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

4. Discussion There is a growing interest and efforts in developing instructional videos for higher education students, particularly with the influence of the pandemic. The current research project is inno- vative in a number of areas. First, as the videos were offered to a large number of students (more than 2,000 students annually), development of effective instructional videos could bene- fit a large group of students every year. Second, both theory-related videos and scenario-based videos were developed, which was not common in Chinese and Western contexts. The combi- nation of flipped classroom approach and video-watching was also rare in the Chinese context. Third, the findings in this qualitative study complement the quantitative findings obtained in our previous two studies. The quantitative studies provided support for the benefits of the 24 videos [46, 47], while this qualitative study enabled us to further understand how the videos had generated benefits for students. In this study, the major findings were divided into six themes. First, in terms of video arrangement, students believed that the pre-lesson video watching arrangement enabled them to learn more flexibly, pace learning according to their own needs, and concentrate more in lectures. These results support other studies, which revealed that pre-lesson video watching was associated with better learning enthusiasm and academic results in undergraduate stu- dents [78, 79]. Besides, studies found that lecture videos enabled students to control their

learning pace, which enhanced their satisfaction with the lectures and improved their aca- demic results [80, 81]. This study also found that the teachers would recap the videos or discuss the blended learning exercise during lectures, which further reinforced the connection between the videos and the lecture. Studies revealed that the implementation of quizzes under flipped classroom arrangement, which was similar to the blended learning exercise in this study, could act as incentives for students to complete pre-class self-learning [82, 83] and could improve the effectiveness of the flipped classroom arrangement. The current study con- tributed to the literature by demonstrating how pre-lesson videos could be connected to lec- tures through class discussion. On the other hand, the current study also found that some students preferred watching the videos and completing the blended learning exercises after lec- tures. In this way, they would have better understanding of the topics after teachers’ explana- tion in lectures. Literature also compared the learning effectiveness of pre- and post-lecture learning activities. Analyzing the effectiveness of different teaching and learning activities in an undergraduate course, Inglesi-Lotz et al. [84] found that 16.44% of the students thought that the pre-lecture exercises enabled them to have better understanding of the lecturers, while 25.84% of the students perceived that completing the post-lecture exercises facilitated them to revisit the lecture content and gain more understanding. On the other hand, Liang [85]

revealed that pre- and post-lecture quizzes enhanced students’ learning through different ways. The pre-lecture quiz motivated students’ to reflect on their prior knowledge and arose their interest in the course content, while the post-lecture quiz increased students’ awareness of their learning process and strengthened their metacognitive activities. These studies showed that pre- and post-lecture learning activities could be implemented to serve different learning objectives. Second, in terms of video design, this study found that various features of the theory-related videos had contributed to students’ learning. Students stated that the arrows, list and organiza- tion in the theory-related videos made the theories easy to understand. It was also found that combining visual stimulation and voice-over narration could improve students’ concentration in the videos. These findings add to the literature on the multimedia learning theories, which examined how different video features could contribute to effective learning [32, 86–88]. The current research findings supported the “signaling” and “advance organizer” concepts in 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 16 / 28