Over 500 respondents

Survey Analyzing the Impact of Video on Education

Ron Yekutiel, CEONew York, NY (USA), April 2014 - Kaltura Inc., an open-source video platform, has published the inaugural "State of Video in Education Report", the most definitive and comprehensive international study to date on the use of video in education. Respondents showed dramatic consensus that video improves learning outcomes and the overall student experience and also has positive impact on student enrollment and retention.

The study’s major findings include the following:

  • 90% of respondents believe that video improves the learning experience, with even basic video tools having a significant impact;
  • 81% of respondents agree that online learning will grow in prominence and will underpin the award of a large number of degrees going forward;
  • 57% of respondents agree that flipped classrooms will become a standard teaching method in higher education, with 48% saying that their institutions already practice it;
  • 52% of respondents state that video use has been driven from the “bottom up” by faculty;
  • 57% of respondents estimate that more than a quarter of their classes already incorporate video content created by faculty;
  • 49% of respondents estimate that a typical student watches six to twenty education videos per month.

The study’s 550 respondents, who were surveyed online between January and March of this year, broadly agreed that video has a significantly positive impact on all aspects of the student lifecycle, from attracting and retaining students to enhancing learning, boosting learning outcomes, and building stronger alumni relations. Respondents were drawn from the IT, digital media, instructional design, senior administration, and faculty departments of K12 and higher-ed schools worldwide.

It is clear that video will have an ever-increasing impact on education, with 88% of respondents agreeing that video improves the overall education experience and will be a major part of the education experience in the future. One respondent commented, "Synchronous and asynchronous video will be the norm in every course in all disciplines.  Teachers will have to produce multimedia instructional content as the line between online and face-to-face becomes further blurred and is eventually eliminated."

The survey results suggest that there is significant latent demand for IT departments within educational establishments to add video technology to their core checklist. The findings additionally point to increasing room for growth as more establishments embrace video technology to differentiate their offerings in an increasingly competitive market.

A potentially interesting business model uncovered by the study is that of a "University Netflix": 64% of respondents believe that their institution would be interested in a Netflix-like educational-video portal to which consumers could subscribe for self-enrichment (rather than to gain a qualification). Most feel that the content on this kind of portal should be a mix of free and paid. Due to other models on the rise, including massive open online courses (MOOCs) and selective private online courses (SPOCs), video stands to proliferate significantly.

"Advances in video technology are colliding with the entry of the first generation of true digital natives into higher education, resulting in the rapid adoption of a wealth of video-centric higher-education trends such as MOOCs and flipped classrooms. Our large-scale study reveals some fascinating data and opinions on the pervasiveness of video in education. The key finding that video actually improves learning results will accelerate video technology’s transition from an early majority 'nice to have' to something that is on every higher-education institutions’ technology checklist," said Kaltura Chairman and CEO, Ron Yekutiel.