Study-With-Me (SWM) videos have become a popular digital tool to support self-regulated learning, particularly among young learners. These videos, available as live streams or pre-recorded sessions, gained widespread attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, surpassing hundreds of millions of views. Despite their growing presence, their impact on learning outcomes remains inconclusive. A limited amount of research suggests that SWM videos foster a sense of virtual companionship, offering social presence and emotional support while allowing learners to maintain autonomy. Many users report that these videos enhance motivation and self-regulation, yet experimental studies, often of confounded comparisons, provide mixed results regarding their effectiveness. While some findings indicate that SWM videos improve perceived agency and focus, others suggest that the presence of a study partner on screen may increase perceived cognitive load. Nonetheless, qualitative analyses highlight their role in creating structured, personalized study environments. This literature summary reviews the current literature on SWM videos, discussing their cognitive, social, and motivational effects on learners. By synthesizing key findings from the current literature on SWM videos, this presentation explores how these videos may influence learning behaviors, such as fostering (para-)social interactions and relationships with content creators or providing an alternative form of social accountability, to build testable hypotheses. By identifying gaps in the literature, this work also proposes future research directions, including controlled experimental studies to clarify their impact on learning outcomes and the role of individual differences in their effectiveness. This discussion aims to propose a new perspective of how research on SWM videos contribute to a better understanding of social influences on learning with digital media and SWM videos’ place in the contemporary ecology of collaborative learning.

Keywords: Study-With-Me, self-regulated learning, social presence, learning partners.