The Internet promised us a revolution in learning. What we ended up with looks more like educational TV on small screens. Why is that? And how might we change it?

In his 1995 science fiction novel Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson describes “A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer,” a magical learning device that was designed to help children learn to think for themselves. The primer looked like an old-fashioned book, but it could tell interactive stories that would adapt to the learner’s surroundings. But not only that, the primer knew when a learner was sad or struggling and could provide motivation and support as needed. The stories it told were magical and playful, and they combined illustrations, rich media, and conversations with an actual human being, who would connect with the learner in real time.

Even in 1995, large parts of the technology that were needed to create such a primer seemed just around the corner. But somehow the promise of the digital primer never became a reality. Instead, we’ve ended up largely with an electronic version of the same old educational models that never worked all that well in the analog world. It’s time to question some of the assumptions underlying the use of technology for learning.

Over the past few years, a big trend in online learning has been to move lots of content and learning materials online in the form of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). While these courses cover a wide range of subjects and exist on a number of different platforms, one thing nearly all MOOCs have in common is a focus on delivering content to the learner through video. The majority of these videos look like traditional lectures chopped up into smaller chunks, in the style of a “talking head” (lecturer talks to the class) or “tablet capture” (lecturer writes on the blackboard while talking).

Examples of the “talking head” (left) and “tablet capture” (right) style lecture videos that are seen most frequently in MOOCs.

The choice of video is not obvious. MOOC videos are not cheap to produce. Routinely, video is the single most expensive item in a MOOC’s budget, in both time and money. And despite the relatively high cost of video production, there is scant research into the effectiveness of video as a pedagogical tool for MOOCs. What little research does exist is focused on engagement metrics (e.g., analysis of clickstream data and viewing statistics), which may or may not serve as an effective proxy for measuring learning. So why, then, are MOOCs so deeply invested in video?

Wanting to learn more, the MIT Media Lab’s Learning Over Education initiative began collaborating with researchers at The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in August 2014. We reviewed the available literature, interviewed experts in the field, and studied how video was being used in over 20 MOOCs. The full report, Video and Online Learning: Critical Reflections and Findings From the Field, is available through the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Some of our more interesting findings and three recommendations for the field are below.