The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills

The use of instructional videos to teach clinical skills is an ever growing area of e-learning based upon observational learning which is cited as one of the most basic yet powerful learning strategies. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the effectiveness of online instructional videos for the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills amongst Undergraduate students, throughout formative assessments with two different durations of instructional videos. The research suggests that the use of videos to support traditional learning should be encouraged, whilst a conclusive evidence base for their usage has not yet been established they are a medium which is likely to benefit a proportion of a cohort, and it is very unlikely that they will be harmful to students' learning. What is already known about this topic:  E-learning is becoming increasingly popular within educational domains.  Observational learning is one of the most powerful learning strategies for humans that can be enabled further by technology.  As technology becomes ubiquitous there are less barriers for the delivery of e-learning. What this paper adds:  Instructional videos can be used to successfully aid traditional learning for cognitive, affective and psychomotor skill acquisition.  There is a trivial difference between two different duration of instructional videos, both having positive effects overall  Formative assessment throughout the experimental phase each Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 2 year significantly correlated with the student’s end of year summative assessment. Implications for practice  The use of instructional videos is possibly beneficial and very unlikely to be harmful to students.  Instructional videos should be designed with a working knowledge of CLT and MMLT wherever possible.  Effect size statistics reveal substantially more about a finding than the p value alone. Whilst the effect may not be significant the increases observed have real world implications on student attainment. Introduction The growing adoption of e-learning technologies within the education of health professionals has risen progressively throughout the past five decades (Triola et al., 2012). Principally due to the literature regarding e-learning citing the method as a promising alternative to the traditional classroom setting, it is generally concluded that e-learning will improve learning, and is equivalent to or in some cases is superior to traditional teaching methods (Chen, 2011, McNulty et al., 2009a and Zhang et al., 2006). The adoption of e-learning within a health setting presents a unique set of problems as the complexity of teaching a hands-on profession in a traditional academic setting, rather than a purely theoretical or philosophical subject have been documented in previous literature (see Perry, 1999) and it would be a fair assumption that these challenges carry over into the realm of e-learning. As a result of the challenges posed educators have responded by adopting various elearning methods in an attempt to standardise and enhance the efficiency of teaching (Veneri, 2011). Amongst these methods video has been highlighted as one of the most consistently used methods, however video is a medium that has been used in academic health for a long time and is well established as an accepted technique (Schittek Janda et al., 2005). Newer technologies currently available have enabled the electronic distribution of videos that can illustrate abstract cognitive processes or concepts and this is responsible for bringing video back to the forefront of learning and teaching within medical education (Chen, 2011, McNulty et al., 2009b and Wouters et al., 2007). Although videos are still being used within their typical settings to present theoretical content, there is an emerging area pertaining to the use of instructional videos to teach psychomotor skills (McNulty et al., 2009b and Smith, 2011). The traditional strategies used to teach psychomotor skills include the use of lectures, textbooks, self-instruction and live demonstration (Smith, 2011). Learning motor skills by watching a live demonstration has long been recognised as a successful and well-researched instructional method for over 30 years Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 3 (Wouters et al., 2007). Previous instructional videos of demonstrations were either broadcast ‘off-line’ through TV or stored on CD-ROMS, and were not generally made available to students, included only when the teacher felt it was appropriate for the course (Green, 2003, Schittek Janda et al., 2005 and Zhang et al., 2006). However, even though the technology now makes wider distribution possible, introducing videos through e-learning does not necessarily ensure effective and efficient learning (Chen, 2011 and Kala et al., 2010). More significantly there is limited conclusive evidence demonstrating its effectiveness for teaching clinical skills (Bloomfield et al., 2010). The acquisition of psychomotor skills among students and the relationship to teaching methodologies is a relatively new area of research in health care education (Veneri, 2011) and in general multimedia educational research has been characterised by inconsistency which have led to inconclusive findings with relation to the effect that multimedia resources can have on the learning process (Samaras et al., 2006). Tallent-Runnels et al., (2005) expand on this further stating that there is a serious mismatch between the technological features that are emerging and the pedagogical teaching principles relating to e-learning. Pedagogical principles provide a theoretical structure that guides strategies and activities that in turn form the foundation of good educational practice, within elearning these are principally focused and implemented by the instructional design (Alonso et al., 2005, 2008 and Kala et al., 2010). Instructional design has developed in combination with three basic learning theories; behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism (Alonso et al., 2005 and 2008). Each of the three theories focus on different perspectives of learning, behaviourist theory centres around observable behaviour (objectivity), cognitivism on unobservable behaviour (subjectivity) and constructivism identifies the importance of new knowledge construction and learner-centred experiences (Kala et al., 2010). Whilst it is generally acknowledged that the cognitive and constructivist approaches have dominated the evolution of learning theories, behaviourism is perhaps the most pertinent to the fundamental acquisition of psychomotor skills. Observational Learning Learning by observing and imitating others has long been recognised as one of the most basic yet powerful learning strategies for humans (see Gog et al., 2008). Skill acquisition takes place when the behaviour, strategies, or thoughts of observers are moulded after viewing experts who perform flawless and error free movements (Wouters et al., 2007). A significant challenge within multimedia learning concerns the notion as to whether it is possible to promote constructivist learning from passive media (Mayer, 2002). Mayer’s (1999) Multimedia Learning Theory (MMLT) provides the most definitive and well-evidenced instructional design approach (see Mayer and Moreno, 1999) and is founded on all three of the main pedagogical theories and the extensively tested and substantiated Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) (Paas et al., 2010). Therefore to maximise the instructional effectiveness of multimedia it Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 4 is useful to be guided by the research-based theory of how people learn and to connect applications with evidence and theory (Mayer, 2002). Psychomotor Classification A dominant theoretical classification of learning objectives that incorporates a psychomotor element that is ecologically valid given it is derived to provide taxonomy for the analysis of University level education, and has construct validity given its foundations in behaviourism is Bloom’s Taxonomy (Ferris and Aziz, 2005). Bloom’s taxonomy divided educational objectives into three domains (Cognitive, affective and psychomotor) each with an internal hierarchy. The psychomotor domain was omitted from the original publication and the team led by Bloom never published a hierarchical taxonomy (Ferris and Aziz, 2005) and whilst it is acknowledged that no single theoretical foundation exists for instructional design a blending of behaviourist and cognitive approaches seems inevitable (Deubel, 2003). Many authors have sought to extend and complete Bloom’s Taxonomy so that it fully encompasses a psychomotor domain; however there has not been an agreed consensus of opinion regarding the classification of this domain. Simpson (1967) attributes this to the involvement of the other two domains within the psychomotor domain that create a ‘special problem of complexity’ when developing a classification system for it Dave (1970). Dave proposed a taxonomy that has five levels and bases its foundations clearly upon behaviourist theory, with the first level being imitation and the ascending pathways leading to naturalisation of the activity and skill. There has been a dearth of proposed psychomotor classifications since, however one exception to this is a classification by Dawson (1998) who sought to extend Bloom’s Taxonomy’s. Dawson’s taxonomy is similar in nature to that of Dave’s (1970) and provides a hierarchy from observation through to mastery. Dawson, (1998) aligns the pertinence of the psychomotor domain to sport, craft and trade training as well as the objectives of the performing arts and those professions that require manual dexterity such as laboratory practice and surgery. The domain builds on the behaviourist approach as there is a clear pathway for the development of higher-order learning given the mastery component of the hierarchy, however this is purely theoretical as the paper by Deubel, (2003) stated that it is still yet to be proven. As a result despite the extensive range of available taxonomies to draw from the work of Dave (1970) and Dawson (1998) are the most appropriate classifications of the psychomotor domain when compared to the structure, purpose and intended recipients of Bloom’s taxonomies. Instructional Video The use of instructional video is growing considerably and whilst there are a plethora of papers (ranging from the safe use of wrenches to assembly of electrical circuitry) that investigate the role of an instructional video with a Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 5 practical task, only a limited proportion of research articles quantify the psychomotor component. From the range of studies conducted a selection relate to the topic of investigation within this proposed study. Salyers, (2007) conducted a quasi-experimental study with nursing students to determine the effects of traditional and web-enhanced instructional approaches that included instructional videos. Whilst their sample size was limited to 36 students the researchers quantified the student’s cognitive, psychomotor and satisfactory scores from the two approaches. The study demonstrated that the students in the web-enhanced group achieved significantly higher scores on the final cognitive examination, achieved better scores on the psychomotor skills examination although not significantly so but were not as satisfied with the course as their traditional delivery colleagues. The results of the study yield interesting conclusions that support the previous learning presented with the exception of the affective domain that the authors accredit to the technological learning environment, however the fact remains that those who participated in the web-enhanced format did perform better (Salyers, 2007). Another study involving nursing students was conducted by Bloomfield et al. (2010) to assess the efficacy of an instructional hand-washing video when compared to a control group with a traditional instructional format. The study had a far higher sample size than the previous study with 242 students of mixed gender, age, educational background and first language recruited (Bloomfield et al., 2010). Due to the nature of the task the study was brief and the follow up measures (knowledge and skill performance) where conducted at 2 and 8 weeks to determine the retention of knowledge. There were no significant differences in the cognitive and psychomotor skill performance scores between the two groups at the 2-week follow-up with significant differences present at the 8-week follow-up (Bloomfield et al., 2010). Whilst the findings of the study were not as robust as the study conducted by Salyers, (2007) the findings reveal that the instructional video is a viable alternative for instructing the hand-washing skill and further supports MMLT effectively by demonstrating increased retention due to the deeper learning theorised by Mayer, (2002). The application of the findings by Bloomfield et al. (2010) are given further educational scope as Ahn et al. (2011) conducted a study examining the effect of a ‘reminder video’ viewed on their mobile phone on retention of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillation (AED) skills. Seventy-five male students were randomly assigned to the video-reminded or the control group and those in the experimental group received text messages every two weeks encouraging them to view the 180second long ‘reminder video’. Three months following their initial training students in the video-reminded group demonstrated significantly more accurate CPR and AED skills than their control counter-parts. As an additional measure the video-reminder group also demonstrated significantly higher self-assessed confidence and willingness to perform CPR skills than those in the control group (Ahn et al., 2011). The research presented is consistent with the conclusions of literature cited initially and whilst it can be viewed as an appropriate substitute it is evident that instructional multimedia for cognitive and psychomotor learning Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 6 within higher education appears to be most effective when it is delivered in addition to traditional classroom instruction (Smith, 2011). Although the literature presented earlier was based upon the broad range across all e-learning approaches the acquisition and demonstration of psychomotor skills has a growing evidence base. However, the conclusions of a systematic review conducted by Veneri, (2011) supported by the work of medical and allied health educators state that, the usage and effectiveness of computer assisted learning (e-learning) particularly with regard to higher order thinking and psychomotor skills requires further research. The Current Study The current study aims to evaluate the efficacy of online instructional videos (of differing durations) for Undergraduate students to determine the effect that they have upon their ability to acquire cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills. The students will be assessed formatively and evaluated on a group and individual basis. Methodology The study adopted a longitudinal, blinded, crossover design and took place over an 18-week period within two consecutive years. The 18-week period was divided into three, six-week blocks to ensure parity between the three experimental conditions; control, short and long videos. Lecturers who were blinded to the study assessed students formatively each week. Ethics Ethical clearance was granted by Durham University School of Education, Ethics Committee and Teesside University Research Ethics Committee, the former as the lead researcher’s supervising institution and the latter as the institution where the research would be conducted. Participants Ninety-eight students participated in the study across two academic years, sixty females and thirty-eight males with a mean age of 20.87 (SD = 4.53). All participants were fully informed about the study and were asked to voluntarily complete a written consent form prior to participation in accordance with British Educational Research Association (BERA) guidelines (2004). Each participant was informed of their right to withdraw and their right to obtain a copy of the results following the completion of the study. Research Design Considerations The crossover design was based upon a Latin square (Table 1) that ensured all students participated within each of the three conditions throughout the module to ensure no group of participants was disadvantaged. Students were requested not to share resources with friends outside their seminar group to minimise the experimental treatment diffusion and threaten the internal validity. Students did Pre-print version of: Cooper, D. and Higgins, S. (Early view/2014) The effectiveness of online instructional videos in the acquisition and demonstration of cognitive, affective and psychomotor rehabilitation skills British Journal of Educational Technology http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12166 Please check online version for final text. 7 not receive scores during the period to prevent compensatory rivalry/equalisation, resentfulness or demoralisation between groups, particularly from those who begin with a resource and experience the control condition subsequently. The lecturers responsible for the academic delivery and formative assessment of the module remained consistent throughout both of the research periods.