Student Choice Matters: Supplemental Videos in Physics Classroom Instruction

Educational videos found online can be a useful learning resource. Teachers use videos in the classroom to engage students and clarify concepts. At home, students routinely search for videos on topics that remain unclear to them after class. These two modes of learning are fundamentally different. In one, the material is assigned, in the other, students actively seek out the information. Based on self-determination theory, we predicted the active process would improve learning outcomes. We test whether choosing an educational video from a curated set, rather than being assigned one, affects student motivation, attention, and academic performance. We conducted a multi-session experiment as part of an introductory college physics class (n=114, quasi-randomized by lab section) and a large single-session online experiment (n=462). We measured quiz scores in each session, final class exam performance, standardized physics knowledge tests, task-related motivation state, overt attention via webcam-based eye tracking, and assessed individual short-term memory capacity and academic motivation. Video choice did not statistically significantly affect immediate gains measured with quizzes after individual sessions, nor were task-related motivation states affected in either cohort. However, choice did show longer term effects, with higher final exam performance in the classroom cohort. Amotivation and extrinsic motivation predicted lower exam performance, as expected. These findings suggest that small benefits of student choice can accumulate over the course of a full semester, but motivation and attention effects of individual sessions may be too small to observe.