Good News: Watching Lectures at 2X Speed Might Not Be So Bad After All

One of the (many) vital social shifts thrust upon humanity through the pandemic was the sudden swap to distant studying and pre-recorded lectures. While recorded lectures and on-line training as a complete have been round for years, the early months of the pandemic forced tens of millions to just accept it as the brand new norm.

Now, as many universities experiment with how greatest to navigate in-person courses, many are sticking with the observe as a solution to cut back time spent in individual and probably enable extra flexibility with when and the place college students can be taught. Students have discovered new tips to adapt alongside the best way, some of the widespread being the dashing up of a video’s playback.

In principle, dashing up a video, particularly for prolonged lectures, can save college students big chunks of time. (It additionally lets them breeze by means of at any time when a professor inadvertently breaks a slide present or backtracks after forgetting to make their mouse viewable on presentation mode). But does that comfort and velocity come at a value to efficiency? It seems, possibly not.

That’s in keeping with findings in a brand new paper printed in Applied Cognitive Psychology, which discovered no main distinction in efficiency between college students who watched a lecture on regular velocity versus those that watched a lecture on 1.5X or 2X velocity. Under some particular circumstances, college students might really enhance their testing efficiency after watching a lecture on 2X velocity.

The researchers had 231 UCLA college students watch YouTube movies about actual property value determinations and the Roman Empire and gave them a comprehension take a look at afterward. The college students did this on two separate events, whatever the velocity of the video. The researchers discovered college students who watched the movies on 1.5X and 2X speeds confirmed no drop off in comprehension in contrast with those that watched on the regular tempo. So, no less than throughout the confines of this specific research, the info suggests college students actually can spend half the time watching a video and get the identical out of it. There’s a restrict although. Participants who watched movies at 2.5X speeds or sooner did see noticeable drop-offs in efficiency.

It additionally didn’t matter what order college students watched the traditional or sped up movies once they blended the 2. Though 76% of the respondents within the research thought watching a video first at regular speeds after which sped up would result in higher outcomes, the research didn’t bear that out and noticed no vital distinction in what order college students watched their sped-up video. Those outcomes really contradicted the scholars’ expectations. While 85% mentioned they often sped up their very own lecture movies, 91% thought common velocity or 1.5X sped would result in higher outcomes than 2X or 2.5X speeds.

The extra attention-grabbing outcomes of the research occurred when college students watched the identical lecture twice at double velocity. When college students watch the sped-up movies twice, with one viewing occurring instantly earlier than their take a look at, the scholars’ scores have been greater than those that solely watched a video as soon as.

Really these findings shouldn’t come as an excessive amount of of a shock to anybody who has walked right into a classroom auditorium within the frantic, sweaty moments previous to an examination. Students often velocity cram as a lot materials as attainable proper earlier than an examination. In a much less anxious means, these outcomes appear to reflect that impact indirectly.

The researchers have been additionally fast to notice the restrictions of their research. Though these outcomes labored for college students watching movies about actual property and Romans, it’s unclear if the identical outcomes would replicate for college students attempting to be taught Chemistry, Art History, or another self-discipline. The college students additionally weren’t allowed to pause or take notes whereas watching the movies, each of that are common practices for college students in the actual world.

Still, the outcomes are a promising signal for college students trying to carve again a while for themselves.