Investigating the Influence of YouTube Educators on Academic Achievement: A Study of Teenagers Preparing for Competitive Exams

YouTube is one of the most widely used applications on the internet in the present times. It is an application used for utilising content in video medium. While the use of YouTube have been initially for entertainment purposes, in the recent times it has been used as a platform for information generation, marketing and serving an educational purpose as well. The study here is interested in understanding the role of YouTube as an educator in enhancing the academic achievement of individuals. A total 352 teenagers have been selected for the purpose of primary data collection and have been analysed using tools such as Principal Component Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression. With a total variance of 58.6%, there are three variables that significantly affect the preference to use YouTube for competitive exams. While the challenges influence negatively and cause the highest variance, it is positively followed by perceived effectiveness and self- directed learning. Lastly, the study examined if the competitive exam a teenager is preparing for can cause an impact on the preference to use YouTube. Interestingly it is found that the type of competitive exam can actually result in a statistically significant mean score difference.