Short Videos Boost Engagement and Grades in Online-Flipped Engineering Courses

The Covid-19 pandemic altered the field of education, creating innovative modes of learning - synchronous, asynchronous, and flipped remote online learning (RO-L&T) - engaging through assessments, discussions, and differently in-person/online based activities. Researchers investigated whether short videos (8 minutes) would improve student engagement compared to long videos (55 minutes) in an online-flipped college engineering course. The first hypothesis that the video engagement time would differ between short and long or it would remain similar. Its findings can help educators optimize video-based teaching strategies to enhance student success in virtual classes to determine whether short videos or long videos are more beneficial to students’ performance.

Figure 1 compares average exam scores of students watching short versus long videos on a virtual learning platform. Independant metrics included video views, click counts, discussion participation, and exam performance, while dependent variables included video length, exam scores, and engagement. Controlled factors included course content, assessment methods, and participants. The Gaokao exam-based scores of the 54 male and 11 female participants, showed a standard deviation of 2.2% with less than 0.1% difference in score. This suggests that shorter videos enhance retention without distorting understanding, supporting the hypothesis that video length is positively correlated with academic performance.

Figure 2 assesses the correlation between the median engagement time and the mean engagement time between the long and short term video groups between the 65 participants. The independent variable is the video length and the dependent variable is the engagement time. The students in the short video group had a 24.7% higher engagement time, with a median normalized of 0.932 to 0.747 for the long video group. The results support the hypothesis that video length plays a crucial role in student engagement, emphasizing the importance of shorter videos to improve learning outcomes.

Figure 3 compares exam scores of students who learned with short videos (8 minutes) and long videos (55 minutes). The study tested the correlation between video length (independent variable) and its implication on exam scores (dependent variable). The students in the short-video group had a median score of 6.4% higher and 9.4% higher mean scores than the students in the long-video group. 78% of the students in the short-video group had better recall results compared to the long-video group (62%). These findings validate the hypothesis that short video length leads to better academic performance and learning results.

The study found a positive correlation between shorter videos and improved student engagement, exam scores, memory retention, and participation in a RO-L&T classroom. Students watching short videos showed 24.7% higher engagement and scored 9% better on exams, indicating signs of long-term retention. Additionally, 83% of short-video participants reported better concentration, compared to 67% in the long-video group. Hypothesis 1 was proven correct, showing that a video's length does affect academic performance in a RO-L&T classroom, showing the importance of shortened video content to reduce cognitive loads.

Zhu, J., Yuan, H., Zhang, Q., Huang, P., Wang, Y., Duan, S., Lei, M., Lim, E., Song, P. (2022)

The impact of short videos on student performance in an online-flipped college engineering course. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 9 (327), 1-10. 10.1057/s41599-022-01355-6