About educational videos 

In this guide:

• About educational videos
• Why use Educational videos? 
• Educational videos benefit student learning
• Readings that may be helpful

About educational videos

Educational videos are pre-recorded videos that can be watched by students at any time. These can include talking heads, PowerPoint presentations, demonstrations, instructional videos and recordings of lectures. Educational Videos are designed to support and enhance student learning by engaging them in a multi-faceted manner.

Why use Educational videos? 

Educational videos offer asynchronous resources which students can engage with in their own time. They allow facilitators of learning to create concise video materials by planning and focusing on the intended learning outcome(s) as a learning activity. 

They can also measure student engagement through statistics relating to the number of views and length of time a video has been watched. The latter can help the teacher to reflect on the effectiveness of their video in terms of timings and structures. Studies have shown that shorter well-structured videos help to maintain attention of the viewer. 

If used as part of a suite of resources – educational videos can help to form part of a holistic approach to teaching and learning that embraces different mediums and formats. 
They can also be used in conjunction with further activities where learners can discuss the materials through collaboration and test their individual understanding through quizzes (tests) and multiple-choice questions in self-study exercises. 

Educational videos benefit student learning by: 

• Enabling students who are unable to attend classes on campus to remain connected to these core scheduled sessions
• Supporting student’s independent learning through offering asynchronous learning resources
• Exploring further resources or offering details about particular aspects of a course, like assessments or learning activities
• Complement asynchronous engagement, such as through Moodle forums
• Support building a connected online community of students
• Support students in understanding complex language and give opportunities for students to go more slowly through material and develop a better understanding of concepts
• Enable students to access materials from other disciplines to support extracurricular activities. 

Consider how to encourage your students to use educational videos strategically/for learning in complexity. Even if students watch the video in their own time, suggest watching it at the same time as someone else, or with a group of others so they can discuss the ideas 

Readings that may be helpful: 

‘Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content’ Cynthia J. Brame, Published Online: 13 Oct 2017

Short videos improve student learning in online education, Wen-Jung Hsin, John Cigas

Using Supplementary Video in Multimedia Instruction as a Teaching Tool to Increase Efficiency of Learning and Quality of Experience, Milos Ljubojevic, Vojkan Vaskovic, Srecko Stankovic, and Jelena Vaskovic,