New research on how MOOC video production affects student engagement

Just at the point where we are "going firm" on video production for the first phase of Citizen Maths, [25/8/2014 - Citizen Maths is now live and open for registrations], I come across this 10 page research report [PDF] which substantially develops some earlier findings, and which reinforces nearly all my mainly experience-based knowledge of what kinds of instructional video are most effective. (The report is oddly silent on whether there is a relationship between audio quality and learner engagement, which has always struck me as being also of crucial importance.)

The list of seven main findings:

1. Shorter videos are much more engaging - engagement drops sharply after 6 minutes
2. Videos that intersperse an instructor’s talking head with PowerPoint slides are more engaging than showing only slides
3. Videos produced with a more personal feel could be more engaging than high-fidelity studio recordings
4. Khan-style tablet drawing tutorials are more engaging than PowerPoint slides or code screencasts
5. Even high-quality prerecorded classroom lectures are not as engaging when chopped up into short segments for a MOOC
6. Videos where instructors speak fairly fast and with high enthusiasm are more engaging
7. Students engage differently with lecture and tutorial videos

and seven main recommendations:

1. Invest heavily in pre-production lesson planning to segment videos into chunks shorter than 6 minutes
2. Invest in post-production editing to display the instructor’s head at opportune times in the video
3. Try filming in an informal setting; it might not be necessary to invest in big-budget studio productions
4. Introduce motion and continuous visual flow into tutorials, along with extemporaneous speaking
5. If instructors insist on recording classroom lectures they should still plan with the MOOC format in mind
6. Coach instructors to bring out their enthusiasm and reassure that they do not need to purposely slow down
7. For lectures, focus more on the first-watch experience; for tutorials, add support for rewatching and skimming

are not a substitute for the report itself. Hats off to Philip J. Guo (developer of the particularly impressive pythontutor.com), Juho Kim, and Rob Rubin for doing the research, and to edX for publicising it through this short summary.