Investigating the Effect of Adding Nudges to Increase Engagement in Active Video Watching

In order for videos to be a powerful medium for learning, it is crucial that learners engage in constructive learning. Historic interactions of previous learners can provide a rich resource to enhance interaction and promote engagement fostering constructive learning. This paper proposes such a novel approach of adding nudges to AVW-Space, a platform for video-based learning. We present the enhancements implemented in AVW-Space in the form of interactive visualizations and personalized prompts. A study focusing on presentation skills was conducted in a large first-year engineering course, in which AVW-Space provided an online resource for the students to use as they wish. The students were randomly divided into the control and experimental groups, which had access to the original and enhanced version of AVW-Space respectively. Our findings show that nudging is effective in fostering constructive learning: there was a significant difference in the percentage of constructive students in the two groups. The experimental group students wrote more comments, found AVW-Space easier to use, reported less frustration when commenting, and had higher confidence in their performance on commenting.