Posted by Editor’s Note: This blog post has been updated in November 2021.
Let us commence with an interesting snippet: Did you know that soldiers in World War 2 were trained using a video-based learning strategy to enhance their skills?
An immensely popular technical learning video entitled ‘Around the Corner – How Differential Steering Works’ was produced in 1937. Uploaded to YouTube in 2009, at the time of writing this blog, the engaging video has been viewed over fourteen million times!
Table of Contents
Video-based Learning, as we know today:
It is safe to say that we can barely fathom a life without Google and YouTube. It has revolutionized internet usage, and YouTube today is the go-to place for anyone looking for engaging video content across genres and level of expertise. Its popularity has certainly paved the way and has established video learning as one of the primary tools to have in your L&D arsenal. What works beautifully, is the fact that video learning can be deployed independently or as part of an instructor-led module, and yet enjoy maximum impact and learner engagement. This approach helps learners to retain information better and recall more effectively, and this is what L&D professionals bank on to ensure effective application of learning in the workplace.
There are several ways to deploy video learning but let us begin by understanding in detail why the approach works. This would further help us to refine our production and deliver a water-tight video-based learning program at the workplace.
Benefits of Video-based Learning:
1. Multisensory Learning Engagement
As the name suggests, multi-sensory learning happens when the learner engages all the senses with the learning event in which he is participating. Video learning is eminently suitable for multi-modal learning. This is because it employs images – moving and static, text, sound, and audio enhancements, allowing for the learner to engage more wholly, and thus learn and retain better. Engagement is but a natural outcome. Students can process information faster and more effectively. Did you know that the human brain processes videos 60,000 times faster than text! In a remarkably interesting article “Video vs Text: The Brain Perspective” by Liraz Margalit, the author reports “When we watch a video, we become immersed in it and create an empathetic connection with the screen. If you want your visitors to fall in love with your content, it makes sense to deliver it via video… it is much easier for us to become emotionally attached to something we watch in a video than something we read in an article.” Using engaging videos to deliver impact has been used since time immemorial and will only continue.
2. Versatility
Any subject under the sun can be taught using videos. Whether it is teaching a language, etiquettes, performing a complex engineering or medical procedure, problem-solving, academic subjects, corporate training, and much more – these are all suitable subjects to be taught via video that can hold learners’ attention. Video-based learning also enhances the capacity for recall. This article explores the 100 + best educational YouTube channels with subjects as varied as learning math to learning the guitar, caring for animals to thinking like a lawyer, applied psychology, and everything in between.
3. Pull-Learning
21st-century learning is all about need-based learning interventions aligned with our on-demand expectations. Users prefer to ‘pull’ in the learning as and when they need it. Advances in digital technology, the ubiquity of the smartphone, the lack of linear time for structured learning have facilitated and empowered learners to learn on the go and tackle challenges in the real world with ready resources available at their fingertips. In the corporate world, where training schedules are getting diluted and emaciated by the day, while expectations of high performance are increasing exponentially, learning videos are immensely effective by “enabling users to access at the point of need and find compressed nuggets of content that can help them with specific tasks or workflow”. There is a reason microlearning videos are a rage!
4. Flexibility of Pace
Users are comforted by the reassuring fact of the video’s availability, so that they can visit or revisit the learning anytime. Additionally, they can start, pause, rewind at any point as required. This inherent flexibility of video learning is a potent factor for popularity.
5. Improves Accessibility
Mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop, on the internet, offline – video-based learning can be accessed on any device, making learning on this medium a seamless experience for users. Accessibility in this age of advanced and evolving digital technology is a colossal draw.
6. Facilitates Microlearning
Microlearning, as the name suggests, is learning in small chunks, where the training is delivered in small bites, i.e., short bursts of content in text and/or multimedia, providing specific information aimed at delivering one learning objective. Two consistent features of this medium regardless of where and how it is deployed are:
- Brevity – this is the one underlying, non-negotiable characteristic that defines this medium of instruction. The duration could range from a few seconds to up to 15 minutes, but certainly not longer.
- Single idea/granularity – the content is confined to ONE specific topic, idea, or concept.
Engaging videos are ideally suited to deliver microlearning modules for effective consumption and application of the learning. Independent studies have reported that learners skip ahead if videos are longer than 9 – 12 minutes.
This video is a great watch about the benefits of microlearning as a learning strategy.
7. Ensures Consistency
Multinational and multi-location organizations often suffer from a lack of consistency and authenticity in conveying statements of mission, vision, goals, and other such corporate communications to its employees and the world at large. This often results in contradictory signals and misleading information, which are dangerous impediments to the business. When text format documents are deployed to convey such critical information about the company or brand ethos, most often it is not consumed by employees in the way it was originally conceived. Thoughtfully produced videos, on the other hand, are a great driver for continuity and consistency as they are easy to distribute across locations and convey a coherent message.
8. Reduces Training Cost
With the plethora of paid and free software available, the cost of producing a video has reduced exponentially, as has the complexity in developing one. This one-time cost offsets the higher and repetitive costs of Instructor-led Learning which includes travel, place, and time costs and learning which cannot be revisited without recreating the entire environment. Reports suggest that video-based learning can result in 50-70% savings for a company. It is well-known that Microsoft saved a whopping USD 303 per learner, with the implementation of video learning. The return on investment is huge, and organizations are increasingly conscious of this advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What are the prime examples to deploy a video-based approach to learning in corporate training?
As highlighted in the blog above, any topic can be effectively taught when you deploy a video-based approach to learning. For corporate training, the options are innumerable. From onboarding – know your colleagues, about the company, vision, mission, and goals to skilling opportunities – train new and experienced employees on an emerging skill, using new software and any L&D requirement. Additionally, video learning can be deployed to revisit or supplement training programs to ensure greater retention and recall of the original training module. Videos can be scenario-based, illustrative, animated, explainers, interactive, conceptual, narrative, etc.
Have you tried or know of any innovative opportunities where video learning has been deployed? Write to us on info@originlearning.com .
- What is the future of video-based learning?
With the eLearning market expected to expand into a $90 billion USD opportunity in 5 years, with a projected CAGR of 11% from 2020 to 2026, the digital transformation of training is well underway. Video learning is the catalyst for subject matter experts and trainers to have a global reach and audience. It makes learning affordable too for the scale it provides. The flexibility, personalization, engagement, and business objectives that video learning delivers is unparalleled.
- Why are eLearning videos a powerful medium in employee training?
While many of the benefits have been explained in detail in this blog, the fact that videos contribute to compelling consumption and greater retention are undeniable. When given a choice to read or watch videos, it is easy to say which option is the preferred one.
The power of video learning as a medium is across generations. From Gen C to Boomers and Gen X, Y and Z, video learning is a strong common denominator.
Conclusion: Video-based Learning is here to stay
In these times of a raging global pandemic; with social distancing being the absolute norm, video learning is the medium to explore when developing training modules for the workforce, given its all-around adaptability, accessibility, and lower production costs.
To know more about video-based learning courses and how engaging videos can be effectively created and deployed to suit the needs of your organization, do connect with us at info@originlearning.com
Discover specific solutions on video learning that Origin has created for clients, and explore the world of opportunities to address your training needs.
Additional reading: https://blog.originlearning.com/the-importance-of-informal-learning-at-the-workplace/