A study highlights the educational role of online video platforms among adolescents

A research led by the UPF, with the involvement of UAB Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising lecturer Fernanda Pires and UB researchers, has analysed the use of informal learning platforms used by teenagers. According to the researchers, the study determined that YouTube is the platform preferred by adolescents in their daily lives when looking to learn about a wide array of subjects, such as “wanting to learn to play the guitar, solving derivatives or overcoming one of Zelda's monsters”.

"I learn more maths watching YouTube than I do at school, because you can watch the videos as many times as you want", one of the students participating in the study states. Zack, for example, explains that "I search for a specific problem in YouTube and I click on the first video that come up". Moreover, some adolescents use the videos as tutorials "to solve problems that come up with computer software". These examples show the learning tendencies of our new generations, using free, instructive platforms filled with a variety of contents, such as YouTube, which are fundamental for their learning processes.

The research, published in the journal Convergence, was conducted by analysing 1633 questionnaires, 58 workshops and 311 in-depth interviews with adolescents aged 11 to 19, from eight different European countries. The results show that 80% of those surveyed use YouTube as their main social network.

“During the analysis we found that YouTube is used as a tool that softens the lines between formal and informal learning contexts. Adolescents use it to complement their formal schooling, as a way of exploring their own interests”, says UAB lecturer Fernanda Pires, first author of the article.

The research determined three specific areas of interest within the YouTube platform. First of all, in the expansion of a formal school curriculum, i.e., it was used to study for tests, discover new school-related subjects, and understand contents given in class. Second, it helped users learn more about video games and further develop technological knowledge with the aim of either overcoming stages of a video game or finding a solution to a computer problem. And third, YouTube was used as a cultural expression related to leisure activities. The study affirms that users look to this platform to learn about arts & crafts, cooking or playing a new instrument, in addition to a wide array of other subjects.

For lecturer Fernanda Pires “the results of this research demonstrate the increasing importance of using social networks and audiovisual contents as a complementary tool in teaching, given that the media and interactive platforms are already parts of the daily lives of young people and the population in general. As teachers, we must reflect upon the possibility of incorporating YouTube as a tool that aids in experiential learning, since its educational use is one of the most common uses among young people, who normally watch videos to imitate what the instructors in the video do, whether that be experts and celebrities such as YouTubers, or just people seeking to share their knowledge”, she adds.

Pires also considers that “this interest in YouTube can be useful in implementing educational activities, in which students can create their own videos with the contents mentioned in class, and in this way, provide a collaborative learning experience among equals”.

The reasons why YouTube has become a leading platform are various, but they are all based on how easy users can imitate and learn through repetition. Apart from being a free platform in which everyone and anyone can upload contents.

Finally, throughout the study, researchers were able to observe the gender roles and stereotypes still existing when using, consuming and producing media contents for adolescents. The study confirmed the existence of a male-oriented sphere and another female-oriented use of the platform. With regards to learning with the help of YouTube, researchers detected that some learning environments and areas were predominantly male and others, female. For example, the video games area was a male-dominated areas in which the presence of girls was an exception. In contrast, in the area of beauty or videos about books there was almost a hegemonic presence of girls, with some exceptions found in sports and music.

In addition, the study sheds light on other research perspectives such as socio-economic levels. The study questions whether this may not be a variable to take into account behind the use of YouTube, which could imply an increase of users no longer capable of paying for private classes or non-curricular activities, such as guitar lessons.

The research forms part of the results of the European project on Horizon 2020 Transliteracy (grant number 645238) and was led by Carlos A. Scolari, lecturer of the Department of Communication at the UPF and researcher of the MEDIUM Research Group, with the participation of Fernanda Pires of the Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising at the UAB and first author of the article; José M. Tomasena, UB and UPF collaborator, and Maria José Masanet, researcher at the UB.

Original article:

Fernanda Pires, Maria-Jose Masanet, José M.Tomasena, Carlos A. Scolari (2022). Learning with YouTube: Beyond formal and informal through new actors, strategies and affordances. Convergence, Online First, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211020545