#ATD2018: 9 Types of Video to Enhance Learning in Your Organization

Matthew Pierce from Techsmith shared really useful ideas for videos to be used in learning and education. Techsmith are the folks who built Camtasia and Snagit.

Video Type Options

Pierce began by talking about three generic video elements that you should consider when you are filming.

• Think about storytelling – He pointed out that people remember stories much better than just being presented with facts. You can use stories to create engagement. Here’s an example

• Use metaphors – Pierce showed an example of a video showing a metaphor that highlighted the importance of using a script to create a video.
• Be relevant – The number one reason people stop watching a video is that it’s not relevant to them. You can help them identify if a video is going to be relevant by using good titles, descriptions, and tags.

Types of Videos to Create

The big question is how can we take what we do and do it better.

Internal Systems Training

Video is great for providing instruction to both new and old employees on how to complete various processes. Screen captures are a useful strategy for this. They can help you show exactly how something is done. You can actually tailor videos to different groups. For example, you can be more basic with novice groups whereas, with expert users, you can be more complex.

Technical Support

One of the strategies that I use is called working out loud. When someone asks a question, I tried to write a blog post or create a video to show them the answer. The key to these types of video is to keep them short and to the point. Pierce also noted that it’s important to include the narration. We have to hit all the senses not just visual.

Record Webinars and Live Streaming Events

Another thing you can do is record your live presentation in advance. Why would you do this? Because by recording it, you can focus on the message. You won’t have those distractions e.g., requiring people to mute their microphones.

Pierce noted that Techsmith as an all-hands meeting every Monday at 8:30 a.m. They have about 250 people in the organization. Naturally, not all of them can make it because of travel obligations for example. However, they can watch the recordings after the fact. During these meetings, some portions of the meeting may be pre-recorded to ensure that the exact message is being relayed.

Information Delivery

Interviews are a great way to share new information with different individuals. You need to keep these videos as short as possible. To keep them interesting, use b-roll throughout the video.

Onboarding

This is one area we are working on at Jamestown Community College. We now provide onboarding training for new adjunct faculty. We are adding email supplement training to our face-to-face training. In those emails, we are including videos covering the information that we presented. We realized we provide them with so much information. This would provide them with a reference when they need it.

Pierce presented other great ideas for using onboarding videos. You could conduct a virtual walking tour around campus to show where things are. As part of the tour, you could introduce them to key people. These key people could give them a basic orientation of their functional area and how they can help them.

Meet the Staff

This is a great way for the staff to introduce themselves to the rest of the community. This library of videos could be used to get to know other people more in-depth. I don’t know about you, but I often forget a lot of key information about people I meet during first meetings. This would provide me with a refresher. In a previous conference, one of the suggestions was to add your video to your signature block. This is something I plan to do.

Giving Feedback

Videos can be a great way to explain something that’s too difficult to explain in writing. It is also a great way to provide feedback in support of written comments. Say you were reviewing a drawing or reviewing a brochure, you could use video feedback as a way to identify different places to make changes. This would provide the necessary clarity.

Capture Knowledge Before It Leaves

To help stem the loss of corporate knowledge, you could have employees create screencasts to explain how things work and why they work. They can walk through their processes and show the thinking process that goes behind each process. This is a great way for other individuals in the organization to continuously improve.

Job Aids and Reminders

Videos can help you remember how to do something. There may be specific tasks that you don’t do but once a term or once a year. Videos can remind you how that process is to be completed. For example, I build out the budget for my department but once a year. Every year, I struggle to remember how to do it. The written instructions are obtuse at best. A video would quickly bring me up to speed.

Videos would be great for micro training. They should be kept as short as possible.

Bug Reports

When you are having software problems, one of the best things you can do is capture a video of the problem as it is occurring. You would then be able to replicate the problem. I have sent out videos to SUNY ITEC as I discuss certain problems. They were able to more rapidly fix those problems.

Building Buzz

Videos are a way to build hype around a program. Techsmith gave an example of a video they created to promote sessions they were having at an upcoming conference. His example was quite entertaining.

Social Media

These are typically really short videos that focus on different topics.

At the end of the presentation, Pierce introduced us to a new learning resource created by Techsmith called the Techsmith Academy.

Additional Reading

• #ATD2015 Session: How to Make Video for Learning That’s Fabulous, Fast, and Affordable
• Optimizing Your Videos and Screencasts for YouTube

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