Finding Video-watching Behavior Patterns in a Flipped CS1 Course

Flipped courses often rely on pre-recorded videos that students are expected to watch before in-class time with the instructor. In this study, we investigated the video-watching behavior of students in a flipped CS1 programming course (n=490). We computed three behavioral metrics related to video watching: percentage of the videos watched, the number of times a video was opened to be watched, and when a video is watched with respect to the due date. We used k-medoids clustering on these metrics finding two distinct groups: 1) Low Video Engagement Group (53% of the students) watched 12% of the videos and 2) High Video Engagement Group (47% of the students) watched 75% of the videos. Analysis of these two different groups of engagement showed that students with prior programming experience watch fewer videos. We also found that students that watch more videos perform slightly better on summative assessments in the course. We discuss how regular video watching can be a key learning strategy for some but not all students in a flipped CS1 course, where some students can achieve good learning outcomes with minimal watching of the course videos.