YouTube and Education: A Scoping Review

YouTube has evolved to a global platform for formal and informal education. In contrast to traditional sources of learning multimedia, YouTube is a social platform with numerous characteristics that make its real value for education not obvious. We neither know how reliable the learning content on YouTube is, what best-practice strategies for using this platform in education are nor how watching YouTube affects students’ performance and behavior. To shed light on these questions, we conducted a scoping review of the literature on YouTube and education. A total of 647 publications were included and analyzed thematically. Four research themes could be identified: (1) Content creation and assessment (2) User attitudes and acceptance (3) Usage strategies and behaviors (4) Impact on student learning. The findings of the respective studies were analyzed and compiled theme by theme. The main results of this review are: (1) There is an increasing concern about content quality on YouTube. (2) Despite versatile production and usage strategies, no relationships were established between such strategies and learning. (3) Most studies on the impact of YouTube on student learning reported positive results in terms of enhanced skills, competencies, interest, motivation, engagement levels, or test performance. We conclude that YouTube is a rich, free, easy-to-use, and enjoyable source of learning content. However, the challenges and risks associated with this platform suggest that it is best suitable for guided learning where teachers make or select the content and include it in a well-defined, pedagogy-driven learning context.