Over the years we have mostly used readings...recently we been using videos for the first time in a large first year course (880 students)

My personal preferences is still for readings.....

I like that with a reading guide you can skip around the reading, highlight some sections, and really focus student attention. I like that greater detail and depth is just sitting there in between sections highlighted by reading guide. I wonder if it give students a more holistic sense of the shape of knowledge in a particular part of the discipline?

I thinking reading skills are important for students to develop  (don't think we need to develop their video watching skills). I think we would do well to spend more time helping students to become better readers.

I think less is more when it comes to readings....when we started our readings were too long....it seemed that students read for a fixed period of time and stopped wherever they were....now with shorter readings (judging by office hour questions) they are trying to not just do the readings, but actually understand them.

There is tension created by shorter readings...is it is even more important to select great readings. 

With the videos...we are mostly doing voiceover powerpoints and aim for somewhere around 12 minutes per week. Maximum individual videos are 4-6 minutes in length...we noticed student don't have time to watch a 12 minute video...but do have time to watch three 4 minute videos. We embed self test questions using Articulate software, so video stops, asks a question and moves on....video are integrated into Blackboard so answering questions ends up in gradebook....we chose videos for this course only because we didn't like any of the text books

The video are working well but I still prefer readings

jim