Retrospective Focus Prompts Facilitate Learning From Video Tutorials for Technical Apprenticeship

Abstract

Although the demand for video tutorials has risen recently in the field of technical apprenticeship, they can overtax learners, especially novices. Enhancing video tutorials with prompts is a potential support measure to ensure learners focus on the key aspects of learning content. However, open questions remain concerning the prompt type and presentation mode. We thus investigated the effectiveness of different prompt types (retrospective vs. anticipatory vs. unfocused vs. no prompt) and presentation modes (video vs. still shots and text) in a 4 × 2-factorial experiment (N = 205). We used original industrial video tutorials and assessed learning processes (e.g., prompt answers) and outcomes (e.g., knowledge about working steps). Results show that retrospective prompts are the most effective prompts for our novice sample. Furthermore, learning processes mediated the prompt effect on learning outcomes—regardless of the presentation mode. Our findings underscore the importance of retrospectively focusing on working steps when learning with video tutorials.