The use of video in online course content needs to be deliberate, meaningful, concise, and engaging. Higher education has shifted its focus away from lectures that solely aim to transfer knowledge and now places greater emphasis on engaging students during lectures and videos, while also streamlining content to focus on core knowledge and its practical application by students. The authors of a systematic review (Noetel et al., 2022) found that developing course resources that use both visual and auditory channels of information processing resulted in improved learning outcomes. They also found that incorporating multimedia can reduce cognitive load by incorporating interactivity and chunking videos and text.
Planning and designing engaging educational videos
When using videos in course content there needs to be deliberate planning and storyboarding. To ensure videos are meaningful and succinct, storyboard the content using the slide deck, ensuring there are about 2 minutes per slide and only have key information on the slide. The 10/20/30 rule suggests you have 10 slides for a 20-minute presentation in 30pt font. This also stops you from trying to put too much information on the slide itself.
Recording for authenticity
It’s important to convey a sense of authenticity and relatability in your presentations to students, so don’t strive for an overly polished product. Be human. Just like in a live lecture, it’s natural to make mistakes and clarify information as you go along. While it’s important to remove any content that could be unclear or misleading, spending excessive time on editing can be counterproductive.
Future-proofing
To ensure the longevity of course content, it is important to create materials that can be reused in future iterations of the course. Avoid including time-bound information, such as dates or specific semesters, and instead, focus on creating content that will remain relevant over time. This approach helps to future-proof course materials and streamline the process of updating and revising content for future use.
Video length and engagement
Searching the internet for the recommended ideal length of a video will produce wildly different results. In many cases, these are not evidence-based results and are often designed more to fit video use in non-educational settings. The length of the video itself is less important than the logical chunking of key ideas. If a video begins to feel lengthy, revisit the content and ensure absolutely everything is necessary and concise. You could also consider creating two videos, one for the content itself, and a second to showcase the examples in practice.
The need for interactivity in engaging educational videos
Most institutions now have tools that allow MCQ style and open-ended questions to be embedded throughout online videos. Research by van der Meij & Bӧckmann (2021) indicated that students “engaged significantly and substantially longer with the video-recorded lecture that included embedded questions. The presence of quizzing resulted in higher overall scores for total time and replays.”. Incorporating quiz-in-video tools into your course content can increase interactivity and allow you to check student comprehension at key points. If the total video duration is quite long, you could consider interspersing videos with other types of content such as activities or readings. This approach provides opportunities for reflection and consolidation of learning between video segments. More on quizzes in the blog post: Checking comprehension with quizzes and in-class polling.
References
Noetel, M., Griffith, S., Delaney, O., Harris, N. R., Sanders, T., Parker, P., del Pozo Cruz, B., & Lonsdale, C. (2022). Multimedia Design for Learning: An Overview of Reviews With Meta-Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 92(3), 413–454. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211052329
van der Meij, H., & Bӧckmann, L. (2021). Effects of embedded questions in recorded lectures. 235–254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-020-09263-x