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One image says more than 1,000 words, and a moving image often says even more. Suppose you want to explain how to wash your hands before going into production. If you do this in a video, your viewers are likely to get a much clearer picture of how to wash your hands than if they read a written instruction on the subject. Moreover, with video you make the information you want to explain more accessible, for example, to people who have difficulty reading.
So video can greatly enrich your e-learning, but how do you properly apply video in your e-learning? We have figured this out for you and give you some tips in this blog.
A common pitfall when creating a video is to give more information than necessary. The more information you tell extra, the more you deviate from your goal. Your viewers can't remember everything, so make sure you focus on what's most important. Avoid details that distract and only use information that is relevant to the purpose of your video. Always consider before shooting a video what information your target audience needs to understand what you are going to explain and also provide only this information in your video.
Also, make sure that people, animals and objects that don't belong in your video don't show up in your video. For example, if someone just walks or talks through your video, this can distract your viewers. Make sure that your environment in which you record the video is shielded from outside stimuli.
By using different types of cues in your video, you draw your viewers' attention to the information you want to highlight. If you have text in the picture, such as a report from a news bulletin, and you want to highlight the important parts of it, highlight these parts with different colors. The colors will stand out among the black text and catch the attention of your viewers. Circling important information with a striking color also draws attention. And if you use an animation, have important information enlarged on the screen.
In addition, you can give clues yourself to get your viewers' attention. For example, consider explaining a graph: when you talk about a certain line in the graph, it helps if you also point to this line with your finger and follow it. Also, look with your eyes in the direction of the information you want your viewers to focus on and emphasize the words that are essential to your explanation.
Make sure your videos are not too long. People's attention span is usually 2 minutes and our ability to process information is limited, as is the working memory in our brain to remember long pieces of information. Thus, videos longer than 2 minutes are less effective. Therefore, divide long videos into short videos no longer than 2 minutes.
If the video is a bit longer anyway, set short resting moments in your video or give your viewers the option to pause your video. This way, you give your viewers time and space to process information they have received.
If you have someone say text in your video, show that person in your video as well. Your viewers will learn more if they also see the speaker on screen, because the speaker can give visual cues with their hands and eyes in addition to aural ones.
Have the speaker present facing the camera. Viewers bond more with the speaker and learn more if they can look at him or her. Also have the speaker indicate where what is being presented in the video. This can be done with gestures or by pointing. This way, viewers make the connection between what is said and what is shown more quickly. And choose an adult speaker if your target audience is young people. Research has shown that young people learn more from examples presented by an adult than by a peer.
If you want to give an instruction during the video that requires your hands, picture the instruction using your hands as well. Consider, for example, an instruction on how to wash your hands. Showing the instruction with your hands often ensures that your viewers will imitate the instruction with their hands and thus remember it better.
If you make an instructional video on how to build or connect something, show it from your own point of view. Viewers appear to pick up instructions better when they see what is being put together from the instructor's eyes (in first-person perspective), than when they see the instructor busy (in third-person perspective).
Involve your viewers in your video by having them take short notes, complete short assignments on the material covered, or take a short knowledge quiz during the video. By having your viewers repeat information they have seen and heard on a regular basis, they retain the information longer in their memory and can also reproduce the information more easily later.
A great tool for actively engaging your viewers is interactive video. With interactive video, you can make your own assignments appear in your video at any time. For example, think of an explanation of the different steps of a work process. Immediately after this, your viewers will get an on-screen assignment to put these steps in the right order.
If you present a graph in your video, draw it instead of pointing to an already drawn graph. The idea behind this is that this way you take your viewers by the hand and guide them through the graph, making the content of the graph stick with them better. It also gives your viewers the feeling that they are drawing the graph themselves and they can better relate the explanation you give to the content of the graph.
If you want to draw a graph, diagram or picture on a board, do it on a transparent board and position yourself behind the board. When you stand next to a regular blackboard, look at the board and explain, your viewers focus more on you than on the drawing on the board. When you stand behind a transparent blackboard, draw and look at your viewers, they are focused on the drawing and can better see where in the drawing you are working. This way you avoid blocking their view of the drawing with your hands, head or torso.
If your viewers are non-native speakers (they understand Dutch but this is not their native language), give them the option of watching your video with Dutch subtitles. Research shows that watching videos in a second language is always more difficult than in the native language: you have to make more effort to understand and identify words, which can cause you to miss important information. Subtitles help you identify and understand words faster.
Textual explanations to visual information such as diagrams, pictures and maps are often placed in a list below the information, with the idea that viewers will have a better overview of the information that way. However, this forces your viewers to divide their attention between two things: the information itself and the list of explanations below it. Chances are then that your viewers will not remember the explanation in the list. Therefore, always try to place textual explanations next to what the explanation refers to. That way, your viewers only have to focus on one thing at a time.
This tip follows on from the previous tip to put visual information and textual explanations about it as close together as possible. If you want to support information such as diagrams, photos, maps and charts with explanations, do so with spoken text instead of text in or below the information. This will prevent your viewers from having to divide their attention between multiple things happening at the same time in the video.
Précon has experience and expertise in developing videos for e-learning. View our e-learning customization page or contact us at info@precongroup.com, NL +31 (0)30 65 66 010 or BE +32 (0)11 26 99 07.
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