Advance organizers in videos for software training of Chinese students

The effectiveness of demonstration-based training (DBT) videos for software training hasbeen investigated for a Western audience. These studies have generally found that thedemonstration videos significantly enhanced self-efficacy and task performance, butalso that there was a gap between task practice and learning with the latter laggingbehind. The present study investigated the effectiveness of DBT-videos for softwaretraining of Chinese students. The control condition presented demonstrations only. Inthe experimental condition demonstrations were preceded with advance organizers thataimed to enhance learning. The 61 participants (mean age 11.8 years) came from amiddle school in China. Data analyses revealed that self-efficacy significantly improvedin both conditions. Task performance success also increased significantly over time. Thefamiliar gap between task practice and learning was found between task practice andoutcomes on an immediate post-test. However, on the delayed post-test this differencehad disappeared. An effect of the advance organizer was found for accuracy of the self-efficacy appraisals, and for gain scores from pretest to delayed post-test. It is concludedthat DBT-based demonstration videos are moderately effective for software training ofChinese students, and that it can be beneficial to precede these with advance organizers.