For the longest time I have always recognized the importance of videos in the classroom setting. Videos allows learners to increase their cognitive processes and become more engaged in the material learning. Personally, I retain information much more easily after watching a video the reinforces the material. Just by simply searching up topics on YouTube can display a multitude videos that are very informative and beneficial in the learning process. That is of course if the video was made properly and took into consideration certain aspects I will discuss in this post. Far too often, I have seen videos in lecture or online that actually make it more difficult to retain information and only leave the student more confused.

The first aspect, and the most important, would-be videos that don’t following Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning. These principles have been discussed throughout the whole term and are very crucial when designing a video. Mayer’s theory consists of the Multimedia, Modality, Continuity, Redundancy, and Coherence principle to name a few. Multimedia should aim to reduce extraneous processing, manage essential processing, and encourage generative processing (Carmichael et al.). Learners can be affected numerous ways such as adding information that is not relevant, visual design that is distracting, or redundancy of information. Over the past month, I have seen the importance of taking into consideration these principles in learning design. These principles are quite self-explanatory and can drastically increase the chances of memory retention in learners.

Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aq2P0DZqEI

I always felt that the video length always affected my ability to pay attention. Longer videos make learners process information while attempting to pay attention. This is also known as cognitive overload, which can overwhelm and cloud a person’s abilities. It is quite simple, creating short and to the point videos allows for the information to be processed much easier. Even if longer videos were cut into segments, this would be much more favourable for learners to take information in chunks and retain the needed information, then move on to the next.

Another aspect I would like to discuss it the material itself presented in videos. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to exclude any information that is not relevant for your audience. I feel that a lot of videos I’ve been exposed to never captured the main ideas. I strongly believe that a video is useless when it isn’t straight to the point and concise. For example, this issue clouded my ability in understanding the main message from the video, and unfortunately most times caused more confusion.

With that being said, it’s important for educators to keep in mind Mayer’s cognitive theory of multimedia learning, length of the videos, and the subject matter. I feel that these three aspects are the most crucial based on my experience of bad videos, and my subsequent inability to learn from them. Understanding and applying these rules will provide learners the best opportunity for effective knowledge transfer.  

References

Carmichael, M., Reid, A., & Karpicke, J. (n.d.). Assessing the Impact of Educational Video on Student Engagement, Critical Thinking and Learning: The Current State of Play. https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/hevideolearning.pdf