eLearningIndustry_Logo
Sign In
  • Join Newsletter
  • eBooks
  • Webinars
  • Find Top LMS Software
  • Find Top Authoring Tools
  • Find Top Content Providers
  • Advertise
  • Articles
    All Articles Publish an Article Learning Management Systems Authoring Tools Trends Design and Development Instructional Design Best Practices Free Resources
  • Directory
    Pick The Right eLearning Partner Content Providers Learning Management Systems Free LMS Consulting Review an LMS Promote Your LMS Authoring Tools Review an Authoring Tool Promote Your Authoring Tool Web Conferencing Software Project Management Software Course Marketplaces Language Providers Translation Providers Voice Actors Top eLearning Companies Registration
  • Events
    Webinars Promote Your Event All Events Conferences Congresses Events Seminars Symposiums Workshops Promoting Your Event Guide Free eBook
  • Press Releases
    Promote Your Press Release Press Releases Archive Press Release Guidelines Press Releases Guide Free eBook
  • Jobs
    Find Jobs Promote Your Job
  • Post Here

How can we help you?

Loading...
Oups. Something Has Gone Terribly Wrong. Please Try Later

Sign In

By signing in with LinkedIn, you're agreeing to create an account at elearningindustry.com and accept our terms of use and privacy policy.
Learn more about how we use LinkedIn.

How we use LinkedIn

We use LinkedIn to ensure that our users are real professionals who contribute and share reliable content.

When you sign in with LinkedIn, you are granting elearningindustry.com access to your LinkedIn account, which is used to authenticate you without you having to enter a different user name and password. We also use this access to retrieve the following information:

  • Your full name.
  • Your primary email address.

You can revoke this access at any time through your LinkedIn account.

Sign In with LinkedIn

Already have an account? Login here
  1. Home
  2. eLearning Best Practices
  3. Educational Videos and Conceptual Objectives
Photo of Steven Loomis
By Steven Loomis
January 21, 2014
4 minutes to read
Comments
eLearning Best Practices

Educational Videos and Conceptual Objectives

This article provides guidance on developing videos for training objectives on conceptual knowledge. In particular it focuses on using animation, stories and other strategies to produce great videos.

Educational Videos and Conceptual Objectives

Educational Videos: Creating Them for Conceptual Objectives

Recently I read a fun Mashable article that disparages several recent trends in startup videos. A colleague and I discussed this article and came to the conclusion that with a few tweaks, it could easily be an article on how to create a good startup video.Rather than making those tweaks though I am going to use it to discuss ways to make an educational video for concepts. As to why this will work, you must first consider the startup video. Here they are basically covering a concept with the following elements: There is a problem, We have a solution and Our solution easily meets your needs.With that in mind, let’s get started:

  1. Hipsters
    These startups identified young people as their main audience for their products. Being smart marketers, they know that including people in their videos that fit into their marketing demographics is a good idea - thus we see hipsters in the videos.       Understanding and defining your audience is a key component to creating educational materials. With videos you should use language, images and content that applies to your audience needs. In this regard, your content should be relevant and fit into the real world of your audience. Doing this will aid transfer and internalization of your content.  

    Change your privacy settings to see the content. In order to watch this video you need to have advertising cookies enabled.
    You can adjust your cookie preferences here.

  2. Happy claps
    These upbeat sound tracks set the mood and help energize these videos. For startups, this strategy is aimed at one thing - selling. As part of their pitch, it adds to the idea of “we have a solution and that solution easily meets your needs.” In educational videos, music can be a distraction from your message and may affect your learner’s cognitive load. Stories are a powerful though and can help your learners internalize content. In this regard, music (harmony, dissonance, tempo,…) can add something to your story that simple dialog and images can’t. Just make sure to use it wisely and watch out for the cognitive demands you are placing on your learners. With educational videos make sure your use of music, effects, dialog and shots are relevant and needed as extraneous information can interfere with your message design.

    Change your privacy settings to see the content. In order to watch this video you need to have advertising cookies enabled.
    You can adjust your cookie preferences here.

  3. Animation
    Concepts are often difficult to represent; for example, Time Management contains several abstract ideas that are not easily translated with concrete examples. To help illustrate their concepts these startups create graphic metaphors and analogies for their videos. Related to this is production value - high quality is needed and doing this well with full motion can be an issue. As such many startups look to animation as it gives you abilities that can’t easily be duplicated with full motion. These concerns are true with educational videos. And in relation to this, visuals that are less complex and detailed can lessen your student’s cognitive load and allow you to focus greater attention on your message. Other common animation techniques you may try for conceptual content are stop animation and whiteboard animation.

    Change your privacy settings to see the content. In order to watch this video you need to have advertising cookies enabled.
    You can adjust your cookie preferences here.

  4. Meet Bob, Romance and Save the World
    Startups need to grab the attention of investors and consumers quickly. They can do this with stories as they are a powerful way to cover content. Meet Bob, Romance and Save the World are formulaic themes that have been proven to work and are why they continue to appear in these videos.  Stories are great at setting context and when this is related to relevant and real world applications, their use in education videos will help with internalization and transfer. In addition, stories activate prior memories as good ones represent something that we can all relate too. This activation can increase motivation and internalization of the content.In this regard, motivation and emotional engagement can be critical to getting users to change behavior. In training we recognize this need by covering WIIFM (what’s in it for me). Getting students to value and accept your content is critical in order for students to transfer knowledge into their working world. {vimeo}61605552{/vimeo}

    Change your privacy settings to see the content. In order to watch this video you need to have advertising cookies enabled.
    You can adjust your cookie preferences here.

    {vimeo}73443153{/vimeo}
  5. Flat Design
    These startups are selling an idea that they are hip, innovative and know what’s coming - using a dated style/template would conflict with this message. As such flat design elements should be expected in their startup videos.As to educational videos, this practice may conflict with common instructional design principles. Here cognitive load and basic UX (user experience) ideas emphasize the need to limit distractions. In this regard, a novel or complex style/template requires more working memory than a common or simple style/template. Since our working memory is limited and is involved in storing information into long term memory, requiring less working memory makes sense.  Giving the prevalence of mobile and other technologies, our students’ familiarity with flat designs is being addressed. So if you want to appear hip, innovative and in the know, you are probably fine using a flat design in your videos for now. 

    Change your privacy settings to see the content. In order to watch this video you need to have advertising cookies enabled.
    You can adjust your cookie preferences here.

Designers Don’t Need to be Creative - They Need to Design Well

Being creative and original is fun, but shouldn’t keep you from designing well. Sure your video might look like something else and there may soon be a post on Reason Why Training Videos for Concepts All Look the Same but that’s ok. In this regard you are using valid strategies to guide your designs rather than the latest fads.

eLearning Design Tips Learning Objectives Video In eLearning Video Production Best Practices
  • Write or read Comments
Close
Subscribe to the newsletter Subscribe to the newsletter

Read Also

  • Implementing the Five Moments of Need Model
  • Exploring The Layers Of Social Learning
  • Get To Know 500,000+ Instructional Designers And eLearning Professionals
  • Free Authoring Tools For eLearning
  • The Ultimate List Of Open Source Learning Management Systems (2019 Update)
eLearningIndustry_Logo
The best collection of eLearning articles, eLearning concepts, eLearning software, and eLearning resources.
  • Articles

    • Post Here
    • Top eLearning Authors
    • How To Publish An eLearning Article
    • How to View your Stats
    • Archive
  • Press Releases

    • Promote Your Press Release
    • Press Releases Guide eBook
    • How To Post A Press Release
    • Guidelines
    • Archive
  • Events

    • Promote Your Event
    • Promoting Your Event eBook
    • How To Post An Event
    • Archive
  • Directory

    • Get Listed
    • Top LMS Software
    • Free LMS Consulting
    • Top Authoring Tools
    • Top eLearning Content Providers
    • How to Create a Business Listing
    • How to Create a Product Listing
  • Jobs

    • Promote Your Job
    • How To Post And Manage A Job Listing
    • Job Openings
    • About
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
    • Support
    • Advertise
  • French flag ELEARNING INDUSTRY IN FRENCH
© 2011–2019 eLearning Industry.