Use of instructional videos in leadership education in higher education under COVID-19: A qualitative study

3.3. Video content In terms of video content, this study investigated three aspects: 1) theory-related videos’ con- tent, 2) case-based videos’ content, 3) connection between theory-related videos and case- based videos, and 4) general suggestions for improvement. First, in terms of theory-related videos’ content, students encountered some difficulties. A number of students expressed that the difficult technical terms or English vocabularies in the videos hindered their understanding of video content (N = 15). As elaborated by one student: “My opinion is the same as that of the other students. First, the quality of the videos is very good, but what needs to be improved is that many videos have many definitions from dif- ferent scholars. It would be better to add some daily examples. We checked the definitions on Google ourselves, and they are from different scholars. We can find all the definitions, but it is the definitions that bothered us because the wordings of the definitions are mostly vague and abstract. If the videos could use more conversational English and daily life exam- ples, it will be easier for us to understand.” (Group 6 Line 32–36) Besides, students believed that some theory-related video content was too abstract (N = 3), and suggested adding more discussion of daily life examples in the theory-related videos (N = 2). Some students found that there were too many concepts in the theory-related videos, and recommended adding some guiding questions to help students’ self-reflection. Also, stu-

dents wanted to know the importance of each lecture topic to them personally and how the positive youth development (PYD) attributes would affect their lives. Second, for case-based videos, various video features contributed to students’ learning. The case-based videos were related to students’ daily lives, so students could understand better and enjoy the videos (N = 7). As elaborated by a student: “I think the advantages of the case-based videos are that they are quite interesting, and they use more realistic situations. And another advantage is that I could feel the diligent produc- tion and a lot of effort was used, so I take the video watching very seriously.” (Group 7 Line 367–368) Moreover, students could relate the cases to social issues. The case-based videos provided various perspectives and students could learn the ways they could solve similar problems in the future (N = 14). However, students thought that there should be more case-based videos to explain more complicated theories or offer more elaboration and application of the theories in the scenario videos (N = 6). It was also believed that some case-based videos did not provide solutions and did not analyze different factors, which decreased the videos’ benefits to stu- dents’ learning (N = 3). Besides, some stories in case-based videos were too extreme (N = 3). Students also wanted the case-based videos to highlight the key points and provide some guided reflection on the topic. For cases that needed discussion, students wanted to watch

cases that did not have conclusions, so there would be more room for discussion. Third, this study investigated students’ perceptions of the connection between the theory- related videos and case-based videos. The majority of the students agreed that the theory- related videos were related to the case-based videos (N = 24). The cases could explain the theo- ries, and students could apply the theories into the cases. Moreover, the blended learning ques- tions required students to use the theories to answer questions related to the scenarios, which further strengthened the connection between the two types of videos (N = 3). As elaborated by one student: PLOS ONE Qualitative evaluation of virtual teaching and learning videos in leadership education PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291861 September 21, 2023 11 / 28