Videos have been considered an important educational resource, able to face contemporary educational challenges, which calls for the development of personalized, diverse and interactive pathways. There are evidences that videos can promote multimedia teaching and learning scenarios,which can be (re)used by teachers and students in different contexts and that even basic video tools have a significant impact on motivation and learning outcomes (Al Nashash & Gunn, 2013).

However, if there is a growing need for integrating video material in teaching and learning processes, at the same time there is a lack in know-how within the collegian team, regarding technical and pedagogical aspects regarding the use of videos in education. Video material has mainly been produced by teachers in different amateurish ways, without having crucial knowledge about video production. The problems with video material in education are technical but also pedagogical and there is still a growing demand for both technical and pedagogical guides among the teachers on the use of videos (Elliot, 2016).

This work presents the results of a survey on teachers’ perceptions about video as educational tool in four Higher Education institutions from Cyprus, Estonia, Finland and Portugal. The research was developed in the scope of the EU project Relobie: Reusable Learning Objects in Education (2014-1-FI01-KA200-000831) that aims to improving the Adult and Higher Education through strengthening knowledge in using videos in education. The project gathered experiences and views of faculty use in teaching and learning processes.

The participants in the study were approximately 171 faculty members from the participating Higher Education institutions. University of Coimbra, Portugal (36%, n=62), European University Cyprus (29%, n=50), Abo Akademi, Finland (23%, n=40), Tartu University, Estonia (11%, n=19). Fifty-seven percent of the 171 instructors participating in the study were female (n=97), and 43 percent male (n=74). The questionnaire used includes three general sections, the first section addresses sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, the second section addresses video usage in studies and includes issues as frequency or characteristics of the videos used for teaching and pedagogical models associated. In this section the survey includes a Liikert scale with 5 levels (1=Never to 5= Always). Finally, the third section aims to describe teachers’ perception of incentives and barriers to the educational usage of videos and their attitudes towards videos usage in teaching. In this section, the survey include a Likert scale with five levels (1= Not at all important to 5= Very important).

Results point out that almost all the participants consider video as an important resource in the teaching and learning processes. Three quarter of the teachers participating in the research use ready-made videos of a short length frequently or very often, mainly to supplement a face-to-face course. The most important reasons for which the study participants use videos in the classroom are to motivate students and to better illustrate or clarify concepts introduced in class, rather than to introduce new concepts or to stimulate learners’ critical thinking. Despite videos’ potential educational value, there are also some challenges to their instructional use. Several instructors noted that, while wishing to use more videos, they faced various barriers to doing so including time constraints, outdated equipment, technical problems, and difficulty in locating high quality material, copyright issues, and lack of relevant material in the students’ native language Factors that can contribute to motivate teachers to integrate videos in their classes are institutional resources and support (e.g. technical support, release time to design/redesign courses), pedagogical support (professional development opportunities, assistance from instructional design experts, etc.), and peer collaboration and support. However, the primary motivation for faculty to integrate technology is a clear indication/evidence that students would benefit from its introduction.

Al Nashash, H., & Gunn, C. (2013). Lecture capture in engineering classes: bridging gaps and enhancing learning. Educational Technology and Society, 16(1), 69-78. Elliott, C., & Neal, D. (2016). Evaluating the use of lecture capture using a revealed preference approach. Active Learning in Higher Education, 17(2), 153-167.