short video thesis

What is a Video Essay? The Art of the Video Analysis Essay

I n the era of the internet and Youtube, the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of expressing ideas and concepts. However, there is a bit of an enigma behind the construction of the video essay largely due to the vagueness of the term.

What defines a video analysis essay? What is a video essay supposed to be about? In this article, we’ll take a look at the foundation of these videos and the various ways writers and editors use them creatively. Let’s dive in.

Watch: Our Best Film Video Essays of the Year

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What is a video essay?

First, let’s define video essay.

There is narrative film, documentary film, short films, and then there is the video essay. What is its role within the realm of visual media? Let’s begin with the video essay definition. 

VIDEO ESSAY DEFINITION

A video essay is a video that analyzes a specific topic, theme, person or thesis. Because video essays are a rather new form, they can be difficult to define, but recognizable nonetheless. To put it simply, they are essays in video form that aim to persuade, educate, or critique. 

These essays have become increasingly popular within the era of Youtube and with many creatives writing video essays on topics such as politics, music, film, and pop culture. 

What is a video essay used for?

• To persuade an audience of a thesis
• To educate on a specific subject
• To analyze and/or critique 

What is a video essay based on?

Establish a thesis.

Video analysis essays lack distinguished boundaries since there are countless topics a video essayist can tackle. Most essays, however, begin with a thesis. 

How Christopher Nolan Elevates the Movie Montage  •  Video Analysis Essays

Good essays often have a point to make. This point, or thesis, should be at the heart of every video analysis essay and is what binds the video together. 

Related Posts

• Stanley Kubrick Directing Style Explained →
• A Filmmaker’s Guide to Nolan’s Directing Style →
• How to Write a Voice Over Montage in a Script →

interviews in video essay

Utilize interviews.

A key determinant for the structure of an essay is the source of the ideas. A common source for this are interviews from experts in the field. These interviews can be cut and rearranged to support a thesis. 

Roger Deakins on "Learning to Light"  •  Video Analysis Essays

Utilizing first hand interviews is a great way to utilize ethos into the rhetoric of a video. However, it can be limiting since you are given a limited amount to work with. Voice over scripts, however, can give you the room to say anything. 

How to create the best video essays on Youtube

Write voice over scripts.

Voice over (VO) scripts allow video essayists to write out exactly what they want to say. This is one of the most common ways to structure a video analysis essay since it gives more freedom to the writer. It is also a great technique to use when taking on large topics.

In this video, it would have been difficult to explain every type of camera lens by cutting sound bites from interviews of filmmakers. A voice over script, on the other hand, allowed us to communicate information directly when and where we wanted to.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Lenses  •  Video essay examples

Some of the most famous video essayists like Every Frame a Painting and Nerdwriter1 utilize voice over to capitalize on their strength in writing video analysis essays. However, if you’re more of an editor than a writer, the next type of essay will be more up your alley. 

Video analysis essay without a script

Edit a supercut.

Rather than leaning on interview sound bites or voice over, the supercut video depends more on editing. You might be thinking “What is a video essay without writing?” The beauty of the video essay is that the writing can be done throughout the editing. Supercuts create arguments or themes visually through specific sequences. 

Another one of the great video essay channels, Screen Junkies, put together a supercut of the last decade in cinema. The video could be called a portrait of the last decade in cinema.

2010 - 2019: A Decade In Film  •  Best videos on Youtube

This video is rather general as it visually establishes the theme of art during a general time period. Other essays can be much more specific. 

Critical essays

Video essays are a uniquely effective means of creating an argument. This is especially true in critical essays. This type of video critiques the facets of a specific topic. 

In this video, by one of the best video essay channels, Every Frame a Painting, the topic of the film score is analyzed and critiqued — specifically temp film score.

Every Frame a Painting Marvel Symphonic Universe  •  Essay examples

Of course, not all essays critique the work of artists. Persuasion of an opinion is only one way to use the video form. Another popular use is to educate. 

• The Different Types of Camera Lenses →
• Write and Create Professionally Formatted Screenplays →
• How to Create Unforgettable Film Moments with Music →

Video analysis essay

Visual analysis.

One of the biggest advantages that video analysis essays have over traditional, written essays is the use of visuals. The use of visuals has allowed video essayists to display the subject or work that they are analyzing. It has also allowed them to be more specific with what they are analyzing. Writing video essays entails structuring both words and visuals. 

Take this video on There Will Be Blood for example. In a traditional, written essay, the writer would have had to first explain what occurs in the film then make their analysis and repeat.

This can be extremely inefficient and redundant. By analyzing the scene through a video, the points and lessons are much more clear and efficient. 

There Will Be Blood  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Through these video analysis essays, the scene of a film becomes support for a claim rather than the topic of the essay. 

Dissect an artist

Essays that focus on analysis do not always focus on a work of art. Oftentimes, they focus on the artist themself. In this type of essay, a thesis is typically made about an artist’s style or approach. The work of that artist is then used to support this thesis.

Nerdwriter1, one of the best video essays on Youtube, creates this type to analyze filmmakers, actors, photographers or in this case, iconic painters. 

Caravaggio: Master Of Light  •  Best video essays on YouTube

In the world of film, the artist video analysis essay tends to cover auteur filmmakers. Auteur filmmakers tend to have distinct styles and repetitive techniques that many filmmakers learn from and use in their own work. 

Stanley Kubrick is perhaps the most notable example. In this video, we analyze Kubrick’s best films and the techniques he uses that make so many of us drawn to his films. 

Why We're Obsessed with Stanley Kubrick Movies  •  Video essay examples

Critical essays and analytical essays choose to focus on a piece of work or an artist. Essays that aim to educate, however, draw on various sources to teach technique and the purpose behind those techniques. 

What is a video essay written about?

Historical analysis.

Another popular type of essay is historical analysis. Video analysis essays are a great medium to analyze the history of a specific topic. They are an opportunity for essayists to share their research as well as their opinion on history. 

Our video on aspect ratio , for example, analyzes how aspect ratios began in cinema and how they continue to evolve. We also make and support the claim that the 2:1 aspect ratio is becoming increasingly popular among filmmakers. 

Why More Directors are Switching to 18:9  •  Video analysis essay

Analyzing the work of great artists inherently yields a lesson to be learned. Some essays teach more directly.

• Types of Camera Movements in Film Explained →
• What is Aspect Ratio? A Formula for Framing Success →
• Visualize your scenes with intuitive online shotlist software →

Writing video essays about technique

Teach technique.

Educational essays designed to teach are typically more direct. They tend to be more valuable for those looking to create art rather than solely analyze it.

In this video, we explain every type of camera movement and the storytelling value of each. Educational essays must be based on research, evidence, and facts rather than opinion.

Ultimate Guide to Camera Movement  •  Best video essays on YouTube

As you can see, there are many reasons why the video essay has become an increasingly popular means of communicating information. Its ability to use both sound and picture makes it efficient and effective. It also draws on the language of filmmaking to express ideas through editing. But it also gives writers the creative freedom they love. 

Writing video essays is a new art form that many channels have set high standards for. What is a video essay supposed to be about? That’s up to you. 

Organize Post Production Workflow

The quality of an essay largely depends on the quality of the edit. If editing is not your strong suit, check out our next article. We dive into tips and techniques that will help you organize your Post-Production workflow to edit like a pro. 

Up Next: Post Production →

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How to do a Video Essay: The Video Essay Process

• Plan, Prepare & Create

Storyboarding

• Finding, Filming & Editing
• References & Credits
• The Video Essay Process

This section will give an introductory overview of the stages required to create a video essay.  Video essayers advice is to start simple and work through each stage of the video production process. Visit the Resources page of this guide for more.

Identify what is your argument? What is it that you want to communicate to the viewer? Write this down in a few sentences, refer and modify it as required.

Watch Video Essays

Watch a selection of video essays, read blogs and web pages from video essayers and decide what type of video essay you would like to create. Start simple.

A storyboard is a detailed outline (similar to an outline in a written essay) that helps you to organise and visualise the video essay as to what is on the screen, text, media, message and transitions between shots.

Storyboards assist in determining the length, message and meaning of the video essay and help save time with editing and post production processes.

• Free Storyboard Templates

Collect & Edit

Collect video material as downloads, ripping DVDs, screen grabs, mobile phone footage and create voice-overs. Use research skills to find information and statements to support your argument. Maintain a standard of quality and manage your videos by naming conventions and storage.

Use editing software and experiment with available functionality to enhance and support your argument. Add a voice-over, sound effects, music and other aspects of multimodality. Be sure to include references and credits to all sources used in creating the video essay.

Revisit elements of your video essay and modify as required.

Visit the Resources page of this guide for more.

• Where to find video and how to capture it
• Video Editing Basics - iMovie
• Software Guides

References & Credits

References to cite sources used in the Video Essay. Referencing is a formal, systematic way of acknowledging sources that you have used in your video essay. It is imperative that you reference all sources used (including videos, stills, music, sfx) and apply the correct formatting so that references cited can be easily traced. The referencing style used at ECU is the APA style, 6th ed. 2010. Refer to the ECU Referencing Library Guide for accurate citation in APA style.

Production credits Individuals: acknowledgement of individuals and their role in the production. Purpose: A statement for internal use, e.g. “This video was produced for [course name] at [institution’s name] in [semester, year]”

• Referencing Library Guide
• << Previous: What is a Video Essay?
• Next: Modes, MultiModality & Multiliteracies >>
• What is a Video Essay?
• Modes, MultiModality & Multiliteracies
• A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies
• Modes Of Multimodality
• Video Essay Journals
• Video Essay Channels
• Weblinks to Video Essay Resources
• Weblinks to Creative Commons Resources
• Titles in the Library
• Referencing & Copyright
• Marking Rubric
• Last Updated: Aug 28, 2023 2:57 PM
• URL: https://ecu.au.libguides.com/video-essay

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Visual Rhetoric

Video essay resource guide.

PAR 102 (M-Th, 9 AM- 5 PM) Fine Arts Library Media Lab (same hours as FAL) PCL Media Lab (same hours as PCL)

About video essays

What are they.

“The video essay is often described as a form of new media, but the basic principles are as old as rhetoric: the author makes an assertion, then presents evidence to back up his claim. Of course it was always possible for film critics to do this in print, and they’ve been doing it for over 100 years, following more or less the same template that one would use while writing about any art form: state your thesis or opinion, then back it with examples. In college, I was assured that in its heart, all written criticism was essentially the same – that in terms of rhetorical construction, book reviews, music reviews, dance reviews and film reviews were cut from the same cloth, but tailored to suit the specific properties of the medium being described, with greater emphasis given to form or content depending on the author’s goals and the reader’s presumed interest.”

Matt Zoller Seitz on the video essay .

what makes a good video essay? 

Tony Zhou on how to structure a video essay

Kevin B. Lee on what makes a video essay “ great “

why should we use them? what are their limits?

Kevin B. Lee’s  experimental/artistic pitch for video essays

Kevin B. Lee’s mainstream pitch for video essay

“Of all the many developments in the short history of film criticism and scholarship, the video essay has the greatest potential to challenge the now historically located text-based dominance of the appraisal and interpretation of film and its contextual cultures…”

Andrew McWhirter argues that t he video essay has significant academic potential in the Fall 2015 issue of  Screen

“Importantly, the [new] media stylo does not replace traditional scholarship. This is a new practice beyond traditional scholarship. So how does critical media differ from traditional scholarship and what advantages does it offer? First, as you will see with the works in this issue, critical media demonstrates a shift in rhetorical mode. The traditional essay is argumentative-thesis, evidence, conclusion. Traditional scholarship aspires to exhaustion, to be the definitive, end-all-be-all, last word on a particular subject. The media stylo, by contrast, suggests possibilities-it is not the end of scholarly inquiry; it is the beginning. It explores and experiments and is designed just as much to inspire as to convince…”

Eric Fadden’s “ A Manifesto for Critical Media “

Adam Westbrook’s “ The Web-Video Problem: Why It’s Time to Rethinking Visual Storytelling from the Bottom Up “

Video essayists and venues

Matt Zoller Seitz (various venues) A writer and director by trade, Zoller Seitz is nonetheless probably best known as a prominent American cultural critic.  He’s made over 1000 hours of video essays and is generally recognized as a founder of the video essay movement in high-brow periodicals.  A recognized expert on Wes Anderson, Zoller Seitz is also notable because he often mixes other cinematic media (especially television) into his analysis, as in the above example, which doubles as an experiment in the absence of voiceover.

Various contributors, Press Play Co-founded by Matt Zoller Seitz and Ken Cancelosi,  Press Play  (published by Indiewire)   is one of the oldest high-brow venues for video essays about television, cinema, and other aspects of popular culture.

Various contributors, Keyframe   (A Fandor online publication) Fandor’s video essay department publishes work from many editors (what many video essayists call themselves) on and in a range of topics and styles.  Check it out to get an idea of all that things a video essay can do!

Various contributors, Moving Image Source A high-brow publication for video essays.

Tony Zhou, Every Frame a Painting The master of video essays on filmic form, Tony’s arguments are clean, simple, and well-evidenced.  Look to Tony as an example of aggressive and precise editing and arrangement.  He’s also an excellent sound editor–pay attention to his choices and try out some of his sound-mixing techniques in your essay.

Adam Johnston, Your Movie Sucks (YMS) Although an excellent example of epideictic film rhetoric, this channel is a great example of what  not  to do in this assignment (write a movie review, gush about how good/bad you think a movie is, focus on motifs or narrative content instead of  film form  as the center of your argument).  What you  can  learn from Adam is a lot about style.  Adam’s delivery, pacing, and editing all work together to promote a mildly-disinterested-and-therefore-credible ethos through a near-monotone, which I’ll affectionately dub the “Daria” narratorial ethos.

Adam Westbrook, delve.tv Adam Westbrook is part of an emerging group of professional video essayists and delve.tv is his version of a visual podcast.  Using the video essay form, Adam has developed a professional public intellectual ethos for himself through skillful overlay of explanation/interpretation and concept.  Check out Westbrook’s work as a really good example of presenting and representing visual concepts crucial to an argument.  He’s a master at making an argument in the form of storytelling, and he uses the video essay as a vehicle for that enterprise.

:: kogonada (various venues) If you found yourself wondering what the auteur video essay might look like, :: kogonada is it.  I like to call this “expressionist” video essay style.  Kogonada is the ultimate minimalist when it comes to voiceover/text over–its message impossibly and almost excessively efficient.  Half of the videos in his library are simple, expertly-executed supercuts , highlighting how heavily video essays rely on the “supercut” technique to make an argument.  Crafting an essay in this style really limits your audience and may not be a very good fit for the constraints of assignment (very “cutting edge,” as we talked about it in class), but you will probably draw inspiration from ::kogonada’s distinct, recognizable style, as well as an idea of what a video essay can do at the outer limits of its form.

Lewis Bond,  Channel Criswell Narrating in brogue-y Northern English, Bond takes his time, releasing a very carefully-edited, high-production video essay once every couple of months.  He’s a decent editor, but I feel his essays tend to run long, and I feel rushed by his narration at times.  Bond also makes a useful distinction between video essays and analysis/reviews on his channel–and while most of his analysis/reviews focus on film content (what you don’t want to imitate), his video essays stay pretty focused on film technique (what you do).  Hearing the same author consciously engage in two different modes of analysis might help you better understand the distinction between the two, as well.

Jack Nugent,  Now You See It Nugent’s brisk, formal analysis is both insightful and accessible–a good example of what it takes to secure a significant following in the highly-competitive Youtube marketplace.  [That’s my way of slyly calling him commercial.] Nugent is especially good at pairing his narration with his images.  Concentrate and reflect upon his simple pairings as you watch–how does Nugent help you process both sets of information at the pacing he sets?

Evan Puschak, The Nerdwriter Nerdwriter  is a great example the diversity of topics a video essay can be used to craft an argument about.  Every week, Puschak publishes an episode on science, art, and culture.  Look at all the different things Puschak considers visual rhetoric and think about how he’s using the video essay form to make honed, precisely-executed arguments about popular culture.

Dennis Hartwig and John P. Hess,  FilmmakerIQ Hartwig and Hess use video essays to explain filmmaking technique to aspiring filmmakers.  I’ve included the channel here as another example of what  not  to do in your argument, although perhaps some of the technical explanations that Hartwig and Hess have produced might help you as secondary sources.  Your target audience (someone familiar on basic film theory trying to better understand film form) is likely to find the highly technical, prescriptive arguments on FilmIQ boring or alienating. Don’t focus on technical production in your essay (how the film accomplishes a particular visual technique using a camera); rather, focus on how the audience interprets the end result in the film itself; in other words, focus on choices the audience can notice and interpret–how is the audience interpreting the product of production?  How often is the audience thinking about/noticing production in that process?

Kevin B. Lee (various venues) A good example of the older, high-brow generation of video essayists, Kevin’s collection of work hosted on his Vimeo channel offers slow, deliberate, lecture-inspired readings of film techniques and form.  Note the distinct stylistic difference between Kevin’s pacing and someone like Zhou or Lewis.  How does delivery affect reception?

Software Guides

How to access Lynda tutorials (these will change your life)

Handbrake and MakeMKV  (file converters)

Adobe Premiere  (video editing)

Camtasia  (screen capture)

File management

Use your free UTBox account to upload and manage your files.  Make sure you’ve got some sort of system for tracking and assembling everything into your video editing software.   UTBox has a 2 terabyte limit (much higher than Google Drive) and is an excellent file management resource for all sorts of academic work.

Adobe Premiere saves versions with links to your video files, so it’s imperative that you keep your video files folder in the same place on every machine you open it up on.  That’s why I keep all my video files in a big folder on box that I drop on the desktop of any machine I’m working on before I open my premiere files.  The Adobe Premiere project walkthrough  has more details on this.

Where to find video and how to capture it

About fair use . Make sure your composition complies with the Fair Use doctrine and familiarize yourself with the four criteria.

The best place to capture images is always from a high-resolution DVD or video file .  The first place you should go to get the film is the library– see instructions for searching here .

To import the video and audio from your DVD or video file into your video editing software (like Premiere), you will first need to use a software to convert it to an .mkv.  See instructions on how to do that here .

Camtasia tutorials .  Camtasia is a program that allows you to capture anything that’s going on on your screen .  This is a critical tool for this assignment as you decide what kind of interface you want to present to your reader in your video essay.  Camtasia also allows you to capture any high-quality video playing on your desktop without licensing restrictions.

You can also use Clip Converter to capture images and sound from pre-existing YouTube videos , and it may be a little faster and easier than Camtasia.   I suggest converting things into .mkv before putting them into your video editor, regardless of where you get the material from.

Film theory and criticism

• /r/truefilm’s reading and viewing guide

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Communications: Video Essay

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What is a video essay?

A video essay is a short video that illustrates a topic, expresses an opinion and develops a thesis statement based on research through editing video, sound and image.

(Source: Morrissey, K. (2015, September). Stop Teaching Software, Start Teaching Software Literacy. Flowjournal . https://www.flowjournal.org/2015/09/stop-teaching-software-start-teaching-software-literacy/?print=print )

It is made of three main elements:

• Image (filmed footage and found footage)
• Sound (music and audio)
• Words (spoken and written)

All of them are linked to your own voice and argument. It is a way to write with video.

• Guidelines for Video Essay Best Practices Official technical guidelines by Prof. Antonio Lopez.

Video essays about video essays

Why Video Essays are just plain AWESOME by This Guy Edits  on YouTube .

Elements of the Essay Film from Kevin B. Lee on Vimeo .

F for Fake (1973) – How to Structure a Video Essay from Tony Zhou on Vimeo .

Sample Video Essays

• If Educational Videos Were Filmed Like Music Videos by Tom Scott
• How to Use Color in Film A blog post with multiple video essays about the use of color palettes by multiple great directors.
• Seed, Image, Ground by Abelardo Gil-Fournier & Jussi Parikka.
• Every Covid-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same
• Top Video Essayists some videos on this page are set to private
• VideoEssay: A subreddit for analytic videos and supercuts
• ISIL videos imitate Hollywood and video games to win converts
• Best Video Essays of 2023
• Best Video Essays of 2022 by British Film Institute
• Best Video Essays of 2020 by British Film Institute.
• Best Video Essays of 2019 by British Film Institute.
• Best Video Essays of 2018 by British Film Institute.
• Best Video Essays of 2017 by British Film Institute.
• Video Essays (Historical) A YouTube playlist of historically important films that helped define the concept of video essays.
• What Is Neorealism by kogonada.
• Analyzing Isis' propaganda - Mujatweets by Azza el Masri and Catherine Otayek.
• Oh dear! by Adam Curtis.
• Fembot in a Red Dress by Alison De Fren.
• WHY IS CINEMA: Women Filmmakers? NOT SEXIST, BUT LET'S BE REAL??? by Cameron Carpenter.
• Women as Reward - Tropes vs Women in Video Games by feministfrequency.
• Il corpo delle donne (sub eng) by Lorella Zanardo.

Video essays beyond COM

Video essays can be a valuable form of academic production, and they can be brilliant and insightful in many other fields apart from Communications and media studies. Here are some examples that cover all the JCU departments:

• Lady of Shalott | Art Analysis A look at John William Waterhouse's Pre-Raphaelite painting "The Lady of Shalott".
• How to ace your MBA video essay The 60-second online video essay is a recent addition to the MBA application process for some business schools.
• The Last Jedi - Forcing Change An analysis of Finn's and Kylo's narrative arc in Episode VIII of the Star Wars franchise.
• How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio A simple but not simplistic and easy to follow 30 minute animated video that answers the question.
• Evolution of the Hero in British Literature This video essay discusses the literary heroes throughout the Anglo-Saxon Period, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance Era in British Literature.
• Fast Math Tricks - How to multiply 2 digit numbers up to 100 - the fast way! An easy video tutorial unveiling some math tricks.
• Here's why we need to rethink veganism A brief climate change video essay on the environmental impacts of veganism, and how we can reframe going vegan less as a lifestyle and more as an aspiration.
• Italy on the edge of crisis: Should Europe be worried? Channel 4 discussing the delicate political juncture in Italy (May 2018).
• International Relations: An Introduction An overview by the London School of Economics and Social Science.

A video is basically a series of still images- each one is called a frame- that play back at a specific  rate . The frame rate (often abbreviated FPS for "frames per second") differs depending on where you are in the world and what you're shooting on.

If you're shooting a movie on celluloid (actual film that needs to be developed) then you are probably shooting at 24fps.

If you are shooting video in Europe then you are probably shooting at 25fps...

...unless you are shooting sports. Then you're probably shooting at 50fps.

If you're shooting video in the US or Canada then you are probably shooting at 30(29.98)fps...

...unless you're shooting sports. Then you're probably shooting at 60(59.98)fps...

...or unless you're shooting "cinematic video" at a frame rate of 23.976fps.

***The weird numbers for shooting in the US and Canada stem from the fact that while Europe's 50Hz electrical system operates at 50Hz, the 60Hz electrical system of the US actually operates at 59.98 Hz.***

If you're shooting at a higher frame rate (like 120fps or 250fps) it is probably because you want to play it back at one of these frame rates in order to achieve a slow motion effect.

Video sizes are measured in pixels. Resolution   refers to Width x Height. Here are some common resolutions:

• FullHD (1080p): 1920 x 1080
• HD (720p): 1280 x 720
• 4K (2160p): 3840 x 2160
• 4K Cinema: 4096 x 2160
• Standard Defintion (NTSC- US/Canada): 720 x 480
• Standard Definition (PAL- Europe): 720 x 576
• VGA: 640 x 360

Types of video essays

1. Supercut

A supercut is a compilation of a large number of (short) film clips, focusing on a common characteristic these clips have. That commonality can be anything: a formal or stylistic aspect, a shared theme or subject matter... 

Supercuts are a staple of fandom, but they can also be used as a form of audiovisual critique: to reveal cinematic tropes, to trace thematic or stylistic constants in a filmmaker’s work and so on.

Examples: ROYGBIV: A Pixar Supercut  or Microsoft Sam's  Every Covid-19 Commercial is Exactly the Same  or Chloé Barreau's  NON UNA DI MENO - l'8 MARZO sta arrivando!

2. Voiceover based

In this form, analysis is done by combining clips and images with a narrator’s voice that guides the process. This could be done for a variety of video essays styles: scene breakdowns, shot analyses, structural analyses, vlogs, etc. What is common is the integral role of the creator’s voice in advancing the argument.

Example: Tony Zhou’s Jackie Chan—How to Do Action Comedy or David Chen’s Edgar Wright and the Art of Close-Ups .

3. Text/Image/Sound-Based

In this form, analysis is done by combining text, images and sounds without a narrator’s voice to guide the process. Again, this could be done for a variety of video essays styles, but relies much more on editing to advance the argument.

Example: Kevin B. Lee’s Elements of the Essay Film or Catherine Grant’s All That Pastiche Allows Redux .

4. Desktop Films

A desktop film uses the screen of a computer or gadget to serve as the camera and canvas for all of the content of an audiovisual narrative. It can include content from videos, apps, and programs that would be viewable on a screen. It is a screen-based experience that uses the desktop as its primary medium.

Example: Katja Jansen’s Desktop Films ; Kevin B. Lee’s Reading // Binging // Benning .

Descriptions adapted from  Filmscalpel

Resources: background and fundamentals

Best Practices

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education Also downloadable as a PDF file
• Streaming: film criticism you can watch by Guy Lodge
• What is a Video Essay? Creators Grapple with a Definition Paula Bernstein from Filmmaker journal .
• The Video Essay As Art: 11 Ways to Make a Video Essay by Norman Bateman.
• Video essay: The essay film – some thoughts of discontent by Kevin B. Lee.
• Deep Focus - The Essay Film by British Film Institute and Sight & Sound .

Scholarly Websites about Video Essays

• The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy
• Audiovisualcy Video Essays on Vimeo.
• [In]Transition Journal of Videographic Films and Moving Image Studies.
• Introductory guide to video essay From the British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council.

Resources: software and how-to

• How-to video essays by Greer Fyfe and Miriam Ross.
• Media Production Guide by Tisch Library, Tufts University.
• Video Reactions with OBS (Open Broadcast Software) Part 01 Setting up your scenes
• Video Reactions with OBS (Open Broadcast Software) Part 02 Recording with OBS

Storyboarding

• Planning and Storyboarding from Royal Roads University Library.
• Video Essay Script Template

Screencasting

• Quicktime (cross-platform)
• Screencast-O-Matic
• OBS Studio (open source, cross-platform) Open Broadcaster Software
• Flashback Express (PC only)
• 5 Free Tools for Creating a Screencast from Mashable.

Downloading and ripping

• Pasty Software for downloading.
• Savefrom allows up to 720p downloads of full video, 1080p downloads of video only (no audio). Select “download video in browser” on the site.
• Y2mate allows up to 1080p video downloads.
• Jdownloader Software for downloading
• Handbrake Software for ripping and converting
• DMA Basics: OBS for Video Essays A tutorial on how to use OBS for Netflix.

Note: Try to to ensure that you download in 720p resolution or higher. Your minimum level of quality should be 480p. If searching on YouTube, you can filter the search results to only show HD or 4K results. Check also the  Find Video   tab of this guide.

Free editing software options

• DaVinci Resolve (cross-platform) A color grading and non-linear video editing (NLE) application for macOS, Windows, and Linux, incorporating tools from Fairlight (audio production) and Fusion (motion graphics and visual effects that throw shade on After Effects).
• iMovie (Mac only)
• Videopad (cross-plaftorm)
• OpenShot (open source, cross-platform)
• Shortcut (open source, cross-platform)
• HitFilm Express (cross-platform)
• Free Music Archive An interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by the radio station WFMU.
• SoundCloud SoundCloud is one of the world’s largest music and audio platform and you can search for creative commons music.
• YouTube Audio Library A library of free music and sound effects by YouTube. Each track is accompanied by information on the use.
• Sound Image Free music (and more) for your Projects by Eric Matyas. Only requires crediting the author for legal use (see "attribution info" page).
• Audacity A free and open-source digital audio editor and recording application software. Very useful to trim audio, convert a sample rate, apply a little compression, chop & screw, etc.
• REAPER A digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software. Technically a paid-for platform, its free-trial never ends.

Check also the  Find  Audio Resources  tab of this guide.

Creating credits, copyright and fair use

• Creating credits for video essays From Digital Design Studio at Tisch Library
• Fair Use Evaluator
• YouTube Fair Use Channel
• Society for Cinema and Media Studies Statement on Fair Use
• Blender A free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, virtual reality, and computer games.
• GIMP A free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized tasks.
• Inkscape A free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format.
• Krita A free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation. Good for sketching and conceptual art.

Stock footage

For stock footage, please check under the  Find video tab of this guide.

• Final Cut Pro X Tutorial by JCU Digital Media Lab.
• Final Cut Pro X Tutorial (PDF)
• Final Cut Pro X Full Tutorial by David A. Cox
• Audio Recording Tutorial by JCU Digital Media Lab.
• << Previous: Find Videos
• Next: Find Images >>
• Last Updated: Mar 26, 2024 9:37 AM
• URL: https://johncabot.libguides.com/communications

Short Video Characterization: Design, Implementation and Evaluation

Short videos have recently emerged as a popular form of User-Generated Content (UGC) within modern social media. This content, typically less than a minute long, is predominately produced in vertical orientation on smartphones. While still fundamentally streaming, short video delivery on mobile devices is distinctly characterized by the aggressive usage of pre-loading. While still fundamentally streaming, short video delivery on mobile devices is distinctly characterized by the aggressive usage of pre-loading portions of the next videos for a user. This pre-loading helps to overcome the varying dynamics of wireless connectivity and also allows for a nearly instant fast swiping to the next video. Furthermore, the prevalent usage pattern of rapid content swiping as enabled by pre-loading results in significant wastage by virtue of streaming buffers or pre-loads never being watched. Given the heavy cost of video and limited bandwidth afforded to wireless devices, managing the tradeoffs between user Quality of Experience (bitrate, video stalls, video start-up delay) and data wastage/browsing seamlessness is complex and multi-faceted. It is this problem that forms the foundation for this dissertation understanding the current state of short video and providing solutions that optimize these tradeoffs associated with short video delivery.

To accomplish that, this research first delves deeply into the selection of mobile video bitrates, presenting a low-consumption solution from a bandwidth prediction perspective. Next, this research critically evaluates the pivotal factors and design choices of existing short video platform pre-loading mechanisms, while also considering the impact on user Quality of Experience (QoE), bitrate, and perceived video quality. Finally, this research introduces a Kettle Buffer Loading (KBL) dynamic pre-loading algorithm. KBL is designed to sense network conditions and employ an adaptive pre-loading strategy, aiming to enhance video QoE while minimizing data wastage. The dissertation continues by evaluating KBL and state-of-the-art algorithms for short video delivery, carefully exploring the benefits and pitfalls of prediction modeling and vendor network scenarios.

Date Modified

Defense date, research director(s), committee members.

• Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Level

• Doctoral Dissertation

Alternate Identifier

Oclc number, program name.

• Computer Science and Engineering

Usage metrics

404 Not found

Video Essay Analysis and Composition

Lesson plan, grade level.

Undergraduate (Face-to-Face or Online)

Students will be introduced to a contemporary essay genre to see how people argue in multimodal environments.

Students will reinforce their understanding of various ideas from composition studies discussed throughout the semester, including Aristotle’s Triangle, Toulmin’s Model, and paragraph structure. 1

Students will demonstrate their understanding of expository writing and argumentative approaches.

Students will compose a short video essay based on a previous assignment to learn the basics of video essay composition.

Background and Context

I provide these exercises near the middle of the semester as a way to show the relevancy of what students are learning in the composition class. I teach this genre in both Composition 1 and 2. The exercises demonstrate how people use the same structure and argumentative techniques in video essays that the students are using in their written work. Given the increasing popularity of video essays, this assignment allows students to see what contemporary expository writing is like in the digital age.

Total Estimated Class Time

A single class period (approx. 50 mins.)

Videos Used for This Session and Assignment

Jack Saint’s “The Truth about 90s Cartoons and ‘LGBT Brainwashing’”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L–Fa8_ujBA

Jack Saint’s “Sky High: Disney’s Fascist Eugenics Movie”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIdbLUm-ez8

Sequence of Activities

• Viewing and Analysis (30 mins.)

As students watch the videos, they take notes, guided by the questions in the Video Essay Analysis exercise.

• Class Discussion (20 mins.)

As a class, we share everyone’s answers, referring to specific sections of the videos. This discussion creates a lot of interaction: some students are unsure about what the thesis is, while others find it easily—more easily than they found the thesis in any written essay previously provided.

Then we discuss whether students would rather write traditional essays or compose video essays. Many students prefer watching the essay video to reading an essay, yet most would rather compose a written essay, since they recognize that it would take more time to complete and edit a well-paced video essay.

These discussions always reinforce compositional elements and allow students to think about how genre and structure affect the creation of an argument.

Follow-Up Activities

For homework, students create one-minute recorded versions of traditional essays they wrote earlier in the course, then share the recordings in discussion boards. This activity offers them a chance to experiment with speaking while using a scripted argument and helps them think about how they can adapt, retool, and revise their claims.

Possible Alterations

One way to strengthen the discussion is to assign the students to watch the video for homework and complete the exercise sheet before they come to the next session. The main reason my students watch the video in class is that they have limited access to the Internet outside the school because they live in a rural area. If students lived in an area where they could access the Internet asynchronously, I would assign watching the video before they came to class so that we could spend more time on analysis and discussion.

I have used these exercises for online composition classes and made only minor adjustments. For online classes, we simply divide each stage into individual assignments and discussion boards. The students answer the questions about the video essay on their own and then share the responses in a discussion board. The larger discussion occurs in the same discussion board. The video essays are posted in another forum, an activity that creates further dialogue about this genre.

You can use these assignments in secondary education courses as well. If time and curricular requirements allow, you can easily use more essays with a similar theme to help show how people respond to topics and each other’s interpretations.

Although Jack Saint’s videos are fun to use, especially since I teach film as well, I would recommend finding video essays that coincide with a course’s theme or that focus on current events. The topics of video essays on the web are as varied as the approaches used to create them. Certain ones use a simple webcam, while others use more sophisticated editing. In any case, introducing video essays in a composition course allows students to see and hear arguments—a valuable experience.

1 Aristotle’s Triangle, also known as the rhetorical triangle, includes the foundational ways in which speakers or writers can appeal to their audiences. The three components include pathos (appeals to an audience’s emotion), logos (appeals to an audience’s sense of logic and reasoning), and ethos (appeals that establish an author’s credibility for an audience). Stephen Toulmin created his model to show the fundamental elements of argumentation in writing. The basic elements include claim, data, and warrant or synthesis. He argues that these three components are needed for any argument to be successful, and this structure is the basis for most paragraphs for expository writing. The traditional formula for structuring a paragraph involves starting with a topic sentence argument, followed by examples, and ending with synthesis sentences.

Lesson Materials

Video Essay Analysis Exercise  

Video Essay Prompt  

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• Learning Tips
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• School Life

How to Write a Video Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide and Tips

• by Joseph Kenas
• January 5, 2024
• Writing Tips

The video essay has become an increasingly popular way of presenting ideas and concepts in the age of the internet and YouTube. In this guide, we present a step-by-step guide on how to write a video essay and tips on how to make it.

While it is easy to write a normal essay, the structure of the video essay is a bit of a mystery, owing to the newness of the term.

However, in this article, we are going to define what is a video essay, how to write a video essay, and also How to present a video essay well in class.

What is a Video Essay?

A video essay is a video that delves into a certain subject, concept, person, or thesis. Video essays are difficult to characterize because they are a relatively new form, yet they are recognized regardless. Simply, video essays are visual compilations that try to persuade, educate, or criticize.

These days, there are many creatives making video essays on topics like politics, music, movies, and pop culture.

With these, essays have become increasingly popular in the era of video media such as Youtube, Vimeo, and others.

Video essays, like photo and traditional essays, tell a story or make a point.

The distinction is that video essays provide information through visuals.

When creating a video essay, you can incorporate video, images, text, music, and/or narration to make it dynamic and successful.

When you consider it, many music videos are actually video essays. 

Since making videos for YouTube and other video sites has grown so popular, many professors are now assigning video essays instead of regular essays to their students. So the question is, how do you write a video essay script?

Steps on How to Write a Video Essay Script

Unscripted videos cost time, effort, and are unpleasant to watch. The first thing you should do before making a video writes a script, even if it’s only a few lines long. Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of writing a script. All you need is a starting point.

A video script is important for anyone who wants to film a video with more confidence and clarity. They all contain comparable forms of information, such as who is speaking, what is said, where, and other important details.

While there are no precise criteria that a video essay must follow, it appears that most renowned video essayists are adhering to some steps as the form gets more popular and acknowledged online. 

1. Write a Thesis

Because a video essayist can handle a wide range of themes, video analysis essays lack defined bounds. The majority of essays, on the other hand, begin with a thesis.

A thesis is a statement, claim, theme, or concept that the rest of the essay is built around. A thesis might be broad, including a variety of art forms. Other theses can be quite detailed.

A good essay will almost always have a point to express. Every video analysis essay should have a central idea, or thesis, that ties the film together.

2. Write a Summary

Starting with a brief allows you and your team to document the answers to the most pressing project concerns. It ensures that everyone participating in the video production is on the same page.

This will avoid problems of mixing ideas or getting stuck when you are almost completing the project.

3. Choose a Proper Environment and Appropriate Tools

When it comes to writing your script, use any tool you’re familiar with, such as pen and paper. Also, find a writing atmosphere that is relaxing for you, where you can concentrate and be creative.

Consider what you don’t have to express out loud when you’re writing. Visual elements will be used to communicate a large portion of your content.

4. Use a Template

When you don’t have to reinvent the process every time you sit down, you get speed and consistency.

It’s using your cumulative knowledge of what works and doing it over and over again. Don’t start with a blank page when I sit down to create a script- try to use an already made template. 

5. Be Conversational

You want scripts that use language that is specific and targeted. Always avoid buzzwords, cliches, and generalizations. You want your audience to comprehend you clearly without rolling their eyes.

6. Be Narrative

Make careful to use a strong story structure when you’re trying to explain anything clearly. Ensure your script has a beginning, middle, and end, no matter how short it is. This will provide a familiar path for the viewers of your video script.

7. Edit Your Script

Make each word work for a certain position on the page when you choose your words.

They must serve a purpose.

After you’ve completed your first draft, go over your script and review it.

Then begin editing, reordering, and trimming. Remove as much as possible.

Consider cutting it if it isn’t helping you achieve your goal.

 8. Read Your Script Loudly

Before recording or going on in your process, it’s recommended to read your script aloud at least once. Even if you won’t be the one reading it, this is a good method to ensure that your message is clear. It’s a good idea to be away from people so you may practice in peace.

Words that flow well on paper don’t always flow well when spoken aloud. You might need to make some adjustments based on how tough certain phrases are to pronounce- it’s a lot easier to change it now than when recording.

9. Get Feedback

Sometimes it is very difficult to point out your mistakes in any piece of writing. Therefore, if you want a perfect video essay script, it is advisable to seek feedback from people who are not involved in the project.

Keep in mind that many will try to tear your work apart and make you feel incompetent. However, it can also be an opportunity to make your video better.

The best way to gather feedback is to assemble a group of people and read your script to them. Watch their facial reaction and jot own comments as you read. Make sure not to defend your decisions. Only listen to comments and ask questions to clarify.

After gathering feedback, decide on what points to include in your video essay. Also, you can ask someone else to read it to you so that you can listen to its follow.

A video essay can be a good mode to present all types of essays, especially compare and contrast essays as you can visually contrast the two subjects of your content.

How to make a Good Video from your Essay Script

You can make a good video from your script if you ask yourself the following questions;

• What is the video’s purpose? What is the purpose of the video in the first place?
• Who is this video’s intended audience?
• What is the subject of our video? (The more precise you can be, the better.) 
• What are the most important points to remember from the video?- What should viewers take away from it?

If the context had multiple characters, present their dialogues well in the essay to bring originality. If there is a need to involve another person, feel free to incorporate them.

How to Present a Video Essay Well in Class

• Write down keywords or main ideas in a notecard; do not write details- writing main ideas will help you remember your points when presenting. This helps you scan through your notecard for information.
• Practice- in presentations it is easy to tell who has practiced and who hasn’t. For your video essay to grab your class and professor’s attention, practice is the key. Practice in front of your friends and family asking for feedback and try to improve.
• Smile at your audience- this is one of the most important points when presenting anything in front of an audience. A smiley face draws the attention of the audience making them smile in return thus giving you confidence.
• Walk to your seat with a smile- try not to be disappointed even if you are not applauded. Be confident that you have aced your video presentation.

Other video presentations tips include;

• Making eye contact
• Have a good posture
• Do not argue with the audience 
• Look at everyone around the room, not just one audience or one spot
• Rember to use your hand and facial expressions to make a point.

Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.

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The best video essays of 2021

An escape from the most popular to the most captivating

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As coronavirus cloistered the world, the genre of video essays continued to augment in popularity on Youtube. Despite the homogeny of the creator space being apparent from a cursory glance, 2021 saw POC video essayists gaining momentum on the platform. From behemoths like D’Angelo Wallace to humble creators like myself, there is a gradient of experiences that are finally being represented thanks to YouTube’s algorithm “apparently” being an equalizer. That being said, this article hopes to shed light on some of gems you may have missed.

Beyond the players, the format of video essays has also evolved. Gone are the days when a midwestern man could aggregate thousands of views on a video about why water is wet. (OK, jk, that still happens.) But most of today’s video essays now amalgamate several genres of YouTube videos. Whether it’s the commentary crossovers à la Tara Mooknee , or the stand-up comedy stylings of Chill Goblin , there is a variety of variations to find. Here are a few that surprised us in the last year. —Ransford James, aka Foreign

[ Ed. note: This list is ordered chronologically rather than ranked by preference, meaning everything is worth checking out. And if you need more to watch, check out last year’s list .]

“Your Island is a Commune pt. 1,” Nowhere Grotesk

I first discovered this touching series on Animal Crossing: New Horizons via the social posts on F. D. Signifier’s YouTube channel — more on him later, but credit where credit’s due. Nowhere Grotesk’s bio on social media reads, “We’re two visual artists that create and examine art through a utopian leftist lens,” and that feeling permeates this series.

Discussing Animal Crossing: New Horizons through the lens of communal living and pastoral nostalgia, Nowhere Grotesk pushes back on the easy joke that Tom Nook is a greedy capitalist. Instead, this series shows how Animal Crossing: New Horizons conveys the concept of community as directly in conflict with urbanization and capitalism, thriving only when everyone’s needs are met without the turmoil of work. Even the addition of the Happy Home Paradise DLC , which gives players the option to work for additional outcomes, doesn’t nullify the anticapitalist argument here; working is a choice you can but don’t have to make. The island even meets more of the players’ needs by providing free healthcare. Animal Crossing isn’t the apolitical fluff many seem to think; instead, it’s a lovely, immersive argument for anarcho-communism, mutual aid, and rooting our politics in community. —Wil Williams

“The Market of Humiliating Black Women,” Tee Noir

This offering is far from obscure, but by the off chance that Tee Noir has evaded your eyes and eluded your ears, consider my favorite video from her so far: “ The Market of Humiliating Black Women .” Without spoiling this masterpiece, Tee breaks down what is such an innocuous experience that not many people even notice: How quotidian Black women’s pain is in popular media. From high-budget Tyler Perry movies to grainy WorldstarHipHop videos, the parodying of pain that Black women face on the daily is rewarded with thousands of millions of views and thousands of shares.

This is an experience that is far from second-hand with regard to Tee Noir, as she faces scrutiny that men don’t, simply by virtue of being a Black woman on this platform — let alone her queerness. —RJ

“The Day Rue ‘Became’ Black,” Yhara Zayd

After hitting shelves in 2008, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games was praised for the way it conveyed real-life modern class struggles in a strange, borderline fantastical world. The Hunger Games was clear about what it was saying and referencing, but apparently, some readers didn’t get the memo — or perhaps they refused to.

In this video, Zayd pulls on the Hunger Games fandom’s history to dissect what made some readers so shocked when Amandla Stenberg, a young Black actress, was cast as Rue, a young girl who is ... canonically Black. This isn’t just about people reading a book wrong, though; it’s about why audiences felt less protective of Rue the moment she “became” Black “in casting.” It’s also about why most of those comments have since been scrubbed from the internet.

Yhara Zayd’s work has been featured on all of my video essay lists , and for good reason. Her sharp, concise, passionate analysis is scored by a low-key (but not necessarily relaxed) aesthetic and narration style. Her occasional breaks to make a joke or loosen up her script emphasize what’s so important about the topic at hand: the humanity. —WW

“Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate,” Shanspeare

Unironic ASMR, charismatic candor, and witty humor are but a few of Shanspeare’s calling cards. Despite the myriad of channels dedicated to analyzing pop culture, none do it quite like Shanspeare. “ Infantilization and the Body Hair Debate ” is one of the most eye-opening videos that I have encountered, and it has provoked me — a cishet Afro-Caribbean man — into thoroughly addressing my own contributions to the subject matter. This deep dive into how the world incentivizes childlike behavior from women is as unnerving as it is necessary to watch. From the way I speak to women, to my subconscious preference of nicely shaven legs, Shanspeare details how all of that is essentially the product of a purposeful inculcation that was underway far before I was even a thought. I cannot emphasize to you enough that you should watch this masterpiece and all of her other ones as well. —RJ

“Bo Burnham vs. Jeff Bezos,” CJ the X

Thanks to my specific symptoms of ADHD, it can be really hard for me to devote time to watch video essays that are over an hour long, and even harder for me to really fall in love with them. I hope this will help convey the gravity with which I am saying that I watched this two-and-a-half-hour video more times than any other video on YouTube this year. What starts as an analysis of Bo Burnham’s Inside slowly morphs into something else, then something else, then something else . This video transitions so gracefully between discussions of posthumanism, the internet, online fame, and what makes something funny, all while being punctuated with CJ the X’s hallmark near-absurdist blink-and-you’ll-miss-it humor. What makes this video an instant classic of the medium, though, is how it lands: a deep, sincere, vulnerable love letter to empathy and human connection, wound up in a personal anecdote that makes the thesis feel even more real.

I struggled to have basic hope or faith in humanity this year. I struggled to tell myself that everything is worth it. No piece of media helped me more with those struggles than this video. I wrote a piece on my read of Inside before seeing this video, and after watching it, my read on Inside has changed. And I’m so grateful. — WW

“The Reign of the Slim Thick Influencer,” Khadija Mbowe

I hope that this creator needs no introduction, because I feel woefully unequipped to introduce them myself. Khadija Mbowe walks the walk, and the walk is an onerous one. Being a feminine-presenting nonbinary creator of an obsidian hue, they brazenly break down some of the most nuanced topics with empathy and levity. Moreover, they pay it forward by promoting creators that the algorithm may have missed — much like myself, and in the same way Tee Noir promoted them a year ago.

“ The Reign of the Slim-Thick Influencer ” is arguably my favorite Khadija Mbowe video this year. It’s a discussion of the trend of Brazilian butt lifts , how influencers like Kim Kardashian perpetuate unrealistic beauty standards, and the awful origins of commodifying the Black woman’s body. This is a must-see for everybody who consumes social media, which is … everybody. — RJ

“make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?,” voice memos for the void

An installment of Voice Memos for the Void’s Romance in Media series, “make more characters bi, you cowards: why (not) romance?” does what it says on the tin. This video analyzes the strange state of bisexual characters in media, pointing out how rarely bisexual characters get to fall in love. Not have sex, but fall in love. Voice Memos for the Void effortlessly combats rebuttals to this idea that we hear every time we ask for more representation and romance: “Why do they need to be queer?” “Why do they need to be in love?” It also dives into different depictions of masculinity, a history of Byronic heroes, and the troubling tropes that follow bisexual characters around in media, like that of the Magical and/or Hedonistic Bisexual . Forgive the glitchy camera in this video; equipment is expensive, and the commentary more than makes up for the video fidelity. We can thank F. D. Signifier’s feed for putting this video on my radar, too. — WW

“The Black Right Wing,” Anansi’s Library

While Tee Noir enjoys (?) a visibility that many POC creators don’t, Anansi boasts a dedicated 15,000 subscriber count but is deserving of far more. They stay closer to the format that many video essays have in the past of concealing their face in their videos, relying more on the merit of their musings than the luster of their looks. Many of us simply create and comment on the actions of others, but Anansi, for lack of a better term, is really in the field. They are deeply entrenched in American activism, which makes their videos simply an accompaniment to a much larger concerted effort.

This video on The Black Right Wing is redolent of the very fight that they have fought on many occasions. It details this unique subset of Black Americans that embraces the Trumpian conservatism that still plagues the United States to this very day. If you are fascinated by the neurosis necessary to align oneself with a party that is antipodal to your existence, then this is the video for you! — RJ

“On Leftist Disunity,” St. Andrewism

By now you must see the peaks and valleys that this list is riding, from creators who have passed the 100,000 mark to those who are still in the 10,000s. The themes that combine in all of them are apparent: their marginalized status, the video essay format, and most of all, the quality. Over the last year, the Trinibagan St. Andrewism has amassed over 50,000 subscribers, and his video On Leftist Disunity is a highlight. This video is the quintessential love letter to the leftist community that encourages the embrace of the many differences it has within it. Instead of approaching this with the pessimism that many people do, St. Andrew seems gleefully optimistic that this diversity of thought will end up saving not only the United States but the world. —RJ

“Break Bread,” F. D. Signifier

OK, now we can talk about F. D. Signifier in earnest. In my video essay list for our Masterpieces of Streaming series, I gave a brief history of video essays through the lens of educational videos. In “Breaking Bread,” F. D. Signifier offers an uncomfortably accurate parallel history: the rise of video essays from rant reviewers like The Nostalgia Critic. The trend of debate bros and, in F. D. Signifier’s words, every LeftTuber making a video about Ben Shapiro, isn’t just rooted in the medium’s history, though; it’s also rooted in whiteness. That lens and style of video stays prominent thanks to the YouTube algorithm, and while the homogeneity of video essays has been critiqued many times, “Break Bread” breaks down the issue with an astounding level of complexity, research, and guests from all over the video essay ecosystem. How much of a video essayist’s success comes down to talent? How much comes down to luck? And how much comes down to the algorithm knowing that what keeps people watching is simply who looks familiar? — WW

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Analysis of Short Video Production and Dissemination from the Perspective of Mobile Multimedia

Zhang Jicheng 1

Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd Journal of Physics: Conference Series , Volume 1915 , Big Data Citation Zhang Jicheng 2021 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1915 042081 DOI 10.1088/1742-6596/1915/4/042081

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1 Sichuan University of Media and Communications, Integrated media College, 611745, ChengDu, China

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The expansion of the new media platform has further stimulated the diversified development of content production, with various media permeating each other and products merging with each other, thus broadening the depth of media. With the rapid popularization of the Internet and the wide application of social software, the social environment has become more free and efficient. People use mobile multimedia to realize free communication from space, express their right to speak effectively, and change the way people get information. With the continuous development of network economy, all kinds of short videos have gradually appeared in modern people's life, adding fun to the people's lifestyle and enriching the forms of people's life and entertainment. Only by exploring the construction of short video communication mode can we better reveal the real veil of how short video is popular in the new media era. This paper starts with the phenomenon of mobile short video transmission, studies and analyzes the problems of mobile short video platform, and explores the coping strategies for its development.

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• Published: 22 September 2022

The impact of short videos on student performance in an online-flipped college engineering course

• Jia Zhu 1 , 2 , 3 ,
• Hang Yuan 2 ,
• Quan Zhang 2 , 3 ,
• Po-Hsun Huang 4 ,
• Yongjie Wang 5 ,
• Sixuan Duan 2 , 3 ,
• Ming Lei 1 ,
• Eng Gee Lim 2 , 3 &
• Pengfei Song   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6337-7292 2 , 3  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  9 , Article number:  327 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated the adoption of online learning and teaching in many colleges and universities. Video, as a key integral part of online education, largely influences student learning experiences. Though many guidelines on designing educational videos have been reported, the quantitative data showing the impacts of video length on students’ academic performance in a credit-bearing course is limited, particularly for an online-flipped college engineering course. The forced pandemic lockdown enables a suitable environment to address this research gap. In this paper, we present the first step to examine the impact of short videos on students’ academic performance in such circumstances. Our results indicate that short videos can greatly improve student engagement by 24.7% in terms of video viewing time, and the final exam score by 9.0%, both compared to the long-video group. The quantitative Likert questionnaire also indicates students’ preference for short videos over long videos. We believe this study has important implications for course design for future online-flipped engineering courses.

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Introduction.

Remote online learning and teaching (RO-L&T) has long been considered as a promising education practice in the future, thanks to its wide availability and timing convenience. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated the usage of RO-L&T in many universities (Adedoyin and Soykan, 2020 ; Adnan and Anwar, 2020 ; Ali, 2020 ; Aristovnik et al., 2020 ; Besser et al., 2020 ; Fatonia et al., 2020 ; Fresen, 2018 ; Li et al., 2022 ; Radha et al., 2020 ), due to the forced campus shutdown. This brings new challenges to both students and instructors, though some RO-L&T experiences have been accumulated in the last two decades (Bach et al., 2006 ; Keengwe and Kidd, 2010 ). To foster a RO-L&T environment, there are mainly three existing methods (Bergmann and Sams, 2012 ; Hrastinski, 2008 ; Yamagata-Lynch, 2014 ; Young et al., 2014 ): (1) synchronous RO-L&T, where the instructor and students gather at the same time, and a live video lecture is delivered; (2) asynchronous RO-L&T, where the instructor uploads the pre-recorded videos, and the students study those materials at their own time; and (3) flipped RO-L&T.

Among them, the flipped RO-L&T has unique advantages, thanks to its promotion of student-centered activities, including discussions, presentations, interactive feedback, and critical thinking exercises (Bognar et al., 2019 ; Caviglia‐Harris, 2016 ). It is even more advantageous when combined with educational videos. In a flipped RO-L&T, the pre-recorded videos are learned at students’ own pace before the synchronous flipped class session, where the student-centered dynamic and interactive L&T activities are conducted (Galway et al., 2014 ; Jia et al., 2020 ). Under this format, students are usually more motivated to learn, thereby generating more teacher-student interaction than that in the traditional classes, which increases the efficiency of teaching and learning (Cristina Blasco et al., 2016 ; Moos and Bonde, 2016 ). The videos are used as the primary study materials for student self-studying. As a result, the pre-recoded videos play a significant role in determining the effectiveness of an online-flipped course and thereby the student learning outcome (Guo et al., 2014 ; Meseguer-Martinez et al., 2017 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ). Video can create an immersive learning atmosphere that help students remember key knowledge and develop critical thinking (Mora, 2016 ). Moreover, the promotion of online platforms has further popularized the flipped RO-L&T, enabling more affordable and user-friendly classroom instruction (Slemmons et al., 2018 ). Its use in language education has been shown that is able to improve students’ language proficiency, facilitate practice, and enhance learning outcomes (Gloudeman et al., 2018 ; Lopes and Soares, 2016 ; Özkurkudis and Bümen, 2019 ). However, those results need to be further quantified in more disciplines.

In most flipped classrooms, videos are effective for teaching and learning (Robinson et al., 2020 ). Many video factors are related to the overall course effectiveness in RO-L&T (Christ et al., 2017 ; Guo et al., 2014 ). These include but are not limited to video length, recording location, instructors’ speaking speed, and image (Guo et al., 2014 ). Among all the factors, video length is one of the most straightforward influencing factors, which can be quantitatively studied (Brame, 2016 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ). Theoretically, short videos are preferred because they are flexible, convenient, engaging, and popular with students (Long et al., 2016 ; Yang, 2017 ). As explained in cognitive load theory and cognitive theory of multimedia learning, the short video can reduce extraneous cognitive load and thus aid in schema construction (Chandler and Sweller, 1991 ; DiMaggio, 1997 ). Guo et al. ( 2014 ) harvested student data from massive open online courses (MOOC) and statistically concluded that short (i.e., 6– 10 min) videos have longer student viewing time than that of long videos (>12 min). Slemmons et al. ( 2018 ) organized a flipped K-12 class in a middle school and found that short videos are more engaging for students but no quantitative improvements on exam scores were founds.

The benefits of short videos in flipped classes have also been demonstrated in many other prior studies (Brooks, 2014 ; Diwanji et al., 2014 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ; Zuber, 2016 ). Most documented studies are organized either (1) in a non-credit-bearing course (i.e., MOOC) (Li et al., 2015 ; Wang and Zhu, 2019 ), or (2) in a campus-based environment where an in-person class is used for interactive activities (Rui et al., 2017 ; Zuber, 2016 ). The flipped class that is completely held in RO-L&T has rarely been studied in a college credit-bearing course. That could be partially due to the seriousness of final degree-awarding. Most recently, because of the forced campus lockdown by the COVID-19 pandemic, a fast-growing number of studies on RO-L&T flipped college courses have been reported (Jia et al., 2020 ; Marshall and Kostka, 2020 ; Nerantzi, 2020 ; Tang et al., 2020 ; Yen, 2020 ). The lockdown enables a good research environment to quantitatively and qualitatively study RO-L&T, which may shed the light into the future education.

In this study, we present a quantitative and qualitative report to examine the impact of short videos on student performance in an online-flipped college engineering course under COVID-19. Engineering drawing is one fundamental course for engineering students. Our primary research question is whether short videos can benefit the academic performance of students in an online-flipped college engineering course. The quantitative and qualitative data are extracted from formal exams and Likert scale questionnaires, and this paper is organized as follows. The literature background, which includes previous related studies and theoretical background, will be described in Sect. “Literature background”. The research hypothesis will be described in Sect. “Research hypothesis”, followed by the case design introduction in Sect. “Engineering drawing case study”. The quantitative and qualitative data, with the statistical analysis discussion, are then presented in Sects. “Results” and “Discussion”. Finally, the recommendation and conclusion are given in Sects. “Recommendations” and “Conclusion”.

Literature background

Flipped and conventional asynchronous online learning and teaching.

In the last decade, the flipped classroom has become a new learning and teaching format that is widely studied and adopted by many higher education institutions worldwide (Bergmann and Sams, 2012 ). Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the adoption of flipped RO-L&T has become increasingly important (Rad et al., 2021 ; Yen, 2020 ). Teachers provide pre-recorded instructional videos for students to watch whenever they are free (Chick et al., 2020 ). Internet communication tools and platforms in this teaching model became the medium to ensure teacher-student interaction, similar to asynchronous RO-L&T (Chick et al., 2020 ).

However, the most important difference between flipped RO-L&T and asynchronous RO-L&T is the shift of student identity from passive to active in flipped RO-L&T. In asynchronous RO-L&T, the students act as auditors, passively receiving information from the video but often ignoring the process of learning activities such as discussions and peer reviewings (Guo et al., 2014 ; Kizilcec et al., 2013 ; Phillips and Wiesbauer, 2022 ). In contrast, in flipped RO-L&T, students are the dominant roles and actively engage in student activities like group discussions. These make the class more engaging for meaningful discussions and idea exchanges. This shift has consequent implications in terms of knowledge retention, learning outcomes, and students’ motivation and engagement (Afzali and lzadpanah, 2021 ; Shatto et al., 2017 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ).

Effect of video lengths

After the pandemic begins, the increasing use of RO-L&T challenges students’ attention to videos (Revadekar et al., 2020 ). Long videos of the same length as that in the traditional in-person class (about 50 mins) are usually not attractive to students, directly affecting students’ academic performance (Li et al., 2021 ; Turan-Özpolat, 2020 ). Therefore, more studies are beginning to discuss the impact of video length on learning and teaching, to optimize the flipped classroom effectiveness and student experience (Afify, 2020 ; Manasrah et al., 2021 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ).

Afify ( 2020 ) tested the effect of three different video lengths (short <6 min, medium 6–12min, and long >12 min) on student performance, and found short lecture videos can lead to better academic achievement. Manasrah et al. ( 2021 ) obtained similar results and concluded short videos are more entertaining and informative. In addition, another study has shown that students are less engaged with long videos, often viewing them for a short period of 5–6 min, reflecting a tendency for shorter videos (Kuznekoff, 2020 ). The online-flipped classroom, with the assistance of length-optimized videos (short videos), can stimulate students’ motivation and independent learning, ultimately improving teaching effectiveness (Chang et al., 2015 ; Yang, 2017 ; Yin and Liu, 2017 ). Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful to further explore the impacts of video length quantitatively in flipped RO-L&T.

Short-term and long-term knowledge retention

Knowledge retention focuses on transferring new information from short-term retention to long-term retention. The instructional model will significantly impact students’ knowledge retention, affecting academic performance (Mithun and Evans, 2018 ). In traditional classrooms, especially in some credit courses, teachers are required to lecture hundreds of students and deliver large amounts of knowledgeable information within 1–2 h (Gannaway et al., 2018 ; Huxley et al., 2018 ). Students are often too busy taking notes to think and digest, resulting in only short-term and low knowledge retention (Hadie et al., 2019 ).

Recently, several studies have demonstrated that the flipped RO-L&T can increase knowledge retention by motivating students through enriched student interaction activities such as questioning, discussions, and idea exchanges (Estes et al., 2014 ; Hawks, 2014 ; Kerr, 2015 ; Shatto et al., 2017 ). More specifically, short-term retention (~3 months) is much higher in traditional teaching method, while long-term retention (~12 months) is obviously enhanced under the flipped teaching approach (Shatto et al., 2017 ). In a case study performed in the introductory programming course (Mithun and Evans, 2018 ), the flipped classroom improved the students’ knowledge retention and average grades in the end.

Students’ engagement and motivation

Student engagement reflects the subjective willingness of students to participate in activities such as lectures and in-class exercises. Low engagement negatively impacts learning and academic performance (Wang et al., 2014 ). In contrast, high engagement (active learning) usually enhances learning experiences and outcomes (Ferrer et al., 2020 ). Motivation is usually an individual’s drive to accomplish something (i.e., the degree of desire to continue pursuing it) (Wen and Piao, 2020 ). It is explicitly related to engagement, which leads to or facilitates engagement and is a core principle of teaching and learning (Dabbagh, 2007 ; Lee and Reeve, 2012 ; Mitchell, 2011 ; Reeve, 2012 ; Skinner et al., 2008 ).

In terms of engagement and motivation, different teaching modes can bring significant different effects, which are even more influential for RO-L&T compared to on-campus students (Bawaneh and Moumene, 2020 ; Ferrer et al., 2020 ; Kamarzaman et al., 2022 ). Afzali and lzadpanah ( 2021 ) selected 360 English language learners, and they were randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. Data were collected using a questionnaire during a six-week English course, and a significant increase in students’ engagement and motivation was found for the flipped classroom.

Research hypothesis

Based on the research question, we developed two research hypotheses. The first hypothesis tests the video engagement time (defined as the average student video viewing time per video) difference between the short-video group and long-video group. The second hypothesis tests the quantitative exam scores between the two groups.

Hypothesis 1

H 0 For the online-flipped engineering drawing course, the student video engagement time of the short-video group and long-video group are identical.

H 1 For the online-flipped engineering drawing course, the student video engagement time of the short-video group is longer than that of the long-video group.

Hypothesis 2

H 0 For the online-flipped engineering drawing course, student exam scores of the short-video group and long-video group are identical.

H 1 For the online-flipped engineering drawing course, student exam scores of the short-video group are better than that of the long-video group.

Engineering drawing case study

Design of the online-flipped course.

This case study was conducted in the Introduction to Engineering Drawing course at Suzhou City University. The practice of flipped classes was designed according to Bishop and Verleger ( 2013 ), but all online. Briefly, the pre-recorded lecture videos, along with other materials, were uploaded to the virtual learning platform (Fig. 1 ). Students usually have one week to learn those materials before the 2-hour interactive classroom. The video viewing behavior for each student, including the number of clicks and total viewing time, is automatically recorded. During the 2-hour interactive classroom, student-centered activities such as group discussions, tutoring, and questions & answers are conducted. The platform is also used to collect homework after class.

Screenshot of the platform and video viewing activities.

Student population

This course is mandatory for all freshmen students majoring in mechanical engineering at our university. They all have a similar level of academic performance in China’s national college entrance examination (or Gaokao). To rule out the influences of prior knowledge, the repeating students are not included in this study. Descriptive statistics of selected background information of the participating student group are shown in Table 1 . Briefly, there are 65 students in total, and 11 of them are female. There are significantly more male students than female students in engineering majors, such as mechanical engineering (this study), electrical and electronics, computers, and automatization. This is why the male participants in this study greatly outnumbered the females.

The intrinsic learning skill of students that are developed from early studies may also influence the results of this research, but that skill can be well-evaluated based on the Gaokao score (Bai and Chi, 2011 ; Bai et al., 2014 ). Our participants were all admitted from Jiangsu Province and have taken the same Gaokao exam sheets, allowing us to safely rule out the score differences contributed by different provinces. Our college usually only admits Tier-2 students with similar Gaokao scores, and significant score differences are not observed (Table 1 ). The standard deviation of students’ Gaokao scores is less than 2.2%, indicating no significant difference in intrinsic learning skills exists among the participating students.

In addition, in our case study, the students had not been informed about pre-knowledge, such as “student preferences for short videos compared to long videos,” when they started this case study. Our questionnaire asking about the “preferences” was conducted at the end of the case study, so the pre-bias from the students should not play roles in the study. Moreover, the short and long-video student groups were randomly formed to eliminate the potential biases of different individuals. Though we cannot be completely sure that the bias was eliminated, similar approaches have been used in many previously published studies (Afify, 2020 ; Manasrah et al., 2021 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ).

Experimental design

Our registry department randomly assigned the student groups: 35 students participating in the long-video group and 30 students participating in the short-video group. The average Gaokao scores for the long and short-video groups are 317.9 ± 7.6, and 319.3 ± 7.8, respectively. Such a small difference (less than 0.1%) indicates that both groups share similar learning skills.

We pre-recorded weekly lecture videos via the video recording function that comes with the online virtual platform, with a normal length (~55 min, same as the length of the regular in-person class in our college), and they were directly used for the long-video group. The teaching style is that a teacher shows slides while lecturing. The short video was created by trimming the long-video into the videos with average 8-mins long (Editing platform: Adobe Premiere Pro, video resolution: 720 p, video coding format: H.264, audio format: mp4), which has been proved to the optimal video length (Guo et al., 2014 ).

As engineering courses typically revolve around the establishment of a conceptual system and the acquisition of engineering skills, the knowledge points are many but systematic, and can be identified based on the concept or skill point. For example, when lecturing engineering drawing courses, the knowledge points such as perspective view, three views, and oblique diagraming of the engineering drawings can be easily and clearly segmented into short videos (Jian, 2011 ; Zuo et al., 2003 ). In short, the long videos are produced based on the content of the textbook chapters. They are long enough to contain one complete chapter. For short videos, the completeness and consistency of the teaching content (one knowledge point) are still considered, though it was cut from the long videos, and the length usually ranges from 7 min to 9 min (average 8 mins). Though short, these videos present at least one complete knowledge point. Limited by the current technology, the system was unable to tell or monitor whether or not all students in each group were sitting in front of their computers and watching the video when the video was playing (Deepa et al., 2022 ; Gupta, 2022 ), but the students were explicitly told that this kind of behavior was prohibited.

The pre-course and post-course questionnaire surveys are used to collect students’ perceptions before and after the course, respectively. One final exam is used to test the two groups quantitatively, and it is scheduled at the same time with a two-hour duration with online camera invigilation.

Questionnaire design

The five-point Likert questionnaire contains 9 questions, each followed by a scale: A. strongly agree, B. agree, C. neutral, D. disagree , and E. strongly disagree . The first 3 questions are used to quantitatively understand students’ perceptions and attitudes on the RO-L&T before the class begins. By understanding that, we can analyze the influences brought by the students’ intrinsic attitudes. The remaining 6 questions were answered after the class ended. They were used to know how the students watched the videos and their perspectives on the short and long videos. The Cronbach’s alpha test was used to assess the reliability of the survey and indicated a high degree of reliability and internal consistency of our survey ( α  = 0.87).

Statistical analysis

All statistical analyses were performed using Matlab (MathWorks Inc). Cronbach’s alpha test was used to examine the reliability of the Likert scale survey. Both groups’ exam scores and video viewing time were compared using the Mann–Whitney U -test, due to the rejection of the normality test. The significance level was set to 0.05 for checking the hypotheses. The Likert survey data were compared using a one-way ANOVA test.

Short video is more engaging

By far, video viewing time (engagement time) has been considered as the most significant indicator of student engagement in online education (Guo et al., 2014 ). Statistically, data normalization is often used to compare data from different groups. Therefore, we scaled each student’s average engagement time of the long and short-video groups to fall into the range of 0 to 1. Especially, students who repeatedly watch the video several times will result in a normalized value greater than 1, which indicates the total viewing time has exceeded the total video length. The boxplots (Fig. 2a ) show the short-video group has much fewer variances of engagement time, and more than 70% of students watched over three-quarters of the video length. A 24.7% improvement in median engagement time was also demonstrated with the normalized data (0.932 for the short-video group and 0.747 for the long-video group). These results suggest that short-video length significantly increases student engagement, and our hypothesis 1 can be validated.

a Average engagement time of each student. In the box, the middle black bar is the median; the top and bottom bars are 25th and 75th percentiles, respectively. The normal distribution fitting of the data set is also shown along the right side of the boxes. b The normalized mean engagement times for long-video and short-video groups.

The improvement can also be seen in terms of the normalized (Fig. 2b ) engagement time for the two groups. The normalized value for the long-video group is smaller than 1. In contrast, the value for short is larger than 1, suggesting more student engagement. Our findings agree with the prior study performed on the MOOC platform and suggest that short videos are also more engaging for students under remote online teaching (Guo et al., 2014 ). Additionally, both groups have led to enhanced engagement time compared to that of MOOC, which may be attributed to the credit-bearing nature of this course.

Short video enhances the academic performance of students

The Mann–Whitney U -test was used to evaluate the dependence of exam scores on video length (López et al., 2015 ). Figure 3a shows the boxplots of final exam scores for both groups. In detail, the short-video group outperformed the long-video group in many quantitative metrics. The median and average exam scores of the short-video group are, respectively, 7.4% and 9.0% higher than those of the long-video group. The short-video group also shows a smaller standard deviation, indicating that the students may have performed more consistently. Figure 3b shows that the p -value of 0.0334 (<0.05) for the average score comparison was obtained. This result demonstrates that short videos can result in better academic performances, indicating the validation of our hypothesis 2.

a Boxplots of the final exam scores for both groups, and b average final exam scores for both groups.

Results description

Based on the above quantitative results, several findings and contributions that are different from previous studies can be discussed and summarized below.

First, compared to those studies on non-credit MOOC courses (Guo et al., 2014 ; Moore and Blackmon, 2022 ), our study is built on credit-bearing engineering courses. Students have different attitudes and behaviors toward the two types of courses, while the credit-bearing courses usually receive much more attention (Joyner, 2022 ; Lohse et al., 2020 ). It is also different from language flipped classes (e.g., English) (Al-Assaf et al., 2022 ; Demyanova, 2022 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ), which focus on training language skills such as grammar and oral expression. Engineering courses focus on knowledge point acquisition and engineering skill improvement, which are more easily divided into several individual short videos. Different subjects have different effects on students’ learning behaviors and habits (Kerr, 2015 ; Young et al., 2014 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ). Such differences may generate new findings. Therefore, it is still meaningful to perform one case study on video usage in this environment and make new contributions to community research on teaching and learning.

Second, compared to studies where students only watch videos and skip activity sessions such as assessment and discussion (Guo et al., 2014 ; Kizilcec et al., 2013 ), in our study, students are the dominant actors in student-centered activities, including discussion, presentations, and interactive feedback. Students’ identities in learning activities affect students’ motivation and engagement.

Third, compared to studies in which engagement was measured through students’ subjective responses to engagement questions (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social) (Yu and Gao, 2022 ), we measured engagement objectively by the time spent watching videos (engagement time). Moreover, as shown in Sect. “Short video enhances the academic performance of students”, we added one quantitative assessment metric, which assessed the increase or decrease in student learning performance based on final exam scores.

Learning influencing factors

RO-L&T has long been considered as a promising education practice with the great potential to eliminate education inequality. The pandemic lockdown provides the perfect opportunity to construct an RO-L&T environment to perform this pedagogical research. Our results demonstrate that with short videos, students tend to be more engaged with better exam scores in the flipped RO-L&T environment. We have to admit that learning is a complicated process, and many influencing factors are involved, such as students’ attitudes, learning skills, and prior experiences. Using the one-way ANOVA test, the influences of these factors were also examined based on the Likert scale questionnaire.

Student internet skills and subjective attitude

Although RO-L&T has been developed for a while, students may still be limited by their internet skills to adapt to the flipped RO-L&T. As students’ negative subjective attitudes toward the learning content (engineering drawing) and learning format (recorded video and flipped classroom) may also affect the experimental results. Therefore, we conducted a data survey on students’ internet skills and subjective attitudes through three questions (Q1-Q3) before the class to exclude the influence of subjective factors and large individual differences. As shown in Fig. 4 , there are no significant differences between the two groups in terms of internet skills (Q1, p  > 0.05), and subjective attitudes ( p  > 0.05 for Q2, p  > 0.05 for Q3).

Average scores of both groups for each questionnaire survey question.

Concentration and information retention

Students’ concentration and self-perceived information retention for videos of different lengths may influence the objective feedback on the experimental results (final exam grades). One interesting finding is that both groups reported a similar level of ability to (1) stay focused for the entire video length (Q4, average score: 3.86 vs. 4.06, p  > 0.05) and (2) retain the video information (Q5, average score: 4.06 vs. 4.10, p  > 0.05). However, the objective scores of the final exams showed that significant information retaining differences existed between the two groups. This may suggest that our students all have a good learning attitude (in line with Q2) and wish to stay focused for the entire video length and retain all the information.

Pause or rewind and length perception

Although we divided the videos into short (8 min) and long (55 min), short and long are relative concepts that also depend on the perception of different students. One unique advantage of using recorded videos is that the students can frequently rewind or pause the video, which can help student process and understand the difficult content and aid the test. This will help eliminate potential result bias caused by difficulties in understanding long videos. The long-video group also reported a higher frequency of video rewinding than that of the short-video group (Q6, average score: 4.58 vs. 4.13, p  > 0.05), though no statistical difference was identified. This result was also in line with subjective reports when asked if the videos were too long or not, and the long-video group reported a much higher value (Q7, average score: 4.06 vs. 3.13, p  > 0.05). However, for the question asking if the videos are too short, the short-video group reported a similar value compared to the long-video group (Q8, average score: 3.16 vs. 2.89, p  > 0.05 ) .

Findings and limitations

While there were limitations of the current study (e.g., the current technology is unable to verify if students actually watched videos), this study is the first step to assessing the impact of short videos on students’ performance in an online-flipped college engineering course during the pandemic. The strict lockdown enabled us to conduct this credit-bearing course in the RO-L&T environment, which is impossible otherwise. Several new findings can be summarized. First, the engagement time for the long-video group has significantly increased compared to previous MOOC studies. The median engagement time is less than 4 min for 12–40 min long videos in MOOC but increased to 24.7 min for 55-min-long videos in our studies. This suggests that students may be strongly motivated to control themselves for studying towards their degrees and thereby leaves more room for instructors to edit the video length to meet the specific needs better instead of strictly limiting the video length to 6 min that as suggested by MOOC studies (Guo et al., 2014 ; Yu and Gao, 2022 ). Second, we experimentally demonstrated that short videos could positively impact learning outcomes in the RO-L&T environment regarding the final exam scores. The cognitive load theory can explain this well: short videos are helpful for students to categorize and compress information into organized compartments (Chase and Simon, 1973 ; Slemmons et al., 2018 ). It is also particularly useful to reduce the extraneous cognitive load, enhancing the student’s ability to focus on the germane cognitive load.

Future work

Next, we will investigate more detailed behavioral parameters that can reflect video effectiveness, information retention, and learning outcomes. For example, students’ opinion of video quality, accessibility (e.g., the potential need to charge devices while watching long videos), preferred viewing device used (computer or phone), viewing location (home, office or commuting), viewing time (day or night), audio playback method (headphones or speakers), preferred video speed (slow, regular or fast) and multitasking (e.g., taking notes while watching). In the following study, we plan to add more qualitative research, such as designing a scale to measure learning activities for improving the videos. In addition to the length of the videos, we will consider quizzes, assignments, multimedia, and other influencing factors when designing videos in the future. As the video platform develops, we may focus on monitoring pre-screen student behavior, absences, and poor interactions, as well as quantitative research on other possible group factors (e.g., gender and personality). Moreover, to enhance external validity and further longitudinal depth, we intend to replicate our experiment in additional engineering courses for follow-up studies.

Recommendations

“Tell students and they forget, teach students and they may remember, involve students and they learn,” is the core of the flipped classroom concept. Rapid advances in technology have made better implementation of flipped RO-L&T possible. Such an environment is a positive experience for both the instructor and the students while increasing students’ engagement. The evolving engineering courses could benefit from providing length-optimized videos to students under the flipped course structure. In this way, class time can be focused on discussing problems encountered in the videos and on learning how to “think like an engineer”. Flipped RO-L&T may initially be accepted by teachers and students, and the opportunity to improve the instructional model should not be overlooked.

In particular, educators need to use research-proven methods that can be replicated from one course, such as engineering drawing, to another. We offer several recommendations based on this study that we hope these will help instructors improve flipped RO-L&T. First, it is recommended that teachers should make the videos as short as possible, but one complete knowledge point should be contained in one video. Second, all pre-class video preparations are recommended to be linked to student in-class activities, which will help increase students’ motivation and engagement. For example, ask targeted questions related to the video content to provoke active thinking or discussion among students. Third, during the class, according to cognitive load theory, it is recommended to intentionally pause after reviewing each point in the video, to give students time to digest the contents. For example, give three to five minutes of break to allow students to share the things they are unclear about. Fourth, based on our research finding that students are likely to watch the videos repeatedly after class, it is recommended that use one short video to cover one question or knowledge point, rather than one large block of video covering all the questions and points.

We have presented one study to evaluate the impact of short videos on students’ performance in an online-flipped college engineering course during the COVID-19 pandemic. This credit-bearing course is completely delivered in a remote online learning and teaching environment. Our findings demonstrate that short videos can significantly improve students’ engagement by 24.7 % (median value) and their final exam scores by 7.4%, compared to the long-video group, which can be attributed to the reduced cognitive load. We also discovered that the student engagement time is longer than in MOOC studies, leaving more room for instructors to construct videos in credited course teaching. We are hopeful for future developments and have made some recommendations, including video design, students’ motivation and engagement, knowledge retention, and classroom activities. We envision that our studies could provide useful information for future curriculum design in remote online-flipped courses.

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the financial support from Xi’an Jiaotong—Liverpool University to Dr. P. Song via the teaching development fund (TDF20/21-R22-150), from Wenzheng College of Soochow Universityto M. Lei via the 2020 Higher Education Innovation Research Project (20WZJG0014) and 2022 Jiangsu Province University Laboratory Research Association Sponsored Research Project (GS220222BZZ36). The authors also acknowledge the financial support from Xi’an Jiaotong—Liverpool University to S. Duan (PGRS1912019). The authors would like to acknowledge Mr. Chi Han for helping the questionnaire figure design and Dr. Zhiliang Qian for fruitful discussions.

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Zhu, J., Yuan, H., Zhang, Q. et al. The impact of short videos on student performance in an online-flipped college engineering course. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 9 , 327 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01355-6

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Title: real-time short video recommendation on mobile devices.

Abstract: Short video applications have attracted billions of users in recent years, fulfilling their various needs with diverse content. Users usually watch short videos on many topics on mobile devices in a short period of time, and give explicit or implicit feedback very quickly to the short videos they watch. The recommender system needs to perceive users' preferences in real-time in order to satisfy their changing interests. Traditionally, recommender systems deployed at server side return a ranked list of videos for each request from client. Thus it cannot adjust the recommendation results according to the user's real-time feedback before the next request. Due to client-server transmitting latency, it is also unable to make immediate use of users' real-time feedback. However, as users continue to watch videos and feedback, the changing context leads the ranking of the server-side recommendation system inaccurate. In this paper, we propose to deploy a short video recommendation framework on mobile devices to solve these problems. Specifically, we design and deploy a tiny on-device ranking model to enable real-time re-ranking of server-side recommendation results. We improve its prediction accuracy by exploiting users' real-time feedback of watched videos and client-specific real-time features. With more accurate predictions, we further consider interactions among candidate videos, and propose a context-aware re-ranking method based on adaptive beam search. The framework has been deployed on Kuaishou, a billion-user scale short video application, and improved effective view, like and follow by 1.28%, 8.22% and 13.6% respectively.

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Analyzes How Short-Form Video Apps Affects Popular Culture and People's Entertainment

In today's China, the popularity of short video media has brought about tremendous changes in the way of information dissemination and media development. Tik Tok, Kwai short format and other short format video applications will undoubtedly affect the way information is disseminated. This phenomenon also makes popular culture more infiltrate people's lives. The high frequency form of short video content makes people addicted to dopamine and releases it quickly. Long-term use will make people addicted to the fun of useless thinking. The so-called emptiness after happiness will cause people to fall into a vicious circle and lose their minds. By analyzing the background, reasons and current situation of the rise of short-format video software, this article explains how this new type of media affects the development of popular culture. In the context of the popularity of short videos, if the form and content of popular culture changes, which popular cultural carriers will be produced? The purpose of this research is to explore how these phenomena affect people's entertainment. Will these changes in entertainment methods have a more far-reaching impact?

Keywords: Entertainment , Popular culture , Short-form video , Tik Tok

Introduction

With the development of technology, mobile terminal media has become an important way for people to obtain information and knowledge. As an emerging media in recent years, people have been chasing short films ( Kaye et al., 2020 ). Starting with videos, the content of short videos has also been converted into various forms, such as funny videos, popular science videos, teaching videos, etc. The ever-increasing pace of life makes people yearn for efficient and convenient access to information ( Wang et al., 2019 ). Advances in technology have made it easier to read video information on mobile terminals. This promoted the birth and development of short films ( Collie & Wilson-Barnao, 2020 ). The soil nourished by pop culture is the highly developed market economy of modern industrial society ( Szeman & O’Brien, 2017 ). The number of users of short video software continues to increase, which has brought huge economic value to it, and the profitability of popular culture has made it quickly applied to short video media. Popular culture has expanded its communication capabilities and influence through emerging short video carriers. This article aims to analyze the characteristics of short video media, explore its impact on popular culture, and explore how this phenomenon affects people’s entertainment styles. Explore whether emerging media will exacerbate the impact of culture on people. Provide theoretical support for short video media and popular culture research.

Problem Statement

The way of public entertainment has changed because the rise of short video applications has affected the spread of popular culture.

• Do all short videos have an impact on popular culture?
• Have short videos affected the way the masses entertain?
• What is included in the recent short video?
• Did short videos really affect popular culture? Does this have an impact on popular entertainment? What aspects of popular culture are affected by short videos, and how does it affect popular entertainment?

Research Questions

• In what ways has the rise of short video software affected the transformation of popular culture?
• How do these changes affect people’s entertainment?

Purpose of the Study

Through exploring the background, reasons and current situation of the rise of short video media. Analyze how the characteristics of short video media affect the development of popular culture, and what positive and negative effects it has on the development of popular culture.

Research Methods

Through the investigation of the relevant literature of popular culture, the characteristics of popular culture are summarized.

Analyze how this feature is affected by short video media. Through the research and analysis of apps, websites, news and other materials, we can understand the characteristics and types of short video content, understand the proportion of popular culture in short video media, and judge the impact of short video media on popular culture.

Interview and talk to some short video users to understand the frequency of short video media in people's lives, so as to judge the degree of penetration of short video media in people's lives.

Cultural Compromise

The first point is that short videos have compromised our culture. In the original mode of thinking, culture is serious, but the current culture has to make concessions to entertainment in order to be inherited ( Frank, 1998 ). Some people may think that culture must evolve with the times. Yes, culture should be integrated into modern culture, but it does not say that it should be ruled by pop and entertainment ( Van Zoonen, 2005 ). Decades ago, television pushed cultural politics and religious education into entertainment, while short videos pushed it to entertainment for all, to fragmentation of time, to the decline of people’s ability to understand, and the portability of mobile phones as a material carrier. It defeated the last line of defense of human nature. Since then, entertainment has become pervasive, and the younger generation no longer has the same reading ability as the ancestors. The rise of short films has strengthened the commercial nature of popular culture. Popular culture is commoditized. It strives to maximize profits and often produces something that can be profitable ( Fiske, 2010 ). The rise of short video software has brought more and more economic benefits to video traffic, which means that many users will make and publish video content for the purpose of making money. Most of the videos in short video software are based on popular cultural content. According to the "Tik Tok 2020 Short Video Content Report for the First Half of 2020", Tik Tok and Kuai Shou’s video content types with the fastest annual growth rate do not have knowledge categories. The top three categories are beautiful women, handsome guys, and funny stories. In the top500 bloggers of these two short video platforms, knowledge accounts for less than 5%, replaced by food, beauty, games, storytelling and funny, which account for 31.66%. There is a lot of information in these videos that can guide consumption, promote consumption or promote sales ( Zuo & Wang, 2019 ). This phenomenon has undoubtedly intensified the continuous production and propagation of commercial popular culture works, and intensified the penetration of popular culture in people's lives.

Economic Benefit

The second point is that short videos have brought huge economic benefits. Short videos have driven about 20 billion economic growth and provided about several million jobs. It is very common to make money through video accounts. In China, it has become commonplace to trade commodities through short video platforms. As of December 2020, the number of short video users in China was 873 million, an increase of 100 million from March 2020, accounting for 88.3% of the total Internet users. The "Short Video User Value Research Report 2019H1" shows that after a busy day of work/study/life, only one form of entertainment is available, and 40% of netizens choose short videos, surpassing online videos. Users who watch short videos for 10-30 minutes a day account for 32%, and nearly 30% of users watch more than one hour. Short video works have gradually become an important carrier of new mass culture. In terms of user activity, Kuai Shou bloggers peaked at 19:00. Tik Tok fans were most active at 21-24: 26.3%, with an average daily active user volume of 500 million. The number of followers of a video account often determines the economic value of the account. Therefore, more and more people shoot or make videos in order to gain attention and traffic. Short video works have gradually operated in accordance with the laws of the market and have been occupied by popular culture. The short and direct way of expression also makes short videos help popular culture penetrate more deeply into people's lives.

Impact on Mass Entertainment

In the last part, I will explain how short videos affect people’s entertainment. In Neal's view, television and its media are the most typical things we entertain to death. Nowadays, the scale of entertainment has already shifted from the end of the television to the end of the network. The initial idea of short video application developers may be to help people use fragmented time to quickly obtain information or entertain themselves. But up to now, people spend more and more time on such applications, and many people spend continuous time watching short videos. This makes people's time fragmented by tens of seconds of video, and then people's thinking habits are also fragmented. The satisfaction brought by short video applications is too easy to get, and once you get used to this "low-hand" satisfaction, you don't want to do those "high investment" things anymore. When our brains are surrounded by this "high stimulus threshold" for a long time and get used to getting a lot of pleasure easily, we will gradually desensitize to this pleasure. Over time, this intensity of pleasure can no longer satisfy us, and we will need higher intensity, more sustained, and deeper stimulation. Relatively speaking, behaviors with less pleasure and higher pay, such as reading and thinking, naturally no one wants to do. The number of users of short video software continues to grow, and more and more people will watch short videos as a form of leisure and entertainment ( Yaqi et al., 2021 ). The important reason for the popularity of short videos is that the video content stimulates the brain and causes the brain to release dopamine, which makes people continue to search for dopamine secreting content in the ocean of short videos, and ultimately indulge in behavior ( Yang et al., 2020 ). This makes many people unable to resist the short-lived pleasure brought by the software, and the emptiness brought by this happiness will make people even more hope to use the software to have fun ( Omar & Dequan, 2020 ). It is easy for people to gradually lose their minds and fall into a vicious circle. As a result, the length of time people use the software has gradually increased.

popular culture

The rise of short videos has made it easier for people to come into contact with popular culture. Popular culture itself has the meaning of entertaining the public ( Edensor, 2020 ). As the most intuitive, attractive and easiest way to spread, video has always encountered great obstacles in the production process. The use of cameras and professional editing software requires a certain amount of time and cost to learn. Due to the rise of short video software, software developers have simplified video editing methods and added auxiliary functions to make it easier for people to make videos. This makes more and more people participate in the video creation process. This also makes it easier for people to get popular cultural works that they like, thus enriching people's spiritual life to a certain extent.

First of all, the rise of short video software has changed the way people obtain information. Popular culture continues to expand and penetrate with the help of new communication methods. Short video media helps popular culture be more easily displayed in people's lives in the form of video, making the dissemination of popular culture more efficient, convenient and direct. Makes popular culture permeate all corners of people's lives. However, the rise of short video media has made the commercial nature of popular culture more prominent. More and more advertisements use popular culture as the shell to achieve the purpose of promoting consumption. Then, the rise of short video media allowed popular culture to penetrate, and eventually led to a trend toward a single entertainment method. In short, short video media has promoted the penetration of popular culture in people's lives, but it has also expanded the negative and positive influence of popular culture.

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31 January 2022

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https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2022.01.02.23

978-1-80296-122-5

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Communication, Media, Disruptive Era, Digital Era, Media Technology  

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Zhang, J. (2022). Analyzes How Short-Form Video Apps Affects Popular Culture and People's Entertainment. In J. A. Wahab, H. Mustafa, & N. Ismail (Eds.), Rethinking Communication and Media Studies in the Disruptive Era, vol 123. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 278-282). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2022.01.02.23

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