Student Video Viewing Habits in an Online Mechanics of Materials Engineering Course

Abstract

This paper investigated the video viewing habits of students in a sophomore-level, online Mechanics of Materials (MoM) course offered in Spring 2017 and how those habits affected student course grades. Data on student engagement and viewership were collected from a MoM course through a learning management system. This data was compared with length of videos, video content, and video types. With viewership being the focus of the study, it was determined that student engagement decreased over the semester, the content of a video affected its viewership, and viewing rates fluctuated depending on the exam. The other finding was that an increase in viewership tended to indicate an improvement in students’ grades. While the videos are an effective means of improving students’ course grade, changes could be made to improve the videos and increase engagement.