Video tutorial is one of the best media for teaching and learning. It can be applied in numerous fields of studies such as medical, computer sciences, as well as an engineering field as to give an instruction on how to use appliances, devices, or systems. The use of video tutorial captions, the voice of command of instruction, the quality of the video and the system used are among the contributing factors for the success or failure of a video tutorial. However, it is unknown if the type of voice of command may aid in improving the learning performance of video tutorial of engineering machinery. 

The objectives of the study are: (i) to evaluate the effect of active and passive voice as the command of instruction on the machine’s video tutorial on learning performance of the video tutorial; and (ii) to evaluate the effect of active and passive voice as the command of instruction on the safety, equipment, and procedure part of machine’s video tutorial on learning performance of the video tutorial. Sixteen participants were recruited and randomly assigned into two different groups, namely Active and Passive. The Active group and Passive group were stimulated with four video tutorials that used an active voice and passive voice respectively. After the video tutorial, a participant was assessed with a quiz that covered the content of the tutorials. 

The finding shows that there is a significant difference in the learning performance for Active group (M=33.687, SD=3.891) and Passive group (M=24.625, SD=6.507) conditions; t (8) = 3.381, p = 0.004. In the safety and procedure part of the video tutorial, the findings also show a significant difference. In safety criteria; Active group (M=2.156, SD=0.376) and Passive group (M=1.234, SD=0.618) conditions; t (8) = 3.605, p = 0.003. In procedure criteria, Active group (M=4.234, SD=0.528) and Passive group (M=3.016, SD=1.095) conditions; t (8) = 2.836, p = 0.018. While for the equipment criteria, there is no significant different in the scores for Active group (M=2.031, SD=0.485) and Passive group (M=1.906, SD=0.400) conditions; t (8) = 0.562, p = 0.583. The results from this study provide additional information regarding the use of active voice in command of instruction for video tutorial is better in improving learning performance in general, particularly for engineering machinery.