Cues-enabled instructional videos of construction methods and technologies to enhance students' learning

Abstract

It is essential for the civil engineering and construction management students in the ACE department to be proficient in construction methods and technologies for their future jobs. This project examined whether adding cues (e.g., coloring, words, and arrows) in the instructional videos of the construction methods and technology would help improve the students' learning. Specifically, three different forms of cues (i.e., textual cues, visual cues, and combined textual-&-visual cues) on students' learning outcomes including knowledge retention and knowledge transfer, information selection and integration during video-based learning of construction methods and technology were investigated. 32 students with similar construction knowledge were invited to join an intervention experiment to examine the learning effects of adding cues. Their original knowledge were test at first, then they were divided into four equal groups learning four various instruction videos: videos without cues, videos with textual cues, videos with visual cues, and videos with combined textual-&-visual cues. After that, the subjects’ learning outcomes were examined through a knowledge retention and transfer tests. Their eye-movement metrics including Time of the first fixation to the key areas and Fixation transitions between key ares were collected to indicate their information selection and integration during learning. The results show that adding cues regardless of the cue types could significantly increase students’ knowledge retention and transfer. Besides, instruction videos with cues could help learners notice key information and integrate information compared to videos without cues, and the combined textual-&-visual cues performed the best in helping learners pay attention to key information. Based on the findings, instructional videos of the construction methods and technology were added with suitable cues to improve learning. The projects would facilitate teaching and improve learning of the core courses of civil engineering and construction management.