Learning-by-Watching: YouTube and Skill Acquisition

Modern video and social media platforms host an unprecedented collection of easily accessible digital learning materials, yet this content remains out of reach of many skill seekers in low- and middle-income countries. This project asks whether mobile internet can support on-the-job skill acquisition in small informal firms when key barriers to digital learning are relaxed.

Focusing on tailoring firms around Kampala, Uganda, the project will pilot interventions that address three constraints to learning from online video platforms: affordability, access to relevant and understandable content, and the ability to identify and use useful content in a noisy digital environment. Candidate treatment arms provide (i) free mobile data plus an informational nudge, (ii) free data plus curated, language-accessible instructional videos, or (iii) free data plus training on how to search for, assess, and apply online content. The pilot will proceed in two stages: a logistical pilot to refine intervention delivery and measurement, followed by a mini-RCT with a comparison group and the most feasible treatment arm(s). Primary outcomes are profits and applied skill acquisition, the latter measured through an incentivized demand-drop exercise in which firms complete a novel production task that is independently scored.

Implemented in partnership with Dyadic Research Impacts, a local survey research firm, the project tests a scalable, low-cost approach to skill development that leverages existing global instructional content, while identifying frictions that prevent mobile internet access from translating into on-the-job human capital formation.