, if they need a cup of coffee or jotting something down.
Authenticity: it looks more real on video than just talking about it. It easier to reify abstract thoughts with real interactions captured on video. Teaching Endodontic clinical examination based on interactions of real patients with real dentists conducting real examinations would motivate and stimulate students to conceptualise the procedures more effectively. Video of access opening through microscope trumps still pictures and talking about it hands down. We don’t even need to make a video ourselves. Hundreds are freely available on the internet, we only need to build it into a coherent narrative or lessen.
Interactivity engages students preparing them for new information. Passive information delivery is boring; students would lose interest easily. Traditionally, in live lectures, we incorporated open ended questions or small group discussions to generate interactions. Recorded video used to be one-way communication; generating interaction was difficult if not impossible. With platforms like Edpuzzel or H5P, we now can embed questions and feedbacks in videos with ease.
Edpuzzle
Implementation
These results are encouraging. As long as replacing class with video doesn’t lead to inferior learning outcome, there are other benefits that would justify the move such as reduction of financial pressure and full utilisation of academic time.
Academics make good use of their time as they are not required to re-deliver repeated lectures. Reducing the number of lectures delivered live frees up academics for research, seminar, paper write up, clinical supervisions or even preparation of further video lessens.
Complete replacement of class with video might not be ideal as face-to-face contacts still offer learning features that video cannot (eye contact, non-verbal cues, nuances, picking up students that might be in troubles). In the context of Endodontic programs, perhaps 5 one hour video lectures followed by 1 hour face-to-face seminar style Q&A would be a nice balance enjoying the benefits of both world. Q&A format would give students ample opportunity to ask questions they may have accumulated generating discussions and interactions. These genuinely require academics to be physically present to facilitate and moderate.
Video lessens should be encouraged, but not be mandatory nor apply across the board. Diffusion of innovation theory suggests that people adapt to new things at different rates e.g. early adopters vs laggards. Academics who are not comfortable with new technology should be given plenty of time to adopt new delivery method and enough supports from IT department.
Remuneration schemes or performance measurement need a rethink. Traditionally, academics may be paid per number of hours or lectures delivered. Academic performance may be measured in a similar fashion. Efforts are greatest during video lessen preparations. Once they are done, repeated delivery is of minimal or no efforts. Remuneration probably should be commensurate with the efforts.
Whatever the reasons for video lessen implementation, videos are here and will be here. It’s up to us to fully utilise them and incorporate them in our teaching repertoire.
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