Tips for increasing the likelihood students will watch your recorded videos

With many of us returning to remote teaching, we are back to live and recorded lectures. So, I decided to reprise an article about recording videos.  In my travels, I have noticed that recorded lectures don’t take into account giving students breaks, as we do when we are in person. Many of us break around 10 minutes before the hour to give students a respite. However, I have noticed when a guest lecturer or we record a 1 or 2-hour lecture, we tend to record the entire presentation at once.  From the online educational research, we know that keeping students engaged during remote learning is challenging. When we post a recorded lecture for students to watch, it is difficult to know whether they actually watch it. Sure, we can set our learning platforms, such as Blackboard, to track how many views it gets, but we really don’t know if the student actually watched it. The good news is that there are ways that we can increase the likelihood they will.

 Here are 2 evidence-based tips to consider for recording effective lectures.

1. Keep ‘em short. From neurobiology and cognitive psychology, we know that short-term working memory is limited, but it can be improved by breaking down information or content into smaller components or pieces and by connecting it to previously learned material or experiences. Breaking down content into smaller learning segments can enhance the capacity of short-term memory and comprehension and retention (Orlando, 2016, 2019; Sousa, 2011; Willis, 2006).

Therefore, when recording a lecture, instead of making one 50 minute or longer lecture into one video (which is a challenge in itself), break the video into shorter recorded segments, such as 10 or 20-minute segments. Why? Because studies report that students are more likely to completely watch a video when it is shorter, whereas with a long one, they are likely to walk away or not finish watching it at all (Mendez-Carajo and Wolla, 2019; Pomales-Garcia and Liu, 2006). Creating these shorter videos also affords students the ability to go back and quickly review those videos with concepts they didn’t understand well without having to search through a 50 minute or longer video. (Parisi and Thornton, 2016).

I have found that including the length of time in the video title in my work with recorded lectures is helpful. For example, if a student knows the video is only 12 minutes or 20 minutes, they are more likely to commit to the time to watch the full video because they know how much time it will take.

The other aspect that helps the working (short-term) memory and enhances the movement of information into long-term memory (retention) is when the new learning is connected to prior knowledge or experience (Ambrose et al., 2010; Freeman & Walsh 2013; Immordino-Yang 2016; Willis 2006). Think about ways you can help students make these connections with your video narrative, video visuals, and assigning tasks and activities.  This point leads to the second tip – engagement.

2. Engagement. It’s one thing to hope the students will watch the video all the way through, but we can support them to do so by making the video engaging through the intentional use of questions before, during, and after the video. Just as a traditional lecture can be transformed into an interactive experience by engaging students through the use of questions and activities, so too can a video. You may even be able to adjust some of what you originally had planned as activities or assignments for your in-person class to be integrated into the video viewing process.

There are several ways you can create engagement, such as including pre-video questions or a survey, including pause points during the video when students must answer a question or complete a task before continuing, and a post video assignment. Using reflection, quizzes, surveys, asking students to put what they learned in their own words, giving them questions to answer or problems to solve using the concepts in the video are all ways to engage the students. Depending on the platform you are using, the comments section or a discussion board or chat spaces for students to put their responses and comments can also be helpful.

Happy Recording! 

References:

Ambrose, S.A., Bridges, M.W., Dipietro, M., Lovett, M.C., and Norman, M.K. (2010). How learning works: 7 research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

 Freeman, G. G, & Walsh, P. D. (2013). You can lead students to the classroom, and you can make them think: Ten brain-based strategies for college teaching and learning success. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 24(3), 99-120.

Immodino-Yang, M.H. (2016). Emotions, learning and the brain. New York: New York, W.W Norton and Company.

Méndez-Carbajo, D., & Wolla, S. A. (2019). Segmenting educational content: Long-form vs. short-form online learning modules. American Journal of Distance Education, 33(2), 108–119.  doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2019.1583514

Orlando, J. (2016). Apply neurology to online videos. The Teaching Professor.  Retrieved from https://www.teachingprofessor.com/applying-neurology-to-online-videos/

 Orlando, J. (2019, November 9). Chunking content: A key to learning. The Teaching Professor. Retrieved from https://www.teachingprofessor.com/topics/online-learning/chunking-content-a-key-to-learning/

Parisi, S., & Thornton, D. (2016, June 24). Tips from the pros: Tips for effective video instruction. The Teaching Professor. Retrieved from https://www.teachingprofessor.com/tips-from-the-pros-tips-for-effective-video-instruction/

Pomales-Garcia, C., and Liu, Y. (2006). Web-based distance learning technology: The impacts of web module lengths and format. American Journal of Distance Education.20(3). 163-179.  doi.org/10.1207/s15389286ajde2003_4

Sousa, D. A. (2011). How the brain learns (4^th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.