Hi everyone! I’m Yoonjoo Lee from KAIST.
Today I’m presenting our paper
which investigates what study with me videos are
and motivation of the viewers.
This work is done with John, Jean, Minsuk, and my advisor Juho.
More and more people shoot and share their study session
in online video sharing platform like youtube and Twitch,
and they call it as Study with me video.
As we can see,
the creator showed themselves while working with a computer,
jotting things down, and flipping the pages.
The videos play without the person saying a word
or showing the content they are studying,
and many times, some are even hiding their faces.
Although there only limited social presence exists
and little direct interaction,
more people are showing interest in this new video genre.
For example, according to YouTube,
views of videos with titles containing “study with me”
increased by 54% in 2020 in the U.S.
The popularity of study with me video is increasing,
so we provide the first broad look into what study with me videos are
and why people are watching them.
To understand these, we firstly analyzed 30 “study with me” videos.
From comparing the sample of study with me videos
with other study-related videos and virtual study platforms,
we revealed three salient characteristics
across study with me videos.
First, the creator studies on camera
during their actual study session,
Secondly, there is no direct instruction delivered from the video
Third, there is a clear distinction
between the viewers who watch videos
and the creators who record or stream videos.
It means that viewers were not shown to creators
whereas other virtual study rooms,
where all participants share a video of their own studying sessions.
We also identified features that vary across study with me videos,
such as whether the front face was showing,
chat rooms were available,
broadcast live,
and creators were speaking.
Based on previous investigation,
we asked 12 study with me video viewers about their expectations
and preferences in using the videos
and conducted qualitative analysis.
Our interviewees all said that
Study with me videos were used to create a virtual study space.
While analyzing how these virtual study space are used for viewers,
we could first identify a three factor model
that explains how these factors interact
to form a satisfying study session.
Three factors are expected effects,
internal states,
internal and external factors.
People expect enough focusing and extending study time
to achieve a satisfying study experience.
These effects are changed by these two internal states,
mitigating distraction and being motivated,
and they are triggered by external ambience or by themselves.
For example, we can infer that
changes of ambience from the library becoming crowded
caused learners to get distracted
and finally learners fail to acquire the expected effect
which is focusing on study.
As such, one of the factors, a well-suited ambience,
was difficult to achieve because of two common challenges
The first challenge happens
when there are no study-friendly places available
because of external conditions,
such as library rules, COVID-19,
close time of coffee shop and library.
The second challenge is caused by
extra cost needed to create a personally desired ambiance.
For example, one of the interview participants said
“I have to establish a relationship
to know the concentration, study habits,
and kind of study of the person I’m studying with,
but I don’t want to waste my energy on it.”
Then how does Study With Me video support viewers
to have better study space and overcome these challenges?
Let’s see how they did this!
First, viewers watched the video to get motivated from others.
They either compared themselves to the creator
or got inspired by other viewers
watching the video together in real time.
For example, P5 said “This person studies so hard, what am I doing?”
Second, viewers also got emotional support
with the sense of “togetherness”
and could get less distracted from feeling alone
due to various reasons,
like being isolated due to COVID-19 or staying in a foreign country.
Third, with Study with me video,
viewers had more control on the study ambience
compared to studying in physical space.
They could get the study ambience at anytime, at anywhere,
and choose various aspects,
like the length of the video or who the creator is.
They also tried to create a better ambience
by adjusting the way they watched the video.
For example, P12 said
“I usually turn down the volume and do not watch the screen,
but I know that I played it. I’m sure that he will continue to study.”
You can see all detailed controls and selected features in our paper.
Fourth, viewers could reduce the cost
in creating study-friendly ambience.
From SWM videos, they could find people who are motivated to study,
who are the video creators,
without spending energy in human relationships.
Fifth, viewers frequently watched SWM with mobile phones,
which prevented them from using it
and getting distracted by it in a physical manner.
We have many other interesting findings and analysis in our paper.
Please go and check it out! Thank you