Planning eLearning Videos Offers Creative Outlet

Whether eLearning includes a single video featuring asimulation of a workplace scenario or a dozen short instructional videos, alleLearning videos share three stages of development: preproduction, production,and post-production. This article focuses on the first—and most often neglected—stageof planning eLearning videos: preproduction.

Video preproduction, though far from an exact science, hasbeen honed to an art form in the entertainment business. L&D professionalscan learn a lot from techniques and practices gleaned from the Hollywood pros.The eLearning Guild’s upcoming Using Video for Learning Spotlight, on December6, will include an entire session on the topic: “Preproduction Practices for Better Workplace Video,” presented by Thomas Spiglanin, asenior project leader for The Aerospace Corporation. Spiglanin shared someinsights with Learning Solutions on why preproduction matters and howeLearning developers can use this stage to plan innovative eLearning videos.

Planning eLearning videos includes some or all of the samesteps that any video preproduction process entails: budgeting, determiningequipment and location needs, scripting the video, lining up actors, and more.See “Essential Video Preproduction Guide for eLearning” for detailed descriptions of eachstep. But eLearning videos require extra attention to content.

“I’d say the single most important preproduction task for aneLearning developer is to start by identifying the purpose of his or her video.In learning and development terms, that translates to establishing learningobjectives, and for the short videos I advocate for a single objective for eachvideo,” Spiglanin said in an email interview. “When I do this, I often end upcreating multiple objectives because accomplishing my main objective oftenmeans assuming baseline knowledge. To avoid the assumptions, I write additionalobjectives to address that, and each becomes a short video of its own.”

Spiglanin sees video planning as an opportunity for L&Dprofessionals to get creative. “Let’s say I need a video to train employees tofollow a new process that involves interacting with an online tool. I mightaccomplish this with a screen recording of how to use the tool with a voice-overdescribing the steps,” he said. “That’s not the kind of video I typically make.Instead, I might open with a shot of someone, like a recognized executive,highlighting the importance of following the new process—rather than startingwith the tool. They in turn might introduce someone else who then introducesthe tool. My video might then transition between the person using the tool andthe screen recording of the tool in action, which I find a little moreinteresting.” Spiglanin said there could be many other ways to design a videothat accomplishes the same goal. “I rarely come up with a concept for a videoalone. Bouncing ideas off other creative people inevitably generates ideas Iwouldn’t have come up with alone,” he said.

Screenplays? Hollywood has that all figured out!

An area where eLearning developers often fall short isscripting or creating a screenplay for their eLearning videos. The most commonerror, Spiglanin said, is focusing too heavily on the words that the actorswill say—and neglecting everything else. What else is there? The answer to thatis the difference between a script and a screenplay. Spiglanin recommendscreating a screenplay using the same format used in the movie industry.

“The format was developed specifically for film and thenvideo, which is essentially film’s digital equivalent. It’s highly visual, whendone well. The script should describe clearly what the viewer is seeing in theform of action lines, as well as what they’re hearing, formatted as dialogue,”he said. “It conjures an image in your mind as you read it, describing what theviewer is seeing and hearing in a linear fashion, beginning to end. A script,on the other hand, could be a voice-over script without action lines.”

The screenplay format displays action and spoken textdifferently, so a quick glance at a page shows which is which. A benefit ofthis format, Spiglanin said, is that “it becomes very easy to see the dialogueamong the action lines. If you have mostly dialogue and little action, it’seasy to spot and an indicator of a potentially boring video.”

Planning pays off

The amount of time required for preproduction is as variedas the complexity and length of eLearning videos. “I’ve gone from concept tocompletion of three short videos on selected uses of SharePoint in less thanone day. I have a series of video scripts in multiple stages of completion thathave been in the works for several months,” Spiglanin said.

L&D professionals who are using employee volunteers orSMEs, rather than professional actors, need to account for that when planningeLearning videos. The production and post-production could take longer thananticipated because the video might need to be recorded multiple times oredited heavily. In fact, the stages of video development—preproduction,production, and post-production—might overlap, Spiglanin said. And theydefinitely interconnect. Take the example of a short video of an SME explaininghow to use a piece of software while the video shows the screens. Anyinnovations, such as adding head shots of the SME or “action” shots of peopleusing the software, bring up new planning and production needs: identifying,scheduling, and recording those actors.

Even the simplest videos, using only animation or screencasts,require significant planning. The SME providing the voice-over has to get itright. Timing the audio and visuals can also be challenging. “Animation andscreencast are similar the way I see them,” Spiglanin said. “Both aretime-based visual assets from a production standpoint. The narration that goesalong with them to explain the why and how points is also time-based, but thereis often no direct relationship between the two. What takes 20 seconds to describemight take only 10 seconds or less to demonstrate. For that reason, I almostalways record the voice track first and adjust the speed of the video or addfreeze frames to match. That’s technically a post-production activity, but itneeds to be planned for in preproduction.”

Another simple, inexpensive approach to creating eLearningvideo is recording with a smartphone. This can be user-generated video or simple videos created by the eLearning developers, resulting inwhat Spiglanin described as “guerrilla video production.”

“If I’m shooting video with a smartphone, it’s important torealize that the three phases of production have really become one. I’m doingthe planning, production, and editing myself. My planning needs to be done inadvance of needing it on a particular day,” Spiglanin said. “There’s a minimumset of equipment I would recommend for anyone who thinks they want to makevideos like this. The camera decision was made in the choice of smartphone, somy recommendations address lighting, stability, and sound—what I call the ‘big three’challenges of workplace video production.” His recommendations include asmartphone tripod, a microphone, and a portable lighting kit—purchases thatmust be made during the video preproduction phase.