Design and evaluation of in-context retrieval exercises for informational videos

Learners increasingly refer to online videos for learning new technical concepts, but often overlook or forget key details. We investigated how retrieval practice, a learning strategy commonly used in education, could be designed to reinforce key concepts in online videos. We began with a formative study to understand users’ perceptions of cued and free-recall retrieval techniques. We next developed REMIND, a new in context flashcard-based technique that provides expert-curated retrieval exercises in the context of a video’s playback. We evaluated this technique with 14 learners and investigated how learners engage with flashcards that are prompted automatically at pre-defined intervals or flashcards that appear on-demand. Our results overall showed that learners perceived automatically prompted flashcards to be more effortless and made the learners feel more confident about grasping key concepts in the video. However, learners found that on-demand flashcards gave them more control over their learning and allowed them to personalize their review of content. Building upon findings from the design and evaluation of REMIND, we developed HYBREID to explore the designs pace for hybrid techniques of retrieval exercises that include the favorable aspects of automatic and on-demand interactions of REMIND. Our evaluation of this initial hybrid technique provides further implications for designing hybrid techniques of retrieval exercises. We discuss the potential for hybrid retrieval techniques where automatic exercises are combined with on-demand interactions for helping learners gain control over their study, and community support is leveraged for curating content.