Using short videos in teaching a social science subject: Values and challenges

The advent of information technology has made multimedia a useful teaching resource. At the National University of Singapore, educators from fields such as Medicine have regularly used videos to enhance their teaching. However, faculty members from other disciplines may not utilise these resources as often. This study aims to identify the values and challenges of using short videos to supplement traditional pedagogical methods in social science. A pedagogical experiment of using short videos in classroom teaching was introduced for two consecutive academic years, and a survey was done at the end of each semester. Summary statistics and hypothesis testing suggest that using carefully selected and relevant short videos can help to link theoretical knowledge with real-world situations, increase student interests in a subject, and stimulate their critical thinking. However, the implementation of the pedagogy is not without difficulties. Finding relevant and objective videos that are of optimal length is a challenging and time-consuming task. Fortunately, the results of this study show that practice and experience help.