Video as a new teaching tool to increase student motivation Edna Bravo, Department of Management Technical University of Catalonia Barcelona, Spain edna.bravo@upc.edu Beatriz Amante, Department of engineering projects Technical University of Catalonia Barcelona, Spain beatriz.amante@upc.edu Pep Simo, Mihaela Enache, Vicenc Fernandez Department of Management Technical University of Catalonia Barcelona, Spain Abstract— The main objective of this research is to explore the results of the use of videos as an educational tool which helps increasing students’ motivation in any discipline. The study is based on several streaming videos created as a support material for learning and used by 12 lecturers with 487 students in three different degrees of engineering (Mechanical, Industrial and Management, and Aeronautical) at the School of Industrial and Aeronautical Engineering of Terrassa (ETSEIAT). The paper describes the different areas and ways in which this innovative learning tool has been used and emphasizes the skills developed in each application. Finally, it presents the results of the impact of the use of videos upon students’ motivation. Keywords-student motivation; Low Cost videos; Higher Education; teaching; pedagogy I. INTRODUCTION It is widely accepted that student motivation is a key element within the learning process [1]. The extant educational literature has proven the positive effect of using new technologies as a support tool for enhancing learning efficacy [2], [3]. These technologies capture students’ attention as students are familiarized with them and they can easily use these tools. Among these tools, video has been used ‘off-line’ for many years to support student learning in a variety of settings [4]. Nowadays, a new concept called “low-cost educational video” has been defined as a short demonstration stream video which has a very specific goal and has been created in a very short period of time, with few resources and that can be combined or embedded within other materials of a course [5]. This kind of video allows lecturers to eliminate a great number of the common problems related to the video: the necessary resources (both budget and time) decrease, the process of upgrading the videos is simplified, and it is possible to efficiently fit the video into the course according to the lecturer paradigm. This shows that learning is created from the interaction between motivational and cognitive variables [6]. The authors who analyze the use of videostreaming as a learning tool have centered their research efforts on analyzing the advantages and the disadvantages of using this new technological tool [7], [8], [9]. Nevertheless, none of these studies have qualitatively examined the effect of the use of these tools upon students´ motivation. An in-depth analysis of this effect may help lecturers develop contents which are compatible with these new technologies, that in addition to meeting the educational objectives of understanding, self-learning and efficiently should also exploit the full potential of motivation, as one of the most important factors for obtaining positive results in the learning process. Drawing on Shephard’s [10] research agenda regarding the use of videos as an innovative teaching tool, this paper is aimed at exploring the effect of the use of videos for assessing the enhancement of students’ learning motivation. The remainder of this paper is structured as follows; next section presents a literature review on motivation; third section explains the methodology we drew upon, and finally, fourth section describes the findings of the exploratory qualitative research centered on the effect of the use of videos upon students’ motivation. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Motivation in Learning There is a link between motivation and learning outcomes. Some authors consider that these results depend both on students' prior knowledge and the factors that motivate them to learn [11]. Motivation is a process that requires students to perform physical or mental activities for achieving their goals [12]. Learning arises from the interaction between cognitive and motivational variables [1], [13]. Motivational variables have been widely studied by the educational theories. These studies have found that students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations have a high impact upon the learning process. Ryan and Deci [14] defined intrinsic motivation as a motivation that originates within the individual. According to these authors intrinsically motivated students learn because they are driven by an inner sense of satisfaction. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that is generated by external factors [15]. Thus, extrinsically motivated students achieve their learning objectives entrusted to receive external rewards. Several theories on students’ motivational behavior have emphasized the constructs of expectancy, value and affect [16], [17], [18]. Expectation refers to students’ beliefs regarding what they hope to achieve by performing a certain task. The value construct focuses on the reasons why students agree to perform certain academic tasks. Finally, affect encompasses students’ concerns for academic tasks which are directly related to psychological aspects such as the anxiety