Learning from text and video blogs: comprehension effects on secondary school students

Abstract

Abstract Informational video blogs are a popular method of communication among students that may be fruitful educational tools, but their potential benefits and risks remain unclear. Streaming videos created by YouTubers are often consumed for entertainment, which may lead students to develop habits that hinder in-depth information processing. We aimed to test this hypothesis by comparing students’ perceived attention to task, metacognitive calibration of their level of comprehension, and comprehension outcomes between reading text blogs and watching video blogs. We also examined the influence of notetaking. 188 lower secondary students read two text blog entries and watched two video blog entries, and completed a series of tasks. Results showed no statistically significant effect of blog format and notetaking on students’ perceived on-task attention, metacognitive calibration, and comprehension of blog entries. Nevertheless, we found a triple interaction effect of format, notetaking, and students’ reading comprehension on blog entry comprehension. Only students low in reading comprehension benefited from notetaking and only when they read the text blog entries. These results indicate that video blogs can be as suitable for learning as text blogs and that notetaking can help struggling readers overcome their difficulties when learning from text blogs but not from video blogs.