What You Need To Keep Students Engaged
From one day to another, for some or another reason, almost all teachers, professors, and instructors became remote educators. People who have been in the EdTech industry for years knew this was going to happen eventually—but not as soon as 2020. As remote learning came here to stay at all levels, there is some valuable advice that people who work in EdTech can give to those who are new to this world. Video lessons are a great, polyvalent tool which can be used for many purposes: asynchronous sessions, step-by-step tutorials, or complementary content for students, among others.
Recent studies point out that American 8-to-12-year-old children spend almost five hours using on-screen media each day. Each day younger generations are adapting to having personalized video content as part of their routine. Of course, the importance of video lessons relies on what the educators are saying, but the way they present their content can potentiate the learning process of their students with extra value.
Brandon Ahmad is the founder and CEO of an EdTech company that offers in-demand programming skill courses to the public. One of the tools he used to design his learning materials was video lessons.
However, he believes the educational video rules he follows can apply to everyone, from K-12 students to the advanced programmers he works with:
The biggest benefit of video lessons is that students can watch instructions or listen to explanations as many times as they need to. In a way, it can be more effective than having an instructor in situ because students can follow their own pace. It’s the same principle for any level.
Ahmad gave us 4 tips that he has learned during his experience as a remote educator that anyone can apply at home.
1. Make Sure You Use A High-Resolution Video Format
Although video lessons are educational and well-thought content, they still are content. Nowadays, everyone is used to watching highly produced, big-budgeted content in films and TV.
Even if you are the best teacher in the world, you will not be as engaging as you intend to if you produce low-quality videos. For editing and exporting, Ahmad suggests using, at least, a Full High Definition (1920x1080p) resolution. “This allows your viewers to notice small gestures and details that would normally get lost in this format,” he explains.
You don’t need special cameras to film high-resolution videos. Most iPhones, for example, can be set up [1] to record videos with these specifications. The important part is when you edit your videos, you need to make sure you export them with the same high resolution.
2. Use An Adequate Light Setup
A proper classroom should always be full of natural light, using artificial only if needed. There are investigations that suggest students in classrooms with higher levels of natural light score better grades than students receiving less natural light. We cannot recreate the same experience in virtual classrooms, but we can try our best to do so.
You won’t need expensive lights or fancy equipment, just the windows of your house; learn how to get the most out of them for your setup.
3. Fast Cut Video Editing
Fast cut editing is a technique used by filmmakers to arouse the interest of their audience by constantly changing what they can see on the screen. Edgar Wright is one of the most famous movie directors who uses this style.
Even if we are not producing motion pictures, there are some things we can learn from him. If you are using two or more cameras in your setup, you can constantly cut from one to another to emphasize your words and keep your viewers interested. If not, you can still crop the pauses you make while speaking and make your video more fluid. There are many popular YouTubers who use this technique. This will also make your videos shorter—something students will always like!
4. Ask For feedback
As students are constantly learning, so are many teachers in the eLearning world, which is probably new for most of them. Do not be afraid of asking your students for feedback. It makes them feel empowered to have a teacher who listens to their opinions; and, after all, they are the biggest experts in what they like and what they think can be improved.
