Educational video and academic performance in higher distance education

In the last years the development of the information and communication technologies has had a significant impact on the university distance learning, both in a quantitative and in a qualitative manner. It has been observed that, despite the appearance of numerous and novel didactic resources, video, in its conventional format or incorporating interactivity, is still preferred by teachers and students to improve the quality of learning process in economic quantitative subjects. The goal of this research is to contribute to the increase of the small number of papers which have been published in our country about the way in which the effects of educational resources in video format (standard and interactive) influence on improving learning in a distance learning university environment. The analysis has been focused on a subject perceived as particularly difficult for students, called Financial Mathematics, which is studied in the Administration and Management Degree, Distance Learning National University (UNED). Over three consecutive academic courses a sufficient representative sample was collected through a sample to verify, by using different statistics techniques, a positive relationship between the use of these resources over the academic performance, the global utility that these resources provided to the students who used them and the added value that these resources presented to them, over other traditional alternatives to study, such as written materials (texts and teaching guides)