- Pg2 Video-based learning content is increasingly
consumed in mobile environments with varying screen sizes.
However, one of the main limitations of mobile learning is the small screen size, which deteriorates
the learning experience and decreases the effectiveness of learning with too small font
size, content-heavy lecture slides, and complex graphics to digest in a mobile environment.
- Pg3 The existing learning framework also highlighted
the importance of such visual design factors in learning.
Inappropriate font sizes of learning material impose unnecessary cognitive load and
lower judgments of learning.
Excessive amount of words is another factor that increases the cognitive load and information
overload.
Image elements can also increase cognitive load by splitting learners’ attention.
- Pg4 However, most of the existing video learning
content is originally designed for desktops with a widescreen.
Moreover, existing studies on mobile video-based learning lack consideration for video production
engineers and designers who are direct stakeholders of lecture video design, being involved in
the content design process.
- Pg5 Our research is in threefold, content analysis,
interviews, and prototype system.
- Pg6 To better understand the challenge, we first
analyzed 681 video frames from 108 video lectures.
The lectures are selected from the top MOOC courses list in 2019 released by Class Central
and include MOOCs from Coursera, edX, and FutureLearn.
The analysis result shows that the current video lectures are not suitable for mobile
learning environments with too small font size and dense text, which are not readable
and digestible on small screens.
- Pg7 We adopted most strict and most lenient guideline
since there was no single rule of thumb guideline.
86-98% of the collected video frames had too small font sizes and 60-82% had too dense
text, violating the design guidelines.
This analysis result reveals the distribution and issues of the current lecture design.
- Pg8 We also conducted formative interviews with
six video production engineers to investigate
current practices and challenges in content design for mobile devices.
The engineers consider how the content they created will be displayed on mobile devices.
They mentioned an increasing number of learners watching a video lecture using various portable
devices and different learning environments.
- Pg9 For this reason, they try to adapt the content
to fit mobile devices by resizing, repositioning, and segmenting the content.
- Pg10 The main design factors they consider include
font sizes and the amount of information on mobile screens.
- Pg11 Based on the interview results, we developed
a prototype system to support video content design process for mobile devices.
- Pg12 Once the lecture slides designed by video
production engineers are input to our system,
- Pg13 then it displays analysis results for the
input learning material based on the existing design guidelines, whether the input slides
comply with the guidelines.
- Pg14 For example, for this example lecture slide,
our prototype system displays the statistics for font size, word count, and image count.
- Pg15 This slide contains 95 words in 9.75 pt with
1 image.
- Pg16 Then on the next column of the table, it shows
diagnosis, in other words, whether the design of the slide complies with the existing design
guidelines or not, using smiling face and frowning face.
- Pg17 The primary contributions of this research
can be summarized as these three points.
First, a content analysis that reveals a landscape of design elements of current video-based
learning content and automated inspection for design guideline compliance rate.
- Pg18 Second, an exploration of challenges and current
practices of video content design process for mobile learning environments through interviews
with video production engineers
- Pg19 Third, a prototype system that supports video
production engineers with computer-guided video content design
- Pg20 In future work, we first plan to conduct a
content analysis including extended design factors such as font styles, font colors,
visual complexities of graphics.
Second, we can develop a design tool for engineers or plug-in software.
Third, we can extend the research to accessibility evaluation protocols and systems.
- Pg21 We expect that the quality and accessibility
of video-based learning content can be improved based on our research.
Please refer to the paper for more details.