Comments on: Why Do Students Watch Lecture Video At Warp Speed?

By: Mike Seiler

Mike Seiler — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:40:13 +0000

I use enounce to speed up much of what I watch online.

I have a MSEE, and I sure wish that this type of thing was available when I was going through grad school.

However, as a online marketer, I need to go through a large amount of material just to keep up in my rapidly evolving field. More and more, this info is being offered as videos.

Is it “skimming” if I watch the video at 1.7 to 2.2 times speed? Hardly. I find that my retention is a lot better at those speeds because my mind does not have time to wander. But perhaps this is true because I have mild ADD.

After developing the “speed listening” skill, I find it hard to watch and listen any educational material at normal speed. I’ve even toyed with the idea of watching entertainment at higher speeds.

By: Enounce

Enounce — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:18:21 +0000

I’m sure their are some students that are reading this and wondering “… how do I speed up the lectures, that would be great.” Maybe this is all common knowledge now but here are some tips in case it’s new to you:

For Flash video like that found on YouTube, there hasn’t been any option for speed up until now. Enounce, this summer, just released the MySpeed Plug-In for Flash which will speed up (or slow down) most flash content as long as the server delivering the video supports fast download. For Real Player there is the Enounce 2xAV Plug-In for RealPlayer (http://www.enounce.com). Both Quicktime and Windows Media Player have this feature built in to the product although it’s not always easy to find. Of course, for streamed content, it always depends on how the content is streamed from the server whether or not the content can be speeded up. Some servers just won’t send the data any faster than what is needed for a short buffer and to play the content at normal speed.

I would also add that many students have actually said they retain more information when watching the lecture for the first time at an increased rate because they stay more focused on the material.

By: djh brown

djh brown — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:12:19 +0000

re: “Are Lectures Content or Interaction?”
short answer: content
long answer: http://djhbrown.googlepages.com/ManyHeads.zip

well, that’s what i think….

re: speedup

i would venture a guess that it is mostly done for the purposes of visual searching, whether during review or initial exploration. either way, it makes videos a more communicative form of serial organisation than a live lecture, depending on the skill of the cameraman/producer

By: Are Video Lectures Content or Interaction? at OCW Blog

Are Video Lectures Content or Interaction? at OCW Blog — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:30:21 +0000

[...] Skip to content « Why Do Students Watch Lecture Video At Warp Speed? [...]

By: Mike Caulfield

Mike Caulfield — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:01:27 +0000

Both good points (or kind of the same point).

Skimming is probably a bad analogy. I’ve sped up notes before on the old minitape recorders and at 2x there’s really no strain.

I do feel though that listening in this way is a somewhat different way of listening, if nothing else it’s more emotionally detached from the presentation — there’s less connection with the speaker as speaker.

I think where I was going with the question is a question I’ve been meaning to post on for some time “Are Lectures Content or Interaction?”. In the traditional division of content, interaction, and assessment, lectures are interaction. But in OCW if this behavior is any guide they are treated as content — perhaps even when the professor speaking is your own professor. I find that interesting — and not all that disturbing, either, since lectures were always a lousy form of interaction — better that they be content and have the interaction be interactive…

By: Stian Haklev

Stian Haklev — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:53:28 +0000

The analogy between skimming and speeding up the video might not be correct. I can read and understand well faster than many others - that doesn’t mean I am skimming. But somehow with speech there is no choice of how fast you receive it (which is nice sometimes, because it means I finish watching a Chinese movie in the same time as my girlfriend, compared to spending five-ten times as long on a Chinese book).

By: Alfred Thompson

Alfred Thompson — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:18:51 +0000

I tend to do this as well. Again a 1.6 to 2.0 speed up is common for me when it is an option. I can take in words faster than most speakers talk. Or I think I can anyway. If a transcript option is available I generally don’t watch the video but just read the transcript. Now I’m in my 50s so not the typical student but I suspect I am typical (if not in age) of the sort of people who want to get education online. Time is an issue. We think we are smart enough to learn at a quick pace and the classroom is often too slow moving for us. An in-person class may be more valuable when there is intereaction between instructor and student but even then if the intereaction is with other students it’s just as easy and faster to watch the video.