Abstract

Context

Within many maths-heavy (MH) undergraduate engineering units (UEU), teaching teams rely on written worked-solution documents to assist students in bridging the gap between tutorials and self-directed study. However, these are limited in their usefulness as they are a passive medium and poor at communicating the ‘why’ required for deeper understanding. Alternatively, worked-example videos (WEVs) involve an instructor demonstrating a solution while discussing the underlying strategies being employed. The audio-visual medium encourages increased interaction with the content, promoting cognitive processing and improving the quality of student learning. Limited studies have investigated the potential for WEVs as high-quality blended learning resources in UEU. Better understanding of WEV impact could lead to their widespread use in the blended learning transformation.

Purpose

To explore the impact of WEVs in MH-UEU by investigating student-video usage, interaction, and attitude, and the resultant effect on perceived academic performance.

Approach

WEVs were produced weekly for two MH-UEU at the Queensland University of Technology. Student engagement, perceived academic performance and attitude toward the WEVs were evaluated using a mixed methods approach incorporating viewership data and an end-of-semester survey. The study comprised 1,713 students across five cohorts over three semesters.

Results

Students engaged significantly with the WEVs with almost 24,500 views and 89 days of continuous viewing time across the five cohorts. Exam preparation was the dominant motivator for WEV usage. Approximately 90% of students used an active learning style when interacting with the WEVs, with many taking advantage of video controls like pausing, skipping and rewinding. This enabled students to work alongside the WEVs, using them to provide hints and verify solution processes, as well as concentrate on specific sections of the WEVs, thus individualising their learning to focus on areas they found challenging. The majority of students agreed WEVs improved their knowledge of the unit content, had the potential to improve their grades, and would be useful in other similar units.

Conclusions

WEVs are a valuable blended learning tool, capable of empowering student learning and enabling deeper engagement with problem solving tasks. Student interactions with the WEVs suggest that they are well-suited to MH-UEU where worked examples are an important learning tool.