Video annotation in a learning environment

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that annotation is an important part of human reading behavior in both printed and electronic environments. Annotation in the electronic environment requires special support due to limited media affordances. We have witnessed continuous improvement of annotation functions in some electronic reading environments, such as text documents in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat and images in Flickr. However, comparatively little research has been conducted to understand people's needs for making annotations when they watch videos, let alone work to develop tools to support their needs. With the increasing use of videos in many aspects of our lives, from professional activities to personal entertainment, by not only specialists but also general consumers, there is need for more efforts on designing annotation facilities for video navigation and manipulation devices. This study focuses on video annotation in a learning environment. We studied how people in a teaching assistant training class annotated videotaped instructional presentations. We attempted to understand the value of annotation in achieving their learning objectives and how video annotation functions helped in supporting their tasks. The results of this study provide implications for video annotation system design.