Making educational videos more engaging and enjoyable for all ages: an exploratory study on the influence of embedded questions

There is Individual variation in how people interact with videos presented in online distance education. Educational videos can be embedded with interactive content to increase engagement and make cognition more efficient. Accordingly, we predicted that embedding questions during videos (rather than after) would enhance the performance of question-answering and be preferred by students. We also hypothesised that the benefits of presenting questions during videos might increase with age. Using a counter-balanced within-subject design, each participant watched short videos with questions embedded either during the video or presented after the video, and we then surveyed their experiences. Although there were no differences in correct responses, participants answered questions posed during videos more efficiently than questions presented after. Females enjoyed questions during videos more than males. Younger individuals (e.g. 25–34) seemed to benefit more from questions during videos than slightly older students (35–44). Interestingly, with increasing age (from 25 to 74), there was a shift in preference towards answering questions after, rather than during, videos. Overall, embedding questions was an effective and well-liked method for enhancing the interactivity of module-related videos. The age of students should be considered when embedding questions.

在线远程教育场景下，学习者与教学视频的交互模式存在显著个体差异。为提升参与度并优化认知效率，教学视频可内嵌互动内容。据此，本研究提出假设：在视频播放过程中内嵌问答问题（而非视频播放结束后再呈现问题），可提升受试者的问答表现且更受学生青睐。同时我们假设，视频内嵌问题的获益程度可能随受试者年龄增长而提升。本研究采用平衡式重复测量被试内设计：每名受试者观看两类短视频，一类内嵌播放过程中的问题，另一类在视频结束后呈现问题，随后对其使用体验开展问卷调查。结果显示，尽管两类情境下的正确作答率无显著差异，但受试者对视频播放过程中出现的问题的作答效率显著高于视频结束后呈现的问题。女性受试者相较于男性，更偏好视频内嵌的过程式问题。较年轻群体（如25-34岁）相较稍年长的学生群体（35-44岁），似乎能从视频内嵌问题中获得更多收益。值得注意的是，随着年龄从25岁增长至74岁，受试者的偏好逐渐转向视频结束后再作答问题，而非在播放过程中作答。总体而言，内嵌问题是提升课程相关视频互动性的有效且广受认可的方式，在设计视频内嵌问答环节时，应充分考量学生的年龄因素。