The Effects of Video Quality on Online Video Lectures

Abstract

With the increase in online learning, there is an increasing need to determine the most effective way to present lectures online (e.g., video lectures). While video lectures have several benefits, when delivered online as they typically are, they are vulnerable to video quality issues such as freezing (i.e., disruptions in audio and video playback). Such events have the potential to compromise learning and the lecture experience more broadly. In this study, we manipulated the presence of freezing in video lectures to examine how freezing might impact students’ attention, affect, effort, metacognition, and memory for lecture material. Across our four experiments, we found no consistent effects of the freezing condition on learning, load, and metacognition. There were modest impacts of the freezing condition on affect and attention (i.e., mind wandering), particularly with dense bouts of freezing.