The Usability of Print and Online Video Instructions

Alexander, Kara Poe

doi:10.1080/10572252.2013.775628

Cited by 62 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…A study by Payne, Chesworth, and Hill () compared four conditions (paper‐based tutorial, video tutorial, paper plus video and no instructions) on procedural knowledge development for McDraw and found a time advantage for the paper‐based tutorial. A study by Alexander () compared the use of a paper‐based tutorial or video tutorial for the creation of a table of contents and the use of mail merge in Microsoft Word and showed no specific benefits of either tutorial. Research by Palmiter, Elkerton, and Baggett () and Palmiter and Elkerton () showed better results during training for video instructions, but better test results for written instructions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A test of the design of a video tutorial for software training

Meij

2014

Computer Assisted Learning

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The effectiveness of a video tutorial versus a paper-based tutorial for software training has yet to be established. Mixed outcomes from the empirical studies to date suggest that for a video tutorial to outperform its paper-based counterpart, the former should be crafted so that it addresses the strengths of both designs. This was attempted in the present study. Two consecutive experiments were conducted to examine the effect of tutorial type (video vs. paper based) on task relevance, self-efficacy, mood, flow and task performance. Participants were students from junior high school. Both studies reported significant, positive contributions of the tutorials to task relevance, self-efficacy, mood and flow. Both studies also found significant and substantial effects on task performance. A learning gain of about 30% was achieved in both studies. A retention task, completed only in Study 2, further revealed that the learning effect was stable. More importantly, performance on this task also indicated a significant interaction with tutorial type, favouring the video. The success of the video tutorial is ascribed to its design, which attended to and even incorporated key qualities of paper-based tutorials, while also capitalizing on the strengths of video.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In short, the paper‐based tutorial is equipped with structural overviews that enhance the accessibility of its content. For video, the accessibility of content can form an important obstacle (e.g., Alexander, ; Palaigeorgiou & Despotakis, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A test of the design of a video tutorial for software training

Meij

2014

Computer Assisted Learning

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“…While Mestre (2012) reported an advantage of paperbased instructions, Alexander (2013) found no differences. Three other studies found the video tutorial significantly more successful than the paper-based version (Lloyd and Robertson 2012;van der Meij 2014, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Supporting motivation, task performance and retention in video tutorials for software training

Meij

Voerman

et al. 2017

Education Tech Research Dev

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Video tutorials for software training are becoming more and more popular, but their construction and effectiveness is understudied. This paper presents a theoretical model that combines demonstration-based training (DBT) and multimedia learning theory as a framework for design. The study investigated the effects of video tutorials on motivation, task accomplishment and learning with special attention being paid to the role of reviews. Three tutorials were compared: preview and demonstration (control condition), preview and demonstration and review (review condition) and preview and demonstration and 2nd demonstration (2-demo condition). Participants were 65 students from the upper grades of elementary school. Participant logs revealed a significant decrease in coverage for video types following the preview. All tutorials significantly raised self-efficacy and procedural knowledge (i.e., task performances during training, immediate and delayed post-test), but no effects of condition were found. The discussion addresses issues concerning the design of the tutorials (overlap between video types) and usage conditions (blocked video access during training tests) that may have negatively affected coverage and the effectiveness of the reviews. A limitation of the study is that no process data were

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“…On top of that, a study by Palmiter [23] came to the conclusion that both text tutorials and video tutorials have their specific benefits. And there are even studies that could not find significant differences between text and video tutorials at all (e. g. [24,3,6]). …”

Section: Related Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For video tutorials Alexander reported that learners watch the whole video(s) (which is time consuming) [3] instead of picking particular scenes. However, studies by Mestre and Alexander both confirm that learners have trouble finding specific scenes after watching a video [21,3]. As an advantage of video tutorials, participants in a study by deVaney perceived them as "more human" [6].…”

Section: Related Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the best way for developers to learn new software tools? A small empirical comparison between a text and a video tutorial

Käfer

Kulesz

Wagner

2016

Preprint

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The better developers can learn software tools, the faster they can start actually using them and the more efficiently they can later work with them. Tutorials are supposed to help here. While in the early days of computing, mostly text tutorials were available, nowadays software developers can choose among a huge number of tutorials for almost any popular software tool. However, only little research was conducted to understand how text tutorials differ from other tutorials, which tutorial types are preferred and, especially, which tutorial types yield the best learning experience in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, especially for programmers.To evaluate these questions, we converted a "proven" video tutorial for a novel software tool into a content-equivalent text tutorial. We then conducted an experiment in three groups where 42 undergraduate students from a software engineering course were commissioned to operate the software tool after using a tutorial: the first group was provided only with the video tutorial, the second group only with the text tutorial and the third group with both. Surprisingly, the differences in terms of efficiency are almost negligible: we could observe that participants using only the text tutorial completed the tutorial faster than the participants with the video tutorial. However, the participants using only the video tutorial applied the learned content faster, achieving roughly the same bottom line performance. We also found that if both tutorial types are offered, participants prefer video tutorials for learning new content but text tutorials for looking up "missed" information.We mainly gathered our data through questionnaires and screen recordings and analyzed it using t-tests or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests for finding significant differences and a Shapiro-Wilk test to see if a group follows a normal distribution. The data is available at [14].Since producing tutorials requires effort, knowing with which type of tutorial learnability can be increased to which extent has an immense practical relevance. We conclude that while it would be ideal if software tool makers would offer both tutorial types, it is more efficient to produce only text tutorials -provided you manage to motivate your learners to use them.

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The Usability of Print and Online Video Instructions

Cited by 62 publications

References 49 publications

A test of the design of a video tutorial for software training

A test of the design of a video tutorial for software training

Supporting motivation, task performance and retention in video tutorials for software training

What is the best way for developers to learn new software tools? A small empirical comparison between a text and a video tutorial

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