Background: Pharmacology is a vital course in nursing involving numerous concepts, making it challenging for educators and students to teach and learn the course, respectively. As YouTube videos become a powerful academic resource in understanding challenging courses, most studies demonstrate that online educational videos effectively improve students' learning process. However, what makes these videos effective in teaching has yet to be discovered.
Objectives: This paper typified the teaching strategies of nursing pharmacology YouTube videos to manage cognitive load and promote student engagement. Additionally, the use of these strategies was correlated with the videos' Video Power Indexes [VPIs].
Methods: This study employed a mixed methods design. 52 YouTube videos about nursing pharmacology were used for analysis. Watching these videos generated transcriptions to typify teaching strategies using thematic content analysis. Quantitative parameters such as likes, dislikes, and videos were computed to get the Video Power Index [VPI]. VPI of the videos was correlated with the identified strategies using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r).
Results: With the comprehensive characterization of strategies from the videos, this study uncovered two themes, Infoxication Antagonists and Attention Agonists, as the composition of the V-CAPS: Video's Constructive and Adaptive Pedagogical Strategies. This model describes how nurse YouTubers simplify complex pharmacology concepts while maintaining the viewers' concentration in watching the videos. Results also revealed that Infoxication Antagonists and the duration of the videos have significantly moderate influence, and Attention Agonists have a significantly weak correlation with the VPIs.
Conclusion: The study's findings present teaching strategies to reduce cognitive load and promote student engagement. These can provide valuable insights for nursing educators in teaching the course and using videos to promote the students' optimum learning.
Keywords: Cognitive load; Pharmacology; Student engagement; Teaching; YouTube videos.
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