The Effectiveness of “Pencasts” as an Instructional Medium

A “pencast” is a type of video presentation in which recorded digital ink and audio are replayed in synchronization. To create a pencast, a Livescribe“Smartpen” is used to record handwritten content with voice narration. An instructor can use a Smartpen to construct a pencast that replays the solution to a problem with synchronized explanation. Pencasts, are becoming a popular instructional tool, but their educational effectiveness has not been formally studied. Thus, we present a research study which compares the educational effectiveness of pencasts to that of traditional instructional media, specifically, electronic PDF documents. In each study session, students in a Statics course were given one of two tutorials. One tutorial was a pencast, the other was a PDF with identical content. Each session included a preand posttest to measure learning gains. The study comprised two sessions, one concerning belt friction problems, the other wedge friction problems. The study also included a survey of the students’ opinions about the two types of instructional media. While the two treatments provided equivalent and significant learning gains, there was a clear preference among students for the pencast tutorials.