Ever since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity was encouraged to stay indoors. A lot of businesses, schools, and households were affected. Health and safety precautions were implemented in order for the human race to survive. However, humans have remained resilient through these hard times and have found a way to thrive.
How Humans Cope with the COVID-19 Pandemic
One means of survival that humans have developed is by bringing schools and businesses online. Almost everyone has become shut in their homes due to health and safety precautions. Human-to-human contact was strictly avoided in order to prevent the spread of the virus.
However, just because people were forced indoors doesn’t mean the world stopped turning. Since interaction in public was discouraged, humankind brought nearly everything online.
According to Statista, there are a total of 313 million active users of the internet in the United States of America alone. To this day, those numbers are still growing!
That being said, we rely a lot on the internet and technology to do our daily tasks. With everything almost online, it’s no surprise that there was a sudden surge in online education.
The Challenges of Online Education
You would think that online learning would be a peach for students, parents, and teachers alike. However, there have been great challenges for all individuals when it comes to online education.
With students enrolling in home schooling, teachers have been trying their best to cope with teaching online. Some teachers have pre-recorded their lessons for students, while others hold their classes as if they were still in the classroom.
If you’re part of the educators who pre-record their lessons, it won’t hurt to spice up your videos so that you can retain your students’ attention.
A good educator wants the best for his or her students. Learning how to make a good educational video is one of the many ways to share knowledge. However, a beginner in online teaching might find it hard to create an effective educational video. Learn more about the benefits of an educational explainer video and why an educator should also adapt to online education or E-Learning.
Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the limitations of the present school structure because face-to-face interaction is no longer available, according to Forbes. This is why teachers take it upon themselves to improve how they teach their lessons. Some parents have enrolled their children into schools that offer blended learning, which is a style of education where students learn via online classes and traditional face-to-face classes.
In another Forbes article, it states, “there are nearly 1.3 billion children who started learning at home.”
There is a reason why the parents of 1.3 billion children trusted online education, and we’ll discuss why below.
The Benefits of Online Education
Whether you are an online educator or online learner, common online learning myths shouldn’t faze you from giving or getting an education. Some parents might be on the fence about online education, but there are more benefits to online education than you realize. Let’s discuss the benefits of being an online educator and an online learner.
Benefits of being an Online Educator
As an online educator, there are a lot of benefits that you can get from teaching online and making your own educational resources. Since face-to-face teaching is what you’re probably used to, it’s good that you learn a few things that you may use later on even when the pandemic has died down.
Even though things are going back to normal sooner than we think, online education will still remain in the following years.
Added Source of Income
If you’re an expert about a certain topic, why not share your expertise with the world? Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, more and more people have enlisted in online courses. Sharing what you know and have experienced isn’t a bad idea.
There are also many different benefits of online courses as a professor or a student. Creating an online course will earn you some extra dough. If you choose to publish your courses on different online education platforms, you can expand your sources of income.
Flexibility
It’s quite easy for you to start making a schedule of when you want to create your educational content. If you have a full-time job, you can easily dedicate a certain part of your day to record yourself or your needed materials.
After recording, take a look at your content and see if it needs some tweaking or editing. If not, make sure to publish your content regularly if needed. For some educators, they prefer to record and edit their lessons within one week. Then, they’ll publish all their content onto the online education platform so that all their lessons will be available in one go.
However, if you don’t have the luxury of time, don’t worry! Online education is more flexible than you think.
Teaches You New Skills
Next on our list is the number of skills that you’re going to learn even when you’re an online educator. Just because you are the teacher doesn’t mean that you won’t learn a thing or two. Here are the skills that you’re bound to improve:
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You’ll be more Communicative
Talking into a webcam might feel a bit awkward, but it encourages you to think of ways on how to be more interactive with your students so they can participate in class. Most of the time, your student will probably just stare into nothing while you ramble on, which makes online education pretty one-sided.
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Encourages Organization
Planning your content for your classes is a bit like making a lesson plan. However, this time you’ll be recording your classes through a camera or you’ll simply be seated in front of a live audience through a conference call. Whatever your scenario is, it’s easy to get lost in that sea of knowledge. It’s best to organize your content before planning out the rest!
- Strengthens Technological Knowledge
Some educators are not that tech-savvy, especially for those who are completely used to face-to-face education. It might be a bit hard to rely on technology for the majority of your job, but after enough practice, you’ll get into the groove and find that technology makes working a lot easier.
Benefits of being an Online Learner
Let’s now discuss the other side of the online education coin. What could it be possibly like for a student in this new world of online learning? Believe it or not, teachers are doing the best they can to make their learning experience a fun one even if they’re not facing each other in a classroom.
Learn At Your Own Pace
Signing up for an online course usually goes two ways: a scheduled class where you have to attend live or watch a pre-recorded video of the instructor. Whether or not you signed up for a live class or a pre-recorded course, online learning encourages students to learn at their own pace.
Materials are usually provided for the students as they sign up so they can review the resources any time they want and mark it complete once finished.
Tests Creativity and Collaboration
Since the learning environment is completely different, online education tests creativity and collaboration between students. Because all students are stationed at home, it requires them to think of ways to work with each other on an assignment or a project.
This will also teach them responsibility and effective task management, which will prepare them for working life as they grow up.
Technology is readily available for students and there are a lot of platforms that they can use to hang out, do homework, or collaborate on projects.
Convenient Learning Environment
You got it, online learning is convenient for both the teachers and the students. While some schools may require their staff and students to wear their uniform during class hours, most of the participants in online education can wear comfortable clothing while in class (especially if they’re at home).
Not only that, but technology makes a student’s life a lot easier since everything is readily available online. Students can get announcements, share notes, discuss lessons, and chat with other students online.
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Here are 6 Ways To Make a Good Educational Video
Now that we’ve talked about online education and the benefits of both the mentor and mentee, let’s talk more about the resources that you, as an educator, can create for online education.
Right now, educational videos are all the rage. Whether or not you’re a professor who is working in the online education field or a professional who wants to publish online courses as a side job, it’s best that you have the right knowledge to create effective educational videos.
What IS the best way to make a good educational video? Let’s take a look at these 6 ways together so that you can apply them in creating the best educational tools.
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Identify Your Goals
A good educator has goals for his or her students. Therefore, as an educator, you must first think of what you want to achieve with your videos.
Goals can be in the form of:
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Simplifying information
Walls of texts can draw attention away from students. A good educational video shares information that can be easily understood and grasped. If you have a younger audience, consider changing tough words to easier ones to understand.
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Visualizing a procedure
Recording a step-by-step process helps your students see what is happening hands-on. Usually, with these types of educational videos, there is a background narration of what is happening on-screen. Additionally, you can include captions at the bottom of the screen so that students can specifically see what is going on.
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Telling a story
Along with simplifying information, videos are also a great way to tell a story. Especially with using animation as your video style, it grabs and retains a student’s attention. This works great with history or literature.
You can have a number of goals for a single video. You can also set different goals for different videos. Keep in mind that your goals should follow the SMART objectives in order to be effective.
As a reminder, here’s the meaning of SMART:
S – Specific
Answers the question: “Will the student understand the contents of my video?” You may put your goals at the start of the video so that it is clear to your audience.
M – Measurable
Answers the question: “How will I know that my students understood my video?” An example of this is having them enumerate certain elements in your lesson (if applicable). Sometimes, some form of evaluation is also given at the end of each lesson.
A – Achievable
Answers the questions: “Can the student achieve the goal by the end of the lesson?”
R – Realistic
Answers the question: “Do my students have the resources (time and materials) needed to achieve the goal?”
T – Time-Oriented
Answers the question: “Will my students be able to complete the goal within a specific timeframe?” This is usually meant for long-term goals.
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Find The Right Tools
The next step if you want to create a good educational video is to find the right tools that will help you achieve your goals. Your tools will also depend on what kind of video you want to make.
If you want to make a traditional video, a DSLR camera or a smartphone camera will do the trick. Don’t forget that you may also need a tripod and some good lighting to make your video. You might want to consider getting a camera of great quality.
After recording your video, you may need to edit it. Software like Adobe Premiere Pro is currently the go-to video editor for most people. However, you can use other software as well. There are many free video editing software that you may prefer.
If you want to use animation in your videos, you can use animation video tools as well. There are services like Animation Explainers who do the job for you in case you have a hard time creating a comprehensive video.
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Create A Comprehensive Content Outline
The third way to make a good educational video is actually related to the first one. However, this point stresses the importance of making a comprehensive content outline.
Take a look at your content from your student’s perspective. Do you think they would understand your video?
A comprehensive outline would depend on the difficulty of the subject or if the topic needs to be discussed in a particular order. However, it is suggested that the easier topics are tackled before the tough ones.
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Be Creative
Being creative could mean a number of things. It could be:
- Changing the way you discuss a topic (recording yourself using a whiteboard)
- Using a different video style (animation instead of a pre-recorded video)
- Utilizing different transitions and animations
- Include screen recordings and snippets
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Use Keywords
Use keywords instead of long walls of text so that your students can easily remember important terms. These keywords can take up the entire screen or remain at a certain place on the video. What is important is that you emphasize this keyword and let yourself explain the topic.
Additionally, you can include closed captions at the bottom of the screen so that your students can follow the discussion easily.
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Get Straight To The Point
Students usually lose focus once you start getting off-topic. Keep talking about things that are relevant to the topic. If you must include examples, make sure that it doesn’t overwhelm your students or distract them from the main point. That way, your students will retain more information.
Once you have identified your goals and have created a comprehensive content outline, getting straight to the point should be a breeze.
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Talk To Your Audience, Not At Them
Perhaps this is one of the most overlooked elements that not a lot of instructors know. Just because you’re recording yourself talking to a camera does not mean that you do not have an audience.
You should record yourself speaking as if you were speaking to a friend or colleague. That way, your viewers won’t feel bored while watching your educational video.
If you find it hard to speak to a camera, you can imagine yourself talking to your audience as if they are there in person.
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CONCLUSION
Whether or not you are using these in online education or just to share knowledge with your peers, an effective educational video leaves a great impact on its viewers. At the end of the day, you will appreciate improving how you make educational videos.
Creating a good educational video is easy given the amount of technology that we already possess. However, making an effective video that touches our students is the challenge. That’s why after reading this article, you should at least have an idea of how to improve your skill in creating a good educational video.
