Understanding the use of YouTube as a learning resource: a social cognitive perspective

Abstract

PurposeDrawing from social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how personal, environmental and behavioral factors can interplay to influence people's use of YouTube as a learning resource.Design/methodology/approachThis study proposed a conceptual model, which was then tested with data collected from a survey with 150 participants who had the experience of using YouTube for learning. The bootstrap method was employed to test the direct and mediation hypotheses in the model.FindingsThe results revealed that personal factors, i.e. learning outcome expectations and attitude, had direct effects on using YouTube as a learning resource (person → behavior). The environmental factor, i.e. the sociability of YouTube, influenced the attitude (environment → person), while the behavioral factor, i.e. prior experience of learning on YouTube, affected learning outcome expectations (behavior → person). Moreover, the two personal factors fully mediated the influences of sociability and prior experience on YouTube usage for learning.Practical implicationsThe factors and their relationships identified in this study provide important implications for individual learners, platform designers, educators and other stakeholders who encourage the use of YouTube as a learning resource.Originality/valueThis study draws on a comprehensive theoretical perspective (i.e. social cognitive theory) to investigate the interplay of critical components (i.e. individual, environment and behavior) in YouTube's learning ecosystem. Personal factors not only directly influenced the extent to which people use YouTube as a learning resource but also mediated the effects of environmental and behavioral factors on the usage behavior.

Acceptance of YouTube as a Learning Platform during the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Effect of Subscription Status

“…The convergent validity of measurement was satisfied based on the score of Average Variance Extracted (AVE) of between 0.886 and 0.914. [20] suggested that the AVE value above 0.50 indicated the satisfying level of convergent validity. The discriminant validity of measurement was also supported and based on the threshold value of Heterotrait-monotrait ratio (HTMT) below 0.90 (Hair et al, 2019).…”

“…Based on the findings, this study concluded that the user's acceptance of YouTube video as learning resources was related to three factors: perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and social influence. Individual and environmental factors were both significant in the user's acceptance of YouTube for learning [20]. Perceived usefulness was an important factor for the anatomy students in Jordan, affecting their decisions to use YouTube as their learning resources [11].…”

YouTube as Digital Learning Resources for Teaching Bilingual Young Learners

“…Reference [38] stated that YouTube had positive contributions, especially in subjects they did not understand and students watched videos from YouTube as a substitute for textbooks. This referred to the importance of digital literacy from an early age-related to 21st-century skills [33]. Watching videos activated students' two different senses, seeing and hearing senses, and introduced them to the real things inside the videos [23], [6].…”

“…Several studies confirmed that YouTube is one of the beneficial language learning teaching tools because it has various types of learning videos and is categorised as a rich source of teaching materials for young bilingual students [4], [11], [14], [7], [19], [16], [25], [20]. On the contrary, some studies found the complication and issues in implementing YouTube videos as learning resources in teaching English [34], [33]. Therefore, it is essential to examine social media's use in teaching.…”

Investigating the adoption of MOOCs: A technology–user–environment perspective

“…Research on the adoption of information technology has identified that the social environment factors play significant influence in the adoption decisions (Venkatesh et al, 2003). Likewise, research on learning in social media has also emphasized the importance of the social environmental factors in influencing learners' attitude towards learning in such social platforms (Yu, Tian, Vogel, & Kwok, 2010;Q. Zhou, Lee, & Sin, 2016).…”