The effects of instructional design on student engagement with video lectures at cyber universities

Aim/Purpose The number of students enrolled in online courses that use video lectures is on the rise. However, research shows that the number of students watching video lectures is low, and the number watching videos to completion is even lower. Background This paper seeks to understand this problem by looking for correlations be-tween instructional design and student engagement with video lectures. Methodology Students at a cyber-university in South Korea (n=1801) were surveyed on their perception of the instructional design used in the courses they took and their engagement with online video lectures. Contribution This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating positive correlations between instructional design, watching, and finishing video lectures. Findings While most other research has found low levels of online lecture viewership, this paper found significantly higher numbers watching and finishing videos. Other major findings of the paper are that five key elements of instructional design for online learning environments (designing methods, setting the curricu-lum, establishing time parameters, establishing netiquette, and utilizing the me-dium effectively) all correlated positively with students watching and finishing video lectures. Recommendations for Practitioners Based on findings in this paper, it is recommended that practitioners consider taking actions when designing their instruction for online courses. These in-clude batching their video lectures together by topic, devoting greater resources to helping students utilize the medium, and communicate time parameters in a way that encourages students to view video lectures in a timely manner. Recommendation for Researchers As the watching of video lectures in this study was mandatory for learners, an interesting area of further research would be to examine whether that decision led to higher numbers of students watching them. Future Research It is important for researchers to conduct further research into the interplay between ways instructors can design their instruction in order to encourage learners to better experience online learning.