YouTube is widely used for informal learning, where learners explore lectures and tutorials without a predefined curriculum. However, learning across videos remains fragmented: learners must decide what to watch, how videos relate, and how knowledge builds. Existing tools provide partial support but treat planning and learning as separate activities, lacking a persistent interaction structure that connects them. Grounded in self-regulated learning theory (SRLT), we introduce YT-Pilot, a pathway-aware learning system that operationalizes the learning pathway as a persistent, user-facing interaction structure spanning planning and learning. The pathway coordinates goal setting, planning, navigation, progress tracking, and cross-video assistance. Through a within-subjects study (N=20), we show that YT-Pilot significantly improves perceived goal clarity, pathway coherence, and progress tracking, while shifting interaction toward pathway-level reasoning across multiple resources.
@article{arxiv.2604.03543,
title = {YT-Pilot: Turning YouTube into Structured Learning Pathways with Context-Aware AI Support},
author = {Dina Albassam and Kexin Quan and Mengke Wu and Sanika Pande and ChengXiang Zhai and Yun Huang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.03543},
year = {2026}
}