Comprehension across mediums: the case of text and video

Despite the prevalence of educational videos in today’s schools and classrooms, limited work has examined the strategies students use when comprehending videos. The aim of this study is to compare pre-service teachers’ strategy use when they are presented with information via text vis-à-vis via video. The study used a 2 × 2 experimental design with students assigned either to read or view each of two information sources. The study found strategy use to differ across mediums of information presentation, as determined through both self-report and log data. Additionally, comprehension was found to differ according to medium of information presentation, with text conferring an advantage. At the same time, students were found to have limited integration of multiple sources of information, across mediums of information presentation. Conclusions and implications for instruction and future work are discussed.