arbiter
JournalsPricingAccount

Evaluating online exercise solution videos versus a detailed explanation in class using data on students’ learning and repetition behavior

Steffen R. Henzel & Christian Holzner

International Review of Economics Education2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iree.2026.100340article
ABDC C
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

We conduct a field experiment to analyze whether online exercise solution videos are a valuable substitute for a detailed explanation in class. Using a Difference-in-Difference identification strategy with student time-fixed effects, we find that videos on-demand reduce students’ performance significantly. Splitting our sample along class attendance shows that the results are driven by those students, who attended class. Given our detailed data on students’ learning and repetition behavior we can show that only one out of four students in the treatment group watched the videos while four out of five students in the control group attended the respective class. Although we observe the typical procrastination behavior among students as the exam approaches we find no evidence that procrastination in the experiment questions compared with all other exercise questions is higher for students in the treatment group compared to the control group. • Difference-in-difference approach to analyze whether online videos are a valuable substitute for a detailed explanation in class. • Providing videos on-demand reduces students’ performance by 42.8 percent of a standard deviation compared to face-to-face teaching. • Effect is driven by students who attend class, suggesting students profit from explanation in class. • Information in videos is not collected very often and on-demand videos do not mitigate procrastination. • Cost-benefit assessment of videos must consider that students need additional skills in self-regulated learning.

Open paper page →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iree.2026.100340

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{steffen2026,
  title        = {{Evaluating online exercise solution videos versus a detailed explanation in class using data on students’ learning and repetition behavior}},
  author       = {Steffen R. Henzel & Christian Holzner},
  journal      = {International Review of Economics Education},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iree.2026.100340},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

Evaluating online exercise solution videos versus a detailed explanation in class using data on students’ learning and repetition behavior

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.