University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Scholarship at Penn Libraries Penn Libraries 2011 Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University Anu Vedantham University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers Part of the Higher Education Administration Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, Science and Technology Studies Commons, and the Secondary Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Vedantham, A. (2011). Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University. Retrieved from https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/76 Vedantham, A. (2011). Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/76 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University Abstract Online video creation for YouTube and Facebook is a newly popular activity for college students. Women have explored social networking technologies at about the same level as men, but have expressed less interest in computer programming and multimedia design. Online video creation includes aspects of both social networking and programming / multimedia design and provides an interesting forum for examining gender-related differences. This mixed methods study uses questionnaire data from 31% of the population of first year students attending a highly selective research university. The study explores how online video creation varies by gender after incorporating theoretical concepts of confidence, self-efficacy, attitudes toward computers, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, social influence and demographic variables such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, immigrant status and high school size. The theories of self-efficacy (Bandura), stereotype threat (Steele) and learned helplessness (Abramson) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) inform the conceptual framework. Using descriptive and multivariate regression analyses as well as qualitative inquiry, the study finds significant gender differences in creation of online videos and roles played with video editing. Men report more participation in video creation and editing, as well as more participation in creating videos for required school projects, a notable finding for policy and practice. Attitudes toward computers and TAM explain observed gender differences. The Mac computer platform is associated with greater likelihood of video creation. Study results inform academic support interventions to promote media literacy, computer confidence and consistent perceptions of ease of use of video technologies for all students. Keywords gender, video, technology, online, confidence, acebook,F YouTube, learned helplessness, stereotype threat, Technology Acceptance Model Disciplines Higher Education Administration | Higher Education and Teaching | Science and Technology Studies | Secondary Education and Teaching Comments Vedantham, A. (2011). Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University. (Doctoral dissertation). University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/library_papers/76 MAKING YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK VIDEOS: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ONLINE VIDEO CREATION AMONG FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ATTENDING A HIGHLY SELECTIVE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY Anuradha Vedantham A DISSERTATION In EDUCATION Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education 2011 Supervisor of Dissertation: _________________________________________ Laura W. Perna, Professor of Education Dean, Graduate School of Education: _________________________________________ Andrew C. Porter, Dean Dissertation Committee: Laura W. Perna, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Joni Finney, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Yasmin Kafai, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Making Youtube and Facebook Videos: Gender Differences in Online Video Creation Among First-Year Undergraduate Students Attending a Highly Selective Research University COPYRIGHT 2011 Anuradha Vedantham DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my husband Renga Iyer. I was a graduate student when we met in 1990 and I am a graduate student today. Thank you for your unswerving love and infinite patience with the twists and turns of my professional life over our 21 years together. iii ACKNOWLEGMENTS Completing this dissertation at age 43, I am keenly aware of the many small happenings that led me here, and the crucial, timely assistance of so many people. As a freshman entering college, I could not have predicted that I would complete a doctorate in higher education focused on freshman experiences. Writing these acknowledgments has led me to reflect on the five years spent on this dissertation and the two decades that led me here. This dissertation would not have been possible without the guidance of my advisor and committee, the support of my colleagues, mentors and collaborators and the affection of my husband, children, extended family and friends. I begin with my thanks to Laura Perna, my dissertation advisor. Laura has dedicated many hours to helping me improve my thinking and writing. She has patiently read so many drafts. Her careful, skilful feedback lies behind almost every paragraph. She guided me from the first principles involved in this study, and provided me with affectionate, caring support through several semesters when I struggled to narrow my topic and craft my research questions. She set high standards for me to meet. I thank Joni Finney and Yasmin Kafai, my committee members for this dissertation. I have had the privilege to attend graduate courses from both of them, learning about education policy, college funding and youth culture. Joni provided crucial policy context for my work. Yasmin guided me to understand implicit assumptions on gender roles. Both took time to share ideas, and clarified my thinking and writing. The idea for this dissertation began through first-hand observation of undergraduates in the Weigle Information Commons at Penn Libraries. Many Penn faculty, staff and students have guided my research methodology, instrument design and iv data collection. During my coursework phase, Marybeth Gasman’s laughter and warmth lightened my dissertation journey and Warren Ewens’ emphasis on mathematical principles made statistics meaningful. I created the first draft for the questionnaire for Tim Victor’s survey design course. Conversations with Myrna Cohen and Janet Tighe helped me plan data collection. Chia-ying Pan helped me with APA citation style. Joan Lippincott at the Coalition for Networked Information and Lawrence Johnson from the New Media Consortium provided national perspectives and suggestions for my questionnaire. Samantha Morris shared the ATCUS v2.0 instrument and Chyan Yang shared a YouTube questionnaire; both documents improved my questionnaire. Kyle Stephens guided me through Institutional Review Board approvals; Anne Tiao and Anita Mastroieni helped me prepare materials for review. Paul Rozin met with me several times to guide my design process, mentor me through the proposal process, improve my questionnaire and help me with pilot tests. Nathan Ensmenger guided me through a wonderful discussion of gender roles and technology. Rebecca Stein helped me improve my methodology for collecting information on gender, ethnicity and immigrant status. Julie Lyzinski and Stacey Lopez helped me design effective questions on demographics. Discussions with Andrew Lamas, Matt Waller, Amy Hillier and Carolyn Cannuscio helped clarify my thinking. Manisha Joshi and Susan Sorenson provided excellent suggestions for incentives and outreach that helped me expand my dataset. Data collection was a large component of this dissertation. Janet Ansert provided invaluable assistance with my random sample. Stephanie Weaver, Trish Williams, Tsitsi Jaji, Alison Lalond Wyant and April Herring helped me reach out to students at dormitories. Rebecca Stein, Peter Decherney, Nathan Ensmenger, Patrick Wehner, Jacqui v Sadashige and Sue Weber helped me reach out to students through courses. Christina Costanzo Clark, Janet Tighe and Michele Grab helped me reach out to students through schools. Marjorie Hassen, Myrna Cohen and Karlene Burrell-McRae helped me reach out to students through events. Haftom Khasai and Matt Amalfitano helped me reach out to students informally. My deep appreciation goes to the large number of students who completed questionnaires and attended discussion sessions. John Marcotte, Rumi Morishima and Mike Halperin helped me with survey software and statistical analysis. Warren Ewens guided my data analysis and Pete Kimchuk inspired