Enhancing applied mathematics learning through instructional videos: an experimental study on university students’ performance and perceptions

Purpose This study aims to investigate how a single, well-designed instructional video can influence students’ perceptions, learning outcomes and response heterogeneity in an Applied Mathematics course, focusing on the topic “domain of a function.” It aims to quantify short-term learning gains and identify learner profiles based on attitudes, prior difficulties and study habits. Design/methodology/approach A pre/post experimental design was implemented with 81 first-year Business students enrolled in a Applied Mathematics course. Students completed a pretest, watched an instructional video and then solved three posttasks of increasing complexity. A stepwise scoring rubric measured learning gains, and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify learner subgroups. Wilcoxon signed-rank and nonparametric tests examined overall and subgroup differences. Findings Results show statistically significant improvements across all posttasks (p 0.001), including among students who reported frequent difficulties with Mathematics. Nevertheless, higher-complexity items continued to reveal persistent gaps in solving inequalities and applying set operations. Students highly valued the video’s clarity, audiovisual quality and usefulness but consistently indicated that it cannot replace face-to-face instruction. Research limitations/implications Results derive from one institution, one topic and a short-term intervention without delayed posttest; LCA indicators were self-reported. External validity is limited. Future work should include multiple topics/institutions, link to clickstream measures and assess retention/transfer with follow-up testing (Bergdahl et al., 2024). Practical implications Actionable guidance for Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL): concise, segmented videos with signaling and worked examples; high audiovisual quality; prompt-and-pause moments; and immediate practice with feedback. Pair videos with targeted activities addressing inequalities and set operations, and deploy in flipped/blended models to support both recent and long-gap learners. Social implications Scalable microvideos can expand flexible access for diverse higher education (HE) cohorts, including working students and those resuming Mathematics after long gaps, helping narrow opportunity gaps. Equitable deployment requires accessibility features (e.g. captions) and preservation of teacher–student interaction to sustain motivation and inclusion. Originality/value While video-based learning in HE and Mathematics Education has been widely investigated, most empirical studies focus on full flipped-course implementations, video series or multiresource learning environments. This study adopts a fine-grained, microanalytic perspective by isolating the learning impact of a single, carefully designed instructional video on a specific mathematical topic (“Domain of a Function”). Methodologically, it combines a transparent stepwise scoring rubric with pre/post assessment and LCA to capture learner heterogeneity beyond average performance effects. This allows identification of distinct learner profiles (“Casual Learners” and “Struggling Video Users”) and examination of how short-term procedural gains vary across profiles. By demonstrating that a single procedural video can generate statistically significant short-term learning gains across heterogeneous student profiles while simultaneously revealing persistent conceptual difficulties, this study contributes empirical evidence that refines current understandings of the instructional scope and pedagogical limits of microvideo use in Higher Education Mathematics. It further distills evidence-based design principles for integrating short instructional videos into blended and flipped learning environments.