What makes educational videos useful? Design patterns and student perceptions in the Peruvian higher education context

Educational videos have become essential in higher education; however, understanding which design attributes improve their usefulness remains unclear, particularly in Latin American contexts. This study examines how specific design attributes influence Peruvian undergraduate students' perception of the usefulness of this type of digital content. Using Activity Theory as a framework, this study tested a PLS-SEM model organizing eight design attributes into three second-order dimensions: Learning Control (playback speed, video design, duration), Learning Communication (instructor credibility, depth of explanation, clarity), and Learning Context (study-environment suitability, advertising distraction). Data from 128 undergraduates who evaluated a randomly assigned video were analyzed. Results show that Learning Communication and Learning Control significantly predict perceived usefulness, jointly explaining 51.9% of variance, while Learning Context shows no significant effect. Component-level analysis reveals that instructor credibility and explanatory depth are the strongest drivers within communication, while video design and duration dominate control effects. These findings indicate that instructor-related attributes and learner-control features are the primary determinants of educational video usefulness, suggesting that investments in communication quality and navigation affordances yield greater returns than contextual enhancements in resource-constrained settings.