The Impact of Productive Failure on Learning Performance and Cognitive Load: Using Hypervideo to Facilitate Online Interactions

Videos are being used increasingly to deliver subject knowledge in online learning, but their use has long been criticsed for a lack of learner-to-learner interaction, which can result in high dropout rates. This highlights the need to reconsider instructional approaches and the design of online enviornments. Productive failure is an instructional approach that uses students' cognitive conflicts to enhance their learning, usually in a "practice-teach" sequence. The present experimental study investigated the effect of productive failure in a hypervideo environment which provided timeline comments for learners to navigate different part of videos. Forty-one students particiaped the experiment, randomly assighed into the experimental group - productive failure and the control group - direct instructional. A post-test and cognitive load scale was used to assess the performance of students. It was found that, compared to direct instructional methods, productive failure strategies significantly improved learner performance, reducing intrinsic cognitive load. The study contributes to the design of hypervideos to facilitate learner-to-learner interactons, while preventing learners from becoming overloaded.