Video Engagement Effectiveness on Climate Change: An empirical investigation on university students

¹ Department of Management Science and Technology, University of Western Macedonia, 50100, Kozani, Greece
² Center for Applied Intelligent Systems Research, Halmstad University, 30118 Halmstad, Sweden
³ School of Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus, 7080, Larnaca, Cyprus
⁴ LIRDEF, University of Montpellier, 2 place Godechot, Montpellier, 34092, France
⁵ School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, 2000 Johannesburg, South Africa
⁶ Medical school, University of Nicosia, 2408 Nicosia, Cyprus

^* Corresponding author: vchristodoulou@uclan.ac.uk

Abstract

Climate change is one of the most vital issues humanity should deal with. Several natural disaster phenomena are greatly based on climate change. Awareness-raising towards its severity is a key goal in every aspect of our daily life; including education. The scope of this empirical study is to analyze university students’ engagement perceptions after they watched a number of videos on this topic. Specifically, the study aims to reveal which videos are more effective based on students’ demographics and their engagement perceptions towards them. Furthermore, it aims to reveal their general perceptions towards the utilization of YouTube videos in the learning process. A specific video selection procedure was conducted and an anonymous e-questionnaire was developed. Through content-based analysis, the average ratings of respondents’ engagement perceptions towards 12 selected videos were calculated, providing a clear indication of the level of interest among students. These findings offer valuable insights to educators and content creators aiming to tailor their materials to diverse audiences and provide even more customized and effective video content on climate change. By identifying differences in engagement levels among different student demographics, the study provides actionable recommendations for improving the impact of online video content in climate change education.