Mentor: Ellen Yezierksi, Ph.D.

Over 1,600 channels produce multimedia videos based on chemistry education content on the free-to-use platform YouTube. The expansive use of YouTube by both students and educators as a vehicle to promote learning outcomes, along with its seemingly ubiquitous presence, drives the growth of evidence-based research on the quality of YouTube videos. However, the extent to which educators and students are able to discern if a video provides a sense of perceived learning, supports cognitive growth in learners, or neither is largely unknown. Because YouTube maximizes visual and verbal channels for learning, we applied Mayer’s Multimedia Principles (MMP) to evaluate the production qualities of educational chemistry videos based on enthalpy search terms. Regarding two common search processes, view counts and popular creators, we found videos reflected relatively strong adherence to MMP, with exceptions such as CrashCourse. Based on evidence from the study, YouTube requires support through implementation to maximize meaningful learning, as described by the theory of cognitive learning. From evidence of coding along with theories of multimedia learning, we derived four recommendation themes to aid in the selection and use of YouTube videos. Although future research on student learning with YouTube is needed, the results and theory- and evidence-based recommendations herein provide educators with selection criteria and intervention strategies to use until a richer body of empirical work is available to guide them.

Explore the Project