Speakers and Boards: A Survey of Instructional Video Styles in MOOCs

Purpose: This paper offers an account of the current usage of communication styles and features in MOOC instructional videos. The aim of the study is to provide a better understanding of instructional video patterns and typologies and to find associations between video style usage and course attributes such as the MOOC platform and course subjects. Method: Five global, generalist MOOC platforms were selected for this study, which was conducted in two phases: First, a qualitative survey was made to identify frequently used video styles and build a classification scheme. Second, a sample of 115 courses in the selected MOOC platforms was used to account for video features and style frequencies. Various statistical tests were performed to discover associations between course characteristics and video style usage. Results: Seven video styles were identified as the most frequent in MOOC courses. They fully describe the video stock of 85% of the sampled courses. A typical course uses two different styles. The study reveals two broad competing approaches to display instructional contents in MOOC videos: speaker-centric (a visible person speaks the contents) and board-centric (a large rectangular surface displays the contents). The actual usage of each approach is significantly related to the course subject area: Arts and humanities courses exhibit a preference for speaker-centric styles, while engineering and hard science courses favor board-centric videos. Social sciences and health courses are more neutral. Conclusion: Current MOOCs are focused on few representational styles, with speakers and boards as the two main models. The observed usage is consistent with a strong attachment to the lecture as an instructional technique.