VOCAB! POWERGEAR: A TEACHER’S LENS - GUIDING TEACHERS TO EVALUATE YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR ENGLISH VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION FOR LEARNERS WITH AUTISM

About the Project

Teachers evaluating YouTube videos for English vocabulary lessons need to judge how well the content and presentation suit learners with autism. Attractive visuals alone offer little assurance of instructional suitability. Vocab! PowerGear addresses this need through a web-based resource that supports teachers in learning to evaluate videos independently. Its three instructional components combine a Video User Guide, Pre-Assessed YouTube Video Samples as worked examples, and a customised YouTube Video Suitability Checklist E-Rubric. Teachers apply 35 criteria covering Content, Instructional Design and Technical Design, then receive an automatically calculated suitability score. A Personal Video Playlist and Video Bank support the organisation and reuse of evaluated videos. The design responds to needs analysis findings that teachers wanted practical guidance and flexible professional learning when assessing online materials. Expert validation of the preliminary e-Rubric yielded an S-CVI/Ave of 0.970, and 33 criteria achieved complete agreement. In a subsequent prototype evaluation, at least four of five multidisciplinary experts responded positively to every evaluated item. The expert reviews supported the content validity of the preliminary e-Rubric and gave a favourable assessment of the prototype. Teachers can use the worked examples to understand the criteria before evaluating other YouTube videos themselves. The resource accommodates both educational and non-educational videos, giving teachers a process they can apply beyond the examples provided. The Video User Guide supports independent use, so teachers can work at their own pace without attending a separate training session. Vocab! PowerGear will remain free for teachers as a contribution to the teaching community. Planned inclusion in DELIMa would make it accessible to more teachers. Keywords: autism, English vocabulary instruction, self-directed teacher learning, video evaluation, Vocab! PowerGear