Exploring the potential of YouTube videos towards enhancing achievement and retention of undergraduate students in environmental education

Abstract

The poor performance of students in environmental education calls for different approaches towards teaching of the course of which the incorporation of technology is one of them. Hence, this study investigated the effect of YouTube-supported instructional strategy on academic achievement of environmental education students in University of Abuja, Nigeria. The study adopted a one group pre-/post-test quasi-experimental non-equivalent, non-randomized control group design. The population of the study comprised of 768 year three undergraduate students of Department of Science and Environmental Education, Faculty of Education at University of Abuja. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 126 year three students of environmental education in Department of Science and Environmental Education offering EED 322: Natural ecosystem. The instruments for the study were environmental education achievement test (EEAT) and YouTube videos used as test and treatment instruments, respectively. The instruments were validated by experts in the field of educational technology and environmental education. EEAT was tested using split-half method of reliability and a co-efficient value of 0.89 was obtained using Pearson product moment correlation. The findings revealed that the students performed better in the post-test (mean gain=40.01) and retention test (mean loss=2.01) after exposure to tailored YouTube videos matching their lecture contents and that a significant difference was found in the students’ achievement (t=5.21, p=.000) and retention scores (t=2.44, p=.000). It was therefore recommended, amongst others, that lecturers should adopt the use of YouTube videos in teaching and learning for they are effective.