The impact of video learning resources on student learning: a survey of visual and performing Arts students

Abstract

Introduction

Video learning materials in an e-learning environment allows students to learn through audio, video and facilitate learners to simulate video content as much as possible. Face-to-face teaching and demonstration is very common in dancing practical education. Traditional instructional activities like demonstrating dancing practical work can be completed online using a Learning Management System (LMS). An LMS provides a common place to keep video learning materials and these learning materials allow students to learn by doing.

The Centre for the Open and Distance (CODL) at the University of the Visual & Performing Arts offers a Bachelor of Performing Arts external general degree in the field of dance. Student will study national, international dance forms, vocals and instrumental music. Although this is external degree, students come to the Centre on weekends to learn the practical aspects of dancing. Students are taught a limited number of dancing items through face to face instructions due to time limitation. However, the program expects students to learn several national and international dance forms, vocals and instrumental music. Therefore, constant practice is necessary. Thus CODL introduced a learning environment using information technology. Students are taught fundamentals through face to face sessions which is supplemented by LMS learning materials. These materials include dancing practical lessons and activities to learn items actively for students to enhance their learning process. In this context, it is vital to explore how video learning materials contribute towards enhancing practical dancing skills of student in a distance learning environment. The main research question of this research is “Will video learning materials contribute towards increase of practical dancing skills of student?”

The objectives of this paper are to study the effect of video learning material on student practicing dance items outside the classroom, and to investigate student’s perceptions regarding the use of video learning materials in distance learning.

Methodology

The data for this study was obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted in 2015 from the second year students at the Center for the Open and Distance Learning (CODL), University of the Visual & Performing Arts. The Moodle Learning Management System (LMS) was installed and user IDs were created for all the students and faculty members of these courses. The videos focused on specific contents and techniques related to up country and low country dance, Sabaragamuwa dance and, local drum practice were produced by teaching staff and hosted as course material in LMS. Demonstrations were given to all the students to make them familiar with the LMS and its features. Presentations on how to use course materials and video learning materials were made. Audacity was taught to practice audio recording. Once the participants were confident in using video materials in LMS one month was given to practice dancing items and vocal recordings and evaluation were done at the university. After the practical evaluation test, a questionnaire was administered to 100 students for feedback. Simple random sampling was used as a sampling technique. Likert scale based measuring technique was used with scores ranging from 1-5. Whereas, a score of 1 is ‘do not agree at all with the statement’, 2 is ‘do not agree with it’, 3 is ‘neither agree nor disagree’, 4 is ‘agree’ and 5 is ‘strongly agree’. The data was analyzed by using SPSS software package. Statistical data analyses were done to understand the impact of using video learning materials on student learning. The findings presented here are limited to upcountry dancing.

Results and Discussion

Out of 100 students 84 answered the questionnaire and the response rate was 84%. More than three fourth of respondents (77.4%) were female whereas 22.6% were male. Table 1 presents the number of times students have accessed Up- country learning materials and about 69.1% have accessed learning materials more than ten times.

Table 1: Number of times student have accessed Up-country learning materials

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In response to clearness and understandability of the material, 56% of the respondents agreed that the materials provided to them were clear and understandable. As to the quality of the material, the most frequently occurring was 4 (M=4) revealing that the respondents were satisfied with the quality of materials provided to them. It is interesting to note that 58.3% of the respondents agreed that the provided materials helped them to enhance knowledge. The majority of the students (58.5%) agreed that the material was easy to use. In response to providing sufficient information to learn practical dancing items, 58.75% of the respondents agreed that the learning material provided were sufficient to practice the relevant items. The high user rate suggests that students broadly accept and use video learning material as a form of instruction and as an enhancement to traditional classroom courses. Moreover, overall student satisfaction (M = 4.30) was high. These findings indicate that video learning materials facilitated student learning.

Conclusion

The findings revealed the positive effect of video materials to teach practical dancing items in the distance learning mode. They provide insights to visual and performing arts teachers in higher education to enhance the practical dancing performance of students through video learning materials. The findings suggest that well-designed dancing teaching materials can improve the practical dancing skills of students.