https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-025-00461-z
Research
What makes a good quantum outreach video? An evaluation framework for a quantum video playlist
1
Department of Physics, University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinkatu 15, 40014, Jyväskylä, Finland
2
Institut für Didaktik der Physik, Universität Leipzig, Vor dem Hospitaltore 1, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
3
Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik und Physik, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167, Hannover, Germany
4
Istituto Nazionale di Ottica, CNR-INO, Largo Fermi 6, 50125, Firenze, Italy
5
Dipartimento di Fisica Ettore Pancini, Università degli studi Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo - Via Cinthia, 21, 80126, Napoli, Italy
6
MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands
7
Department of Management, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210, Aarhus, Denmark
8
Quantum Talent & Learning Centre Amsterdam, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amstelcampus, Rhijnspoorplein 2, 1091 GM, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
a
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
6
November
2025
Accepted:
27
December
2025
Published online:
2
April
2026
Abstract
With increasing applications and industrialization of quantum-based technologies, quantum literacy is becoming progressively important for the general public. Online outreach videos are a popular tool due to their adaptability to complex contents. However, they can contain misinformation and foster inaccurate interpretations of quantum principles. The European Quantum Technology Flagship is addressing this by curating educational materials available to the public. Nevertheless, the community is still lacking an unambiguous method to assess the explanatory quality of quantum videos. Such a development would benefit teachers, science communicators and those who want to foster quantum knowledge outside of specialist endeavors. To close this gap, we iteratively developed an evaluative framework for quantum outreach videos, drawing on existing literature concerning educational videos. Two raters applied the final version of the framework to 20 videos (Cohen’s kappa 0.48). The results showed that some subcategories were coded rarely or not reliably enough, so a condensed version of the framework was introduced (Cohen’s kappa 0.59). We foresee an application of this framework to collections of quantum outreach videos. It illuminates the aspects to consider when creating such videos and highlights the importance of better defining how using certain subcategories can improve the explanatory quality of a video.
Key words: Quantum videos playlist / Quantum outreach / Quantum Flagship / Video explanatory quality evaluation framework
Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-025-00461-z.
Daria Anttila, Philipp Bitzenbauer, Stina Scheer and Diana Tartaglia contributed equally to this work.
© The Author(s) 2026
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
