In part, the increased use of video and its potential to enhance student learning and engagement reflects the larger prominence of video in people’s lives generally. Video consumption habits have changed dramatically as a consequence of improvements in Internet connectivity and portability (Web-connected portable devices, broadband, 3G) (Smyth 2011); the proliferation of technologies that enable cheaper and faster creation, editing, distribution, and consumption of video (Kaufman and Mohan 2009; public expectations about the availability of media property; daily habits of consuming and exchanging media property; and the influence of “game-changing” companies such as YouTube (Kaufman and Mohan 2009).

In the Asia-Pacific, nearly four out of five Web users now view online video each month (International Television Expert Group 2010), and as of 2009 the majority of Internet traffic worldwide comprised the sharing of audiovisual files on peer-to-peer and file-sharing networks (Kaufman and Mohan 2009). Video consumption can only be expected to increase dramatically. While in 2007, eight hours of video were uploaded to YouTube every minute, this had jumped to 48 hours by mid-2011 (AFP 2011) and to 100 hours per minute in 2014 (YouTube 2014). Over six billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube, with over one billion unique users visiting the Web site each month (YouTube 2014).

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