Dr Matthew Fyfield, deputy principal (learning and teaching) at Mazenod College in Melbourne, has investigated teachers’ ‘ubiquitous’ use of instructional videos and the problematic case of lab research informing their design and selection.

It pays to listen to teachers about what actually works, he says.

“In my research working with teachers in a range of schools, well, I heard from them – and it resonates really clearly: don’t use videos that are corny or that are culturally silly,” Fyfield tells EducationHQ.

“When students cringe … it actually affects your cognitive load when you’re put into this emotional state of cringe-worthiness.”

Be it an overly wacky science presenter attempting to sing a song about magnetic forces, or a video butchered by distracting sound effects, too many instructional videos simply aren’t effective because they don’t align with cognitive load theory, the educator warns.

Part of the issue, Fyfield says, is that what checks out in a lab environment doesn’t translate well to the classroom scene.

“The way this research is done, let’s imagine a student is sitting in a lab with a screen in front of them, zero distractions.

“They watch Video A, they answer some questions, and then a different group watches Video B and answers some questions, and [researchers] say, ‘well, A is better than B’.

“But we know that’s not how classrooms work.”

Deputy principal Dr Matthew Fyfield warns that it's often the case that students think they have learnt more from instructional videos than they actually have.

So what elements should teachers consider when creating or choosing instructional videos?

“A really easy one is keep them as short as possible. We know that the longer the video is, the less likely somebody is to even press play in the first place. Duration matters,” Fyfield advises.

Crucially, think about how and where the video will be displayed to students, he adds.

“Often what will happen is a teacher sends a link to YouTube, for example. Now, when you get there, it’s an algorithmic platform designed to distract you – its algorithm’s job is to hold you on the website for as long as possible.

“That’s what all those YouTube ‘recommended videos’ are there for, and it works very, very well.”

At Mazenod College, instructional video links are embedded into the school’s LMS to avoid this problem.

“It works with cognitive load theory because it reduces that split attention effect.”

It’s often the case that students think they have learnt more from instructional videos than they actually have, Fyfield points out.

The lure of the medium is ultimately deceiving, he says.

“There’s some really interesting research from about 2015, 2014, where students would give themselves a 78 per cent chance of getting all these questions right (after watching an instructional video), but they actually only get 48 per cent right because videos seduce us into thinking we’ve learned a lot.”

To mitigate this, Fyfield says, activities that review content and check for students’ understanding ought to be injected throughout each video.

“Even just giving the students a list of multiple choice questions as they’re watching, so they need to actively attend to the information, drastically improves the performance...

“So making sure you’re not just showing a video on its own and going, ‘good, they’ve learned it now’ - there should be some sort of check for understanding along the way, which if we think about it is exactly how we should be teaching anyway.

“It’s no different to if you’re standing in front of a class just yapping at them, versus if you’re standing in front of a class doing explicit direct instruction which has that constant feedback along the way.”

Don’t forget to keep videos focused and to-the-point as well, the educator notes.

“The coherence effect is a big one, often what we find is when teachers are making their own videos they want to go [big] on the production values; they want to stick in background music, they want to stick in the flashing animations – don’t. Get to the point as fast as you can and don’t distract.

“It’s not rocket science, it’s cognitive science.”

In March Fyfield is lined up to share his expertise around cognitive load theory and instructional video design at the sold-out ResearchEd event in Ballarat.

This will be his first time presenting at the educator-run event.

“I love the fact that ResearchED brings in the full [science of learning spectrum and covers] how does technology fit into it, how does direct instruction fit into it, how does classroom management fit into it.

“Also, I think it’s just really impressive that a whole bunch of teachers turn up on a Saturday...”