Learnersourcing Subgoal Labels for How-to Videos

Abstract

Websites like YouTube provide an easy way to watch the billions of how-to videos on the web, but the interfaces are not optimized for learning. Previous research suggests that users learn more from how-to videos when the information from the video is presented in outline form, with individual steps and labels for groups of steps (subgoals) shown. We intend to create an alternative video viewer where the steps and subgoals are displayed alongside the video. In order to generate this information we propose a learnersourcing approach where we gather useful information from people trying to actively learn from a video. We believe learnersourcing is a sustainable and constructive method for enhancing educational material. To demonstrate this method, we created a workflow that encourages users to contribute and refine subgoals for a given how-to video. Users in our pilot study of three videos were able to generate subgoals comparable to those created by the author, which suggests that learnersourcing may be a viable approach.

Online Videos: What Every Instructor Should Know

“…4,25 The analogy makes sense on one level and especially drives home the point about the "appeal" of educational video content being nowhere near that of, say, the latest superhero movie. But, as Table 1 shows, if we compare a Hollywood blockbuster to a classroom instructional video along the lines of production, 7,12,23,24,31 purpose, 23,24,31 proliferation, 23,31 pedagogy, 1,23,24,31 and place/positioning, 24,25,31 then the analogy is both unfair and uninformative. Although these dimensions and the names for them are our own (we could not find a prior framework for this kind of analysis), the inspiration for each dimension comes from prior work, as indicated by the various citations for each.…”

“…Turro, Cañero, and Busquets describe the set-up of the Polimedia system at Universidad Politecnica de Valencia that specifically encourages instructors to produce videos that are completely reusable in other contexts. 31 To achieve this reusability, the Polimedia process asks instructors to break down the content into the smallest bits of digital knowledge, labeled a Learning Object (LO). The idea is for an instructor to create multiple digital video-based LOs that require no additional context (acting as standalone learning materials).…”

“…The choice of reusability as a guiding principle thereby influences the philosophy of production for instructors creating the content as well as the structure of pedagogy for instructors using the content. 31 In other words, these choices are not independent of or separate from each other; rather, they inform each other.…”

“…The unit of analysis (and, therefore, scrutiny) tends to be clickstream data and, more specifically, when each user clicked on which button in the video player (e.g., pause, play, skip, rewind). [4][5][6][7]11,16,[21][22][23]25,31 Because online learning platforms have access to learner data beyond the videos, analyses have also focused on the viewing habits of on-campus versus distance learners, 16 learners who drop out of the course and who do not, 8 and low-and high-performers on follow-up tasks, 10 to name a few dichotomies. With an increasing variety of courses and, in some cases, variety of video within courses, researchers can also investigate these learner behaviors across videos with low versus high production value, 7 procedural tablet-style videos versus conceptual lecture-style videos, 7,25 and videos with and without instructors as talking heads.…”

“…7 Taking the chunking method to its logical conclusion leads to the design and development of videos as fully reusable learning objects, as done in the Polimedia framework. 31 The advance planning can reveal which learning framework and corresponding production framework match the instructor's endeavor best.…”