Today, people are using video more than ever on their smartphones and laptops, in everyday life. With the evolvement of technology over the years, it has become more feasible for eLearning professionals to use videos in their online courses. Of course, using videos in eLearning has its pros and cons.
Deciding whether or not you use video in your course depends on many factors, including time, budget, and subject matter. These are a few pros and cons to using video in eLearning.
Pros:
- Keeps students interested and engaged
- Breaks up monotony and “page-turning”
- Reduces the reading load
- Reduces training time
- Helps visual learners retain information
- Enhances understanding
- Demonstrates easily
Cons:
- More expensive
- Time-consuming to script, record, and edit
- Low quality video is more distracting than useful
- Uses more bandwidth and takes longer to load
- Logistics of scheduling the recording, editing, and the resources
- Video storage – many learning management systems allow you to upload or embed the video directly within their platform. However, if you are unable to do this, you need to consider where to house the video.
When should you use video?
It is important to always have a clear instructional purpose behind your online video. The cost of developing videos has gone down over the years, however, it still requires a large amount of time and resources. So, when should you use video in your online course? These are a few examples:
- To reduce the reading load for students
- To demonstrate how-to’s, a specific task, or a product use
- To emphasize an important concept or point
- When you need more emotional appeal than photos and text can deliver
Stay tuned for more video tips to improve your eLearning course!
These are a few best practices for recording your video. Looking for a few screencasting tools? Check these 5 great ones out.