Khan Academy and the Effectiveness of Science Videos

My PhD: http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/super/...
It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything. The apparent reason for the discrepancy is misconceptions. Students have existing ideas about scientific phenomena before viewing a video. If the video presents scientific concepts in a clear, well illustrated way, students believe they are learning but they do not engage with the media on a deep enough level to realize that what was is presented differs from their prior knowledge. There is hope, however. Presenting students' common misconceptions in a video alongside the scientific concepts has been shown to increase learning by increasing the amount of mental effort students expend while watching it.

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[lastexileruen]

@1veritasium if the sun spontaneously turned into a blackhole, would it pull us in.

[1veritasium]

If it were the same mass as our sun, no. To us the gravitational effect should be the same as it is now so we would orbit like normal. Of course our sun will never become a black hole, only a red giant in 5 billion years, and thereafter a white dwarf...

[CGriffo124]

As a prot warrior, I also think mastery is important

[starfannnn]

Really interesting research.

[Saintjackoftrades]

You are a motivated learner. You are actively looking for answers and skeptical of your own reasoning and intuition. Remember getting lectured by your parents....remember what they actually said? probably not, because you already "knew".

[insidetrip101]

I absolutely, 99% disagree.

While mathematics is different in science, that is as far as I will agree with you. If graphing a function is "intuitive" (whatever that means), then why did it take humanity over a thousand years to come up with the Cartesian coordinates after Euclid collected the geometric proofs for his textbook: The Elements?

Most people (myself included) only "know" math well enough to do problems we're trained to do; we don't know math, since we can't explain the proof.

[Miltiadis Orfanos]

I've been arguing with one of my friends for months that you don't actually absorb any useful information when watching videos (or from professors that read off slides!). The person watching/listening doesn't have time to process the material presented (it's too passive).

In my experience, I've found it more helpful to pick up a book, make short notes on the material and finally to write out a one-page summary.

Videos give great introductions to topics, but nothing beats self-education.

[OHNOPIANO]

I think math is different from science in the sense that we generally don't have incorrect preconceived notions about it. Graphing a function is pretty intuitive, I think.

[lambmaster]

I disagree, Derek. I took Math 12 just recently in order to get into a technical school (BCIT), and didn't know anything that was presented in the class.

The Khan academy videos taught everything much better than the teachers in the class, and after watching the videos and doing the online exercises, I got an A+ in both terms.

Without the online exercises, I would understand your argument, but the exercises reinforce CORRECT learning. I would appreciate your thoughts on this!

[SlippyK1]

I started using Khan Academy a few weeks ago and came to the same conclusion myself. I'm an engineering student, and I find it brilliant as a revision tool, and also to learn new maths topics that I havent't covered yet, but I think that I only find it helpful/understandable because I already have a good knowledge of the subjects I'm watching. I'm not so sure how well I'd fare learning an entirely new subject. During the summer I will be trying that out, perhaps with Chemistry.

[Alice Edwardson]

I would be interested to see if this research could in any way be applied to how people think about logic. Obviously in many ways logic is somewhat more abstract than physics, in that it's difficult to provide visual demonstrations of the concepts in question, but I have noticed that students often go into learning situations with false notions about what logic is and how it works, and those ideas are rarely challenged no matter what. Although, I think other factors may also be at play here.

[AV8OR73]

I completely agree with the point you make here about breaking people's misconceptions. I now always think twice before giving answers to questions like these. However, your video style does not seem to be conducive to a comprehensive syllabus like Khan's video's. Thus i think your videos are great to focus on common misconceptions and are great to change the way people think, but for learning a full course of physics, Khan's videos are ideal.

[lastexileruen]

@1veritasium I'm just a truck driver, so forgive me if I sound stupid. I was told that neutrinos were a massless particle. If so, then would they need an infinite amount of energy to break light speed. And if the higgs field gives particles mass, would that mean they simply aren't effected by it.

[thedarklobo88]

To learn about something one must unlearn and relearn.