From Twitch to YouTube Live: A Systematic Literature Review of Streaming in Higher Education

Abstract

Although the term streaming is polysemic, nowadays it is generally understood as real time communication between broadcasters of information (or streamers) and their community, through popular platforms such as Twitch or YouTube Live. As there is a lack of knowledge about the educational impact of this kind of streaming on higher education, the main objective is to explore how educational experiences have been documented in scientific literature. The specific research questions are (1) How may streaming educational practices in the university context appear in scientific literature, (2) What types of scientific production (conference proceedings, book chapters, scientific articles, etc.) have documented these experiences? (3) What elements of this culture (specific platforms, communication codes, presence of informal elements, etc.) are present in these practices allowing us to consider them streaming experiences? (4) To what extent have these projects been evaluated and what are their educational results? The study is grounded in theoretical perspectives that challenge the existing gap between educational research and impactful learning practices in both face-to-face and eLearning environments. It explores whether, as we hypothesize, there is a lag between the consolidation of new media in popular culture and various disciplines, and its integration into educational contexts. Following PRISMA declaration guidelines, a systematic literature review (SLR) was carried between June 1st and June 9th, 2024 in English language both in Web of Science and Scopus. Starting with a wide collection of results (Scopus n = 426 and Web of Science n = 354) several exclusion criteria were progressively applied before reaching the final sample. Results show that these experiences have been rarely documented (n = 10) with most of them appearing either on journals or conference proceedings. Most experiences still have an instructional bias, not considering the social and cultural dimension of this phenomenon. Although results seem promising, assessment strategies can be improved. Based on these results, researchers emphasize the need to adapt teaching methodologies to leverage the affordances and cultural dynamics of streaming platforms, providing insights for future research and pedagogical innovation. Additionally, they advocate for enhancing teachers' media literacy to better navigate and utilize the distinct features and cultural codes of this medium effectively.