Understanding the Effective Use of Explaining to Fictitious Others in Instructional Videos: A Process-Oriented Analysis of Learners with Higher and Lower Learning Performance

Instructional videos are becoming an increasingly popular learning tool, appealing to a wide range of learners. However, research warns that learners may experience higher dropout rates and increased mind-wandering compared to traditional face-to-face classrooms. Explaining to fictitious others (EtFO) is an active learning strategy that has the potential to enhance self-regulated learning and reduce mind-wandering. However, there is a dearth of research examining how learners’ use of this strategy contributes to its effectiveness in the context of instructional videos. The aim of this study was to investigate how learners engaged in the EtFO strategy across different learning stages and how these learning processes were associated with learning outcomes. In addition, the study compared the learning processes of learners with higher and lower learning performance based on a post-hoc median split of learning test scores. The findings confirm that key variables, including percentage dwell time on learning content, self-regulated behavioral sequences, the quality of explanations, and the co-occurrence of metacognitive and high-level cognitive processes, are important components of the effective use of the EtFO strategy. The findings provide insights into the learning processes of learners with higher and lower learning performance by revealing differences in their attention during the video-viewing stage, their behaviors during the preparation stage, and the quality and cognitive network of their explanations during the explanation stage. This study has the potential for informing the effective use of learning strategies when learning from instructional videos.