Investigating the Effect of Adding Nudges to Increase Engagement in Active Video Watching

Abstract

In order for videos to be a powerful medium for learning, it is crucial that learners engage in constructive learning. Historic interactions of previous learners can provide a rich resource to enhance interaction and promote engagement fostering constructive learning. This paper proposes such a novel approach of adding nudges to AVW-Space, a platform for video-based learning. We present the enhancements implemented in AVW-Space in the form of interactive visualizations and personalized prompts. A study focusing on presentation skills was conducted in a large first-year engineering course, in which AVW-Space provided an online resource for the students to use as they wish. The students were randomly divided into the control and experimental groups, which had access to the original and enhanced version of AVW-Space respectively. Our findings show that nudging is effective in fostering constructive learning: there was a significant difference in the percentage of constructive students in the two groups. The experimental group students wrote more comments, found AVW-Space easier to use, reported less frustration when commenting, and had higher confidence in their performance on commenting.

Characterizing Comment Types and Levels of Engagement in Video-Based Learning as a Basis for Adaptive Nudging

“…Instead, the students were directed to AVW-Space as an online resource for presentation skills. The AVW-Space instantiation included eight short videos [22]: four tutorials on how to give presentations, and four videos showing example presentations. We limit analysis in this paper to tutorial videos only, as this is a common form of video content widely used for informal learning in a variety of educational contexts.…”

“…Personalized prompts, which appear next to the video (as in Figure 1), are designed to encourage students to write comments [22]. For example, reminding the student to make comments when they tend to watch without commenting, encouraging the student to use diverse aspects, or showing examples from past comments to promote attention and stimulate engagement.…”

“…This informed the extending of AVW-Space by adding nudges [11] -interventions that influence people's behavior to make beneficial choices (paternalism) in a non-compulsory manner (libertarian). Two forms of nudges have been implemented [22]: signposting (interactive visualizations showing video intervals where past students have commented) and personalized prompts (noting student's commenting behavior or showing example past comments). A user study with the extended AVW-Space [22] indicated a significant increase in comment-writing in the nudging condition, thus providing evidence that the nudges encouraged student commenting.…”

“…Two forms of nudges have been implemented [22]: signposting (interactive visualizations showing video intervals where past students have commented) and personalized prompts (noting student's commenting behavior or showing example past comments). A user study with the extended AVW-Space [22] indicated a significant increase in comment-writing in the nudging condition, thus providing evidence that the nudges encouraged student commenting. However, this did not lead to significant improvement of the students' conceptual knowledge.…”

Choice Architecture for Nudges to Support Constructive Learning in Active Video Watching

“…We have summarised the main features of AVW-Space here, and have presented only the findings related to designing interactive nudges. Some aspects of Study 4 have been reported in (Mitrovic et al, 2019), a deeper analysis of the data collected in that study is presented here. Study 3 has not been reported in earlier publications.…”