YouTube videos are being used as an instructional support to lectures for students, especially in science subjects such as chemistry. A method was developed to quantitatively rate popular acid-base and bonding YouTube videos using Richard Mayer’s seven Multimedia Principles as a framework. A second method was developed to quantitatively rate the videos to specifically investigate the content accuracy of videos. The goal of the research was to determine if there is a relationship between one Multimedia Principle of interest and view count, as well as the relationship between the Multimedia Principle of interest and content accuracy. This investigation was done by gathering data on current view counts and compiling the produced ratings for both Multimedia Principles and content accuracy. It was found that the relationship between the Mayer Multimedia code of interest and view count was hard to detect. It was also concluded that a high Mayer rating does not correlate with a high content accuracy code. From our findings, there is reason to believe that the production value of a YouTube video and its associated view count are not strong indicators that the video is in alignment with Mayer’s Multimedia principles. These results have implications for teachers and students because production value may deceive viewers by appearing to be professional but failing to deliver accurate chemistry content in both acid-base and bonding concepts. Therefore teachers need to employ a critical content accuracy lens when selecting videos and provide guidance to their students in their own selection of supplemental videos.
Authors: Grace E. Karlock, Mason K. Schmidt
Faculty Advisor: Ellen Yezierski, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Graduate Student Advisor: KatieMarie Magnone, Chemistry and Biochemistry
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