4 Tips For Using Video to Enhance Your Online Courses

When you think about Vine and YouTube, it’s easy to see how popular video is becoming as a medium for information in the virtual world. Video creates a virtual experience that most closely mimics reality. The ability to see things in motion, versus reading about them in plain text or viewing a series of images will enhance a learner’s understanding of a subject by pulling it into their world. When used effectively, video in eLearning offers astounding benefits, and opens the door to new possibilities.

Create field trips with videos

Some universities have already implemented video technology for this purpose and have seen positive results. Most notably, the University of Arizona’s online platform uses virtual field trips for educational enrichment. Instead of reading about a place, a virtual field trip offers learners a more encompassing experience, allowing them to feel as though they’ve been to the place in question. Virtual field trips through museums and exhibitions that are relevant to the curriculum helps students connect with the subject matter, while simultaneously improving their understanding of the content.

Tie videos to written content with questions

One of the biggest mistakes you can make with supplemental videos is having them to float disconnectedly beside the content. If you aren’t tying the content together, a video is just an additional feature with no added worth. Video content should offer more information than what is placed within the text, with adequate visual and auditory representation of the content. To inspire more attention, try tethering the content of videos to a small quiz related to the video presentation. Video and text content should always be cohesive.

Production value is important

We all remember the human growth and development videos from our days in high school. They were grainy videos with bad acting and terrible scripting, and we couldn’t wait for them to be over. If the videos you’re providing fall within that category, then you probably need to reconsider your approach.

You don’t need a million dollar budget to create supplemental video with respectable production value. Dry and boring presentations that are terrible to look at will annoy your learners. High quality video and audio is important, and so is original, compelling content. Recycling outdated information and presenting it obnoxiously is a waste of both your time and your learners’ time. Don’t make a video just for the sake of making a video.

Shorter videos are more effective

You may have heard that repetition is an effective tool to drill information into students, and this is true. Repetition should be spread throughout mediums; some of it in text, some of it in video, some of it in images. No one is going to devote their full attention to a redundant lecture or slideshows that go back to the same image every few minutes.

With a video, a learner can pause and rewind. If they feel the need to do so, they can take the information at their own pace while jotting down notes. If they need to refresh that information, they can watch the video again. They aren’t going to do that if they feel like you’ve already beaten the concept to death.

Videos don’t appeal strictly to visual learners. Auditory learners will also absorb the information better, and hands-on learners will be able to easily see the things they’re trying to replicate. Nothing beats video content for taking learning to the next level, as long as you’re providing the right kind of video.

Kelly Smith works at CourseFinder. She’s interested in new trends in the eLearning industry. She’s keen on work-life balance and healthy work environments.