With the education landscape evolving, and more and more individuals turning to the Internet as a primary source of learning and research, many tertiary institutions are using video to get their message across.  This is a great use of available technology  but the success of these efforts is not necessarily a given. 

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Look at the most popular videos on YouTube. In amongst the Justin Bieber phenomena, you are unlikely to find much in the way of educational video content. The fact is the masses (male and female) would far rather gawp at Lady Gaga in her (somewhat terrifying) three-quarters naked glory than they would get down to the often dull business of learning something through online video. As an educator trying to capture an online audience via video, you are unlikely to change that.  However, there are several techniques that you can use to make your videos more gripping, more entertaining and more likely to fulfil their primary purpose – the dissemination of information. 

At Quirk Education, we have first-hand experience of using video for knowledge sharing. Our videos have evolved considerably since we produced our first drafts way back in 2009. I like to think our new videos are not only significantly slicker, but that our students learn more from them – not because the quality of the content is better – it is probably on  par – but because we have learnt, through a process of trial and error what works for our students and what doesn’t. Below is a synthesis of some of our key lessons.

1.    Keep it short

The first videos we made were about 15 minutes long. At the time I worried that they were too short and thus not in keeping with my idea of the form that an academic lecture ‘should’ take.  They were meaty alright, but at the end of the day, they had two fundamental flaws:

•    Primarily, the files were too large for many of our students’ limited bandwidth capacity.
•    They were also so boring that they made me want to gouge my own eyes out.

Outside of a face-to-face lecture, it is hard to maintain an audience’s attention for a solid 15 minutes because there is no direct contact or contract between the lecturer and the learner. That is, unless you’re sharing content so gripping that your audience remains hooked. Except for cases where your content showcases the discovery of extra-terrestrial life infiltrating the White House, and your target audience is embodied by fervent conspiracy theorists, this is unlikely.

Keep your lectures short and sweet 3 – 6 minutes is optimum.

2.    Make sure the content is relevant and suits the medium

Because online learning is self-motivated, it is important that learners are able to clearly see the links between the course notes, their video lectures and their assignments – there needs to be a progression in understanding and an unfolding of knowledge in much the same way as it occurs in an offline environment. However, without the on-hand assistance to connect the dots, this needs to be obvious from the outset. In addition to this, it is critical that content is presented to them in an accessible way.  

When planning a video, consider the content at hand in its entirety and decide which points could be better demonstrated by this medium. In our eMarketing course for example, we realised that by the time exams come along, students have consumed a huge volume of note-based course work and are probably stressed and fatigued. They need tips for preparing but may not be enamoured with the idea of reading about it. We produced a video for this purpose so that, to some extent, our learners could benefit passively from inside insight.

3.    Find ways to grab your learners’ attention

Exciting, relevant content is all very well. Often though, it is unlikely to strike the same emotive note as a video like Charlie Bit My Finger.  That means that there needs to be something in educational videos that grips the audience while keeping them engaged with the content. The way I see it, there are two key ways of doing this.

•    Use a consistent character or type of character to build a relationship with your audience
•    Make use of emotive hooks to keep them interested. Humour is always a good option here.

Kat, our exceptionally talented Head of Content, has struck gold in her combined implementation of both of these tactics and her team of scriptwriters has followed her example. . We feature two key characters in our videos, both of whom appear alongside various subject relevant experts to discuss pertinent topics. The majority are hosted by the charming, knowledgeable, but temperamental Shaun Oakes while a few courses feature the oh-so-British (the accent is genuine), pseudo-suave Joseph C. Lawrence.  These characters bring consistency to the videos, they bring a relationship-focused feel and they inevitably bring an element of humour to the final product.

4.    Don’t repeat content – unless it is very complex

This is another mistake that I will admit to making in the early days of video production at Quirk Education. Again, copying the more traditional academic model, we based our video content on the course notes our learners received. It was essentially a summary of what they were expected to read in their notes. Not that smart, or interesting, in retrospect. Fortunately, those dark days are behind us. 

Video content should complement the other materials learners interact with. It should further their knowledge, rather than rehashing what they should have already learnt. Following this model creates an incentive to watch the videos as well as providing an additional interest factor. There is one exception to this – complex concepts are often better understood with clear illustration – a luxury provided by video. Where you are trying to communicate a challenging idea, learners will often benefit from clarification in a short video.

5.    Focus on the practical application of what you’re teaching

Theoretical knowledge is all very well, and in fact, often is a very necessary foundation of learning a new skill.  However, there comes a point, particularly when you are dealing with working professionals, where there is a need to know how to take that theory and apply it in the real world. Video -often a dull way to outline theory - can go a long way toward highlighting its practical application. This will also help to create a cohesive thread to tie your content together. By way of a last example, in our Social Media course, there is a video that focuses on the practical ways to manage a Social Media Reputation crisis.

To wrap up, video can be a powerful tool in education. Using it successfully requires finding a balance between outstanding content and an interesting mechanism for communicating that. These tips are a starting point and, as I have illustrated here, successful implementation is often reliant on a process of learning what your audience needs and what they want to watch.