Video is everywhere: YouTube, Twitch, social media, streaming services, the over-counter menus at fast food restaurants … you can’t avoid it. Video is compelling, attention-grabbing, and does a great job of providing instant, real-world context, no matter what your subject matter is. You don’t need advanced metrics and university studies to tell you that users want and respond to video.
So how can you creatively leverage video for your eLearning courses?
I’m not talking about long-form, talking-head, or explainer videos. I’m talking about using relatively short, lightweight, video snippets to produce high-impact images that drive user interest. Video that makes users want to know more. After all, part of the job of eLearning is to get learners to WANT to learn. An attractive, visually interesting, video snippet goes a long way towards grabbing a user’s attention and time.
In this first post, in a series on using video in eLearning, I present 3 unique ways to use short video clips that you might not have thought about before.
View the finished, 3-slide demo here (created in Articulate Storyline 360).
Example 1: Video as Background for a Title Slide
Sometimes we creators forget that video doesn't have to be the main point of a slide, it can add flavor. In this example, I used a 14-second long, looped video as the background for my program’s title slide. This technique creates a nice bit of visual anticipation as the title is revealed and it encourages the user to learn more.
Example 2: Video as a Tease for a Menu Slide
Here, I used a 6-second video clip as an introduction that freezes on the last frame. That frame then becomes the background for the program menu. The ball flying directly towards the screen pulls the viewer right inside the content.
Example 3: Video as a Quick Grabber
On this slide, I used a 2-second video clip to provide an attention-grabbing flash of movement that adds interest to an otherwise standard Section Break slide.
View the 3-slide demo here (created in Articulate Storyline 360).
Did you know that these samples were generated using free video clips? In many cases, you don’t need to spend money or time on creating your own, custom-shot videos to use in your eLearning programs. A huge variety of royalty-free videos with all kinds of subject matter are available for free from popular stock image sites like pixabay.com, pexels.com and many more. So, making your eLearning stand-out is easy …. all it takes is a video clip and little creativity.
Next time I’ll show you a few more interesting techniques for leveraging video in eLearning.