Instructional investigations with video from the Video and Image Data Access (VIDA) database are more equitable but less investigative than labs with live organisms

This study attempts to find out if student investigations with video from the VIDA database can replace hands‐on investigation. Live organisms versus digital video of the organisms were used to challenge students’ naive ideas and misconceptions about blood, the heart, circulatory pattern, and open or closed systems. Three faculty taught 259 biology students who were divided into five classes using microscopes (128 students) and five classes using digital video (131 students) to compare blood transport between invertebrates, fish, and humans. Some students still had incorrect ideas about circulation, but others changed their prior ideas to accurate ideas about human blood circulation. After video investigations, students held more positive perceptions of their classroom environment, with a medium effect size for student cohesiveness (0.55) and cooperation (0.40) and a small effect size for equity (0.23). After microscope investigations, students held more positive perceptions with a medium effect size for student cohesiveness (0.46) and a smaller effect size for cooperation (0.31), but no difference in their perceptions of equity. The use of microscopes had a clear effect on perception of the investigation dimension of the learning environment (0.37) that was not detected with the video treatment. Findings suggest that video should not replace investigations with live organisms. Our next instructional design studies will focus on explicit questions combining both approaches to help students transfer their discoveries to understand human blood circulation beyond rote memorization.