Pushing the button: Why do learners pause online videos?

Martin Merkt, Anett Hoppe, Gerrit Bruns, Ralph Ewerth, Markus Huff

Abstract: Highlights • The study investigated viewers‘ motives to pause educational online videos. • Data from three different sources was triangulated. • Natural pausing behavior was associated with videos‘ content characteristics. • External structural cues were not associated with natural pausing behavior. Abstract With the recent surge in digitalization across all levels of education, online video platforms gained educational relevance. Therefore, optimizing such platforms in line with learners’ actual needs should be considered a priority for scientists and educators alike. In this project, we triangulate logfiles of a large German online video platform for educational videos with behavioral data from a laboratory study and the objective characteristics of the selected videos. We aim to understand the potential motives for why participants pause educational videos while watching such videos online. Our analyses revealed that perceived difficulties in comprehension and meaningful structural breakpoints in the videos were associated with increased pausing behavior. In contrast, pausing behavior was not associated with the videos’ formal structural features highlighted in the video platform. Implications of these findings and the potentials of our methodological approach for theory and practice are discussed.