Designing educational videos for university websites based on students’ preferences

Abstract

Recent developments have seen a significant increase in the number of educational videos being made, mostly for use as a resource in a range of educational levels and different specializations. Indeed, currently, many universities either provide videos as supplementary resources or, indeed, offer entire courses as online learning materials. The qualitative study this paper presents was conducted to answer the following questions: “How have educational videos (lectures/tutorials) published on YouTube affected the university students’ studies at both postgraduate and undergraduate levels?” and “would it be better to upload these types of videos onto a university website?” The aim was to explore the experiences of students from two universities (one a high-ranking university and one from a developing country) regarding online educational videos and to assess the extent to which these kinds of videos influence their studies. The data collection method used was individual interviews with students from two different universities to gather their perspectives, their opinions, and their aspirations regarding such videos. The results section analyzes and discusses the students’ varied opinions. Based on the research findings, several recommendations are made to develop a useable design to add videos to university websites. Finally, the research discussed how this study’s findings contribute during the COVID-19 pandemic.