Distance Learning Higher Education Institutions have been utilizing technological advancements to effectively provide courses, combining both synchronous and asynchronous learning methodologies and tools. Over the past decade, they have gradually increased the use of pre-recorded video-lectures as a means to deliver asynchronous content to students, providing a richer, more engaging, flexible and accessible learning experience for diverse student populations. Despite the benefits of bite-sized and targeted video-lectures for many disciplines, the process of designing and producing such multimedia content can be demanding, as it requires various resources and the collaboration of several experts.

This study was conducted in 2024 as a pilot implementation, aiming at streamlining the process of video-lecture integration at the Open University of Cyprus (OUC) courses, following the basic principles of multimedia learning and employing the Successful Approximation Model of instructional design. It examines the process of integrating short (<13 minutes) video-lectures for the Business Economics module (10 ECTS) of the MBA course (offered both in Greek and English language). Specifically, it provides an insight of:
(i) the co-design process, where instructors (content experts) collaborated with the OUC’s Laboratory of Educational Material and Methodology (instructional designers and multimedia developers),
(ii) the production process, where multiple technological tools were employed, including Artificial Intelligence voice generator,
(iii) the implementation process, where the video-lectures were integrated into the University’s asynchronous e-learning platform and were utilized by students (end users)
(iv) the evaluation process where data was collected and analyzed via a mixed methods approach.

Overall, the results of this study suggest that the short video-lectures integrated into the Business Economics modules had added value for both students and instructors. Students perceived the video-lectures as useful for their study, interesting, understandable, of good quality, where visual stimuli, narration speech style, tone and speed appeared to be appropriate, even though the narration voice was AI generated. In addition, findings support that video-lecture perceived usefulness was positively affected by how understandable the content was, and video-lecture classification as interesting was positively affected by its speed and students’ interest in watching it. Furthermore, instructors indicated that, despite the time-consuming process, video-lectures allowed them to free time for discussion and engagement during the group online synchronous meetings. This was also evident in students’ feedback, where they highlighted that video-lectures aided their preparation for those meetings and this was positively affected by the video-lecture’s perceived quality. Lastly, findings from analyzing the e-learning platform statistics indicate that there was a decrease in the number of unique viewers as the module progressed, however a good number of students revisited the video-lectures towards the end of the semester, presumably as a means of revision.

Despite the challenges, the pilot implementation was successful, and it provided valuable insights on streamlining the process of co-designing, producing and integrating short video-lectures in the context of a Distance Learning Higher Education Institution.

Keywords: Video-lectures, AI-generated narration, co-design, instructional design, distance learning, business economics.