College Students’ Preferences on Principles for the Effective Instructional Video Design for Online General English Classes in Korea

The present study investigates the preferences of students regarding the principles for the effective design of instructional videos to identify factors that influence engagement. A questionnaire was distributed to 232 students enrolled in online liberal arts classes at a private university in South Korea. Frequency analysis was conducted to determine preferences, whereas an independent sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance were administered to verify any differences in preferences according to gender and grade. The findings are as follows. First, out of the 12 principles that should be considered in the design of instructional videos, the students most preferred the review quiz principle. Moreover, this factor was found to exert the greatest influence on engagement. Second, incorporating real-life situation principles into instructional videos also had a significant impact on engagement. Third, female students expressed higher levels of preference than did male students in terms of the preview, course content on screen, and review quiz principles. Fourth, sophomores preferred the review quiz principle more than the freshmen did. The results of the present study are in line with those of previous research in that the effective instructional design of multimedia lessons requires reducing extraneous processing, managing essential processing, and fostering generative processing. Particularly, the study found that Korean students value video lectures with generative activities for meaningful learning. Based on the findings of the study, pedagogical considerations of the design of recorded lectures and its structure for active engagement, and suggestions for future studies are provided.