Making sense of comments on YouTube educational videos: a self-directed learning perspective
| Date | 11 September 2017 |
| Pages | 611-625 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-09-2016-0274 |
| Published date | 11 September 2017 |
| Author | Chei Sian Lee,Hamzah Osop,Dion Hoe-Lian Goh,Gani Kelni |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Bibliometrics,Databases,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet,Records management & preservation,Document management |
Making sense of comments on
YouTube educational videos: a
self-directed learning perspective
Chei Sian Lee
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Hamzah Osop
School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science,
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia and
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and
Dion Hoe-Lian Goh and Gani Kelni
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose –Through the lens of self-directed theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate if social
technologies such as YouTube will be viable to disseminate educational instructions and in the process
empowering learners to take charge of their learning.
Design/methodology/approach –A total of 150 educational videos on YouTube were selected and 29,386
comments extracted using the authors’customized extraction software application. Sentiment and qualitative
content analyses were performed.
Findings –Results indicate that YouTube can play important roles in facilitating online self-directed
learning (SDL) as the findings uncovered a variety of learning and social affordances of YouTube. However,
caution should be exercised as high views and well-commented videos might not imply quality and
credibility. This study concludes that YouTube generally provides a conducive a learning environment that
affords learners the resources to meet their SDL objectives.
Research limitations/implications –To the best of knowledge, this is the first study that investigates
SDL in social media by combining both qualitative content and sentiment analyses. The study shows that
such a hybrid approach of combining two diverse analytical techniques provides an innovative means to
make sense of comments expressed in social media.
Practical implications –The results will help e ducational institutions and policy -makers to craft better
programs for public educ ation and create polici es to help self-directe d learners in evaluating o nline
video resources.
Originality/value –Despite a wealth of literature on the use of technologies to support learning, the
majority of work done to date has dealt in the classroom context. Studies on SDL using educational content on
YouTube are limited. Hence, this research contributes by providing insights on how educational institutions
can move toward the direction of building collaborative digital learning platforms with relevant educational
instruction and resources to enable users to participate in lifelong self-learning and education.
Keywords Self-directed learning, Social networking sites, Social media, Content analysis,
Sentiment analysis, YouTube
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In recent years,online learning has become an integralpart of high education (Kim et al., 2014).
The main reason for such a phenomenon is that the online environment provides learners
the flexibility to access course content anytime, anywhere. Indeed, the prevalence of
social technologies has furtherpaved the way for new online avenueswhere users can initiate
and conduct learningon their own. In particular, Schroederet al. (2010) highlighted the values
Online Information Review
Vol. 41 No. 5, 2017
pp. 611-625
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/OIR-09-2016-0274
Received 20 September 2016
Revised 13 February 2017
Accepted 23 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
611
YouTube
educational
videos
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