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

2.2. Participants and procedure In Semester 2 of the 2021/22 academic year, the “Tomorrow’s Leaders” course was delivered to 1,308 Year 1 undergraduate students at a Hong Kong university. These students majored in different subjects under seven schools or faculties at the university, including School of Design, School of Fashion and Textiles, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Faculty of Con- struction and Environment, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, and Faculty of Science. At the end of the semester, the teachers of the “Tomorrow’s Leaders” course purposefully sampled students to participate in the focus group interviews. The sampled par- ticipants were homogeneous because all students were Year 1 students at the same university. This sampling strategy fits the research purpose because the study aimed at understanding the common experience of students rather than comparing the difference between them. Financial incentive was also given to encourage students’ participation. At the end, 53 students agreed to join the interviews with 48 of them successfully participated in a voluntary manner. In the current study, research participants’ anonymity was maintained, meaning that stu- dents’ demographic information was not collected. Maintaining research participants’ ano- nymity would enable them to disclose more information or opinion during the interview [57, 58]. The sampled participants were all year 1 students in the case university. The general stu-

dent demographic information in the case university showed that the mean age of year 1 stu- dents in the university is 18 and there is an equal ratio of male to female students [59]. Analyzing the demographics of research participants is important to understand whether find- ings of the current research could transfer to other settings or contexts [60, 61]. These demo- graphic characteristics were generally similar to students in other Chinese universities [62] and international universities [63]. Therefore, the findings of the current study could be gener- alized to students in Chinese or international contexts. However, it is important to note that students’ perceived benefits from watching educational videos were influenced by various fac- tors, including the subject taught and external social factors (e.g., COVID-19 pandemic) [64– 66]. Moreover, studies also noted that students’ financial status could affect their ability to acquire electronic devices, thus influencing the effectiveness of electronic learning [67]. Read- ers should consider these factors when applying the current research findings in other contexts. Because of social distancing measures, all focus group interviews were conducted online. Before conducting each interview, the interview protocol, data confidentiality, students’ volun- tary participation and the protection of their privacy were explained to students. Besides, stu- dents’ consent to the recording of the interviews was sought. The 48 students were conveniently divided into 8 groups, ranging from 3 to 9 students per group. The first focus

group interview was conducted on 23 May 2022, while the last interview was completed on 17 June 2022. The interview length ranged from 1 hour 34 minutes to 3 hour 1 minute, with the first interview conducted in English and the rest delivered in Chinese. Table 1 lists the number Table 1. Duration of the interview, number of participants, and language used in each focus group interview. Focus Group Number Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Duration of the interview 1:43:25 2:51:35 2:00:22 3:01:18 Number of Participants 7 9 6 8 Language Used English Chinese Chinese Chinese Focus Group Number Group 5 Group 6 Group 7 Group 8 Duration of the interview 2:31:18 2:37:42 1:34:45 1:44:08 Number of Participants 5 6 3 4 Language Used Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291861.t001 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 5 / 28