6 Best Practices for Making Video Lessons

Where video in the classroom is concerned, there’s a right way, and there’s a wrong way.

If you’ve ever tried playing a YouTube video in class, you know what we’re talking about.

It’s no secret that students love YouTube (and you probably do, too), but there is a better way to make YouTube and videos in general work for the classroom.

Extensive research has been done into how to maximize engagement via video learning. With these basic best practices, you can take the video-viewing experience from passive to active and effective!

1. Weeding

It’s a fact: shorter videos are better for student engagement.

Have you ever found the perfect video for your class, except it just goes into too much detail? Use the technique of weeding to remove any extraneous information.

And don’t worry about being ruthless – even if the video is entertaining, if a certain part doesn’t add to the educational content, feel free to cut it out.

Here’s how to make cuts to your video with Edpuzzle:

2. Signaling

Make sure you add this to your notes!

This phrase is an example of signaling. Signaling is a way to direct students’ attention to important information. You can do this with phrases (heads up, remember, take note, etc.) or visually with on-screen text or graphics.

Here’s how to add a note or audio note to put signaling into practice with Edpuzzle:

3. Segmenting

Chunking videos into smaller sections is a MUST. Without this, students can easily tune out.

First, think about where it most makes sense to pause during the video, and then add notes, questions, or other activities to break up the video. This will give your students more agency and control over how they view your video.

4. Generative Activities

Get students more involved in the video learning experience by asking them to produce something. It can be as simple as asking them to take notes!

Other examples of generative activities include having students create a physical model as the video guides them through how-to steps, or synthesizing and explaining information in their own words.

Would you like to hear your students’ responses to generative activities? Here’s how to enable audio responses in Edpuzzle:

5. Match Visual and Verbal

Did you know the student brain is able to take in and process both visual/pictorial and verbal/auditory information simultaneously?

According to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, video learning is most effective when it makes use of both channels in tandem.

Here’s an example of what pairing the visual and verbal looks like:

Copy video.

6. Subtitles

For English language learners, subtitles are crucial for comprehension. For native speakers, however, the helpfulness of using subtitles depends on the student.

Neurodiverse learners may find subtitles overwhelming and could contribute to cognitive overload. One workaround is to give students the option of enabling closed captions.

For YouTube videos, video creators can enable automatic captioning, and also use the option to edit captions to correct any errors.

7. What NOT to Do

Now that you know the 6 best practices for making video lessons, what about what NOT to do?

One big no-no is simply recording your regular in-person lesson and uploading the video. Research has shown that this can cause difficulties with segmenting appropriately and maintaining organization.

Another common error? Uploading a powerpoint presentation and narrating the text. The mistake here is cognitive overload, so make sure not to pair too much on-screen text with spoken information.

How will you use Edpuzzle to implement these best practices? Let us know on Twitter and share how video learning works for your students!