The Use of Explainer Videos as Tools of E-Learning

Did you know that any business may use explainer videos as a great learning tool for multiple purposes? And that’s how we prove it may here.

What makes explainer videos so effective?

So, if you apply video in your business training or as an e learn tool video explain, etc., you create and involve much more. The truth is the video format has been with us for over a century, which makes it a proven tool over time.

According to analytical reports ATD, Harvard Business Publishing Education, Digital Information World and Kaltura, the video format proves its effectiveness in comparison with other forms of material presentation, for example, text.

During this time, an understanding of the mass of opportunities that video opens up for educational purposes has been also extended.

Let’s list some of them:

• Serves as an effective tool for the development of both soft and hard skills, advanced business training, and retraining.
• Attracts and retains attention, stimulates curiosity, engages and involves the audience.
• Facilitates the perception of new and complex information.
• Enriches other types of learning or marketing material (texts, schemes, diagrams).
• Facilitates presentation of material from different points of view.
• Serves as a way to demonstrate phenomena, situations, and events of the real world that cannot be immediately demonstrated live (laboratory experiments, the study of natural sciences, etc.).
• Becomes a starting point for discussion.

Thus, there is no doubt that video is one of the most effective tools of e learning, since the time it was first invented and introduced in cinemas at the end of the 19th century.

It became clear that the new method of visual communication may be used not only for entertainment but also for educational purposes. The mentions of the first educational videos appear back in 1897 in the USA, and at the beginning of the 20th century, already the majority of states were already planning the centralized production of educational films for schools.

Variety of video formats

Modern technical capabilities and the growth of video production popularity significantly expand the range of video formats available: screencasts, educational animation, studio shooting, cartoons, etc. Some formats require serious financial and time costs, a large team of performers; others are extremely easy to manufacture. Does this mean that the more resources are invested in the video, the better it is? Of course, not.

When choosing a format, you should start from the educational goal, budget, and production time.

Below we take look at the most common types of instructional videos that may help you elevate your e-learning, as well as many other business processes. Enjoy them.

This checklist will also help you become familiar with the basic formats and present the horizon of possibilities.

5 Ways Explainer Videos May Elevate Your E-Learning

Here are the best five ways to cater high-quality learning process via top-notch explainer videos.

1.     Interactive videos

Videos of any type fall into this category as long as the viewer can take an active action: answer a question, choose an option to answer or influence the further development of the video somehow or take any other action.

2.     Animation videos

Instructional animation includes videos created with animation tools. The production of high-quality video requires the involvement of professionals, but for simple animation, you can also use the constructors. The same category includes videos in the video scribing format.

Video scribing was initially created by simply recording someone drawing the animation live while at the same time reciting the script. 

So, feel free to apply incredible explainer videos where the explanation of the material is accompanied by drawing a picture.

You may also apply responsive infographics as one of the highly specialized types of animation.

Data infographics are designed to bring numbers to life in an accessible and visual way, explain the meaning behind numerical data. Knowledge infographic explains concepts and meanings through visual images, etc.

They are often used to attract attention and increase interest in a topic, as well as for initial immersion in a particular subject.

3.     Video demonstration

The video demonstration is designed to show what is happening in nature, in the laboratory, while manufacturing, at the workplace, in the calculation model on the computer screen, etc.

Demonstrations of physical, chemical, and biological experiments, animal behavior, anthropological observations, demonstration of equipment operation, safety measures, sales techniques (persuasion, work with objections), etc., are the most common areas of usage. Sky’s the limit!

4.     Screencasts

A screencast is a recording of what is happening on the screen of a digital device. It may include voice comments, screen annotations, and recording from the webcam. It’s quite a typical style of data visualization applied in demos, instructions, manuals, etc.

5.     Studio video lectures

Videos with talking lecturers explaining the material are the classiest. There are different options for placing the lecturer’s figure in the video: against the background of the presentation; next to the presentation; close-up, frame within a frame, against the background of the board with explanations, behind a glass board on which the lecturer makes notes and records, etc.

Be sure that there are even more explainer video application cases as e learning tools or tools for effective business communication.

59 % of top managers will prefer to study new video material, and 84 % of business educators will note an increase in their performance when using video.

Explainer videos are an effective e learning tool

The effectiveness of explainer videos is achieved not due to the format, but the principles of its competent usage, which have evolved over the decades. Explainer video creation may help to achieve incredible results for your business and communications through:

• the explanatory power of the educational animation video
• faster video format perception
• availability to both children and adults
• interesting and engaging scripts and so much more.

Since video production even in the most budgetary and simple way may require a significant amount of effort, some part of this issue will also be devoted to technological and organizational issues: what tools can be used and how the video production process works, etc.

Conclusion

The choice of a specific type of explainer video is always determined by the goals and your financial opportunities. The business should rely on the type of video based on the maximum educational impact within the set budget.

In addition, a small budget can often be compensated for by a creative solution to the problem. For example, animation that is expensive to create in some cases can be replaced by time-lapse photography of real objects or a slideshow, or a simple instructional video. Sky’s the limit in choosing the video genres & types to better help you elevate your e-learning to the fullest and bring great business results. When you need support with that, feel free to use animated video production company help for making up videos of any budget & complexity.