Citation
Christensen, C., & Cincebeaux, M. (2024). YouTube’s ABCs and 123s: Describing the quality of early literacy and math videos on YouTube. SRI International.
Abstract
In recent years, children’s video viewing has shifted from television to online streaming platforms like YouTube. While such platforms include many educational videos for children, we know little about the educational value of the content in these videos.
To understand the learning opportunities available to children when they watch videos online, this paper describes the quality, duration, and popularity of a sample of 1,198 YouTube videos focused on early literacy and math topics. We found that while most of these videos use concrete examples to illustrate learning content, only about half directly address the audience or involve characters, and very few integrate learning content into the narrative. Further, videos in our sample that directly addressed the audience were less popular, as measured by views and likes, as were videos that included a greater variety of math topics. We discuss important ways that user-generated educational videos may differ from educational television programs, including decreased reliance on narratives and characters as compared to educational television programs. Our findings also hint at novel influences on the content and quality of online videos, such as the likelihood that the algorithm will recommend a video or that a viewer will like it. Finally, we discuss implications for parents, content creators, and researchers.
