As digital learning tools and pre-recorded lectures become more pervasive in a post-pandemic world, understanding the impact of playback speeds on learning has become more important.
MATHstream, a video-based digital learning tool from Carnegie Learning, leverages the power of instructional videos to improve math outcomes. Building on previous literature and feedback from users, the team developed an experiment to measure the impact of different video speeds on engagement, enjoyment, and learning.
The experiment conducted on 159 adults showed that there was no significant impact on eye-tracking measures, self-reported engagement measures, or performance on related math problems across video speeds. However, one instructor’s videos were nearly twice as long as the others, leading to lower engagement, increased boredom, and lower likeability, suggesting that the length of a video has a greater impact on engagement than the speed at which it is played.
