Short Videos Can Animate eLearning

Pairing pithy videos—the epitome of hip modernity—with theancient art of storytelling can invigorate otherwise ordinary eLearning.

Storytelling is among the best ways to communicate, shareexperience, and teach; a good story stays with the audience for a long time.Video storytelling might be a relative newcomer, but it has surged to supremacy.Reading a story or listening to a great storyteller can activate theimagination and lead learners to visualize a sequence of events, but a videocan take them there and re-create the feeling of being part of the event. Newertechnologies, like 360-degree video and augmented or virtual reality, promiseto immerse learners even more realistically in stories.

Video is a natural medium for storytelling

The Internet is highly visual; according to Gigaom, a technology research firm, consumers and businesses are increasinglyturning to video to tell stories. eLearning designers should take a page fromtheir book—or would that be a frame from their video? The shift to video is, inpart, due to the ease of creating and editing video with smartphones and apps.As short videos and video ads dominate social media and other mobile spaces,video is literally being reshaped and reimagined. (The age-old taboo onvertical shooting is fading as companies specifically design video to fitvertical smartphone screens.)

Animations, clever filters, and the instant ability foranyone to star in a video have fueled an explosion of creativity. Videos arebecoming shorter and faster-paced, vital to holding the attention oftime-starved, multitasking learners.

For eLearning designers, this points to a need to integratecompact, engaging videos into microlearning and eLearning modules. Even verybrief stories require the essential components of a great narrative:

• Tight focus—a central idea that you can capturein a single word
• Appeal to viewers’ values or emotions
• A character who is interesting and whom learnerswill care about
• A tension point—a challenge, a problem to solve,a conflict
• Actions, consequences, and resolution—acharacter’s journey

Incorporate video storytelling into eLearning

Microlearning and more traditional eLearning offer aplethora of opportunities to integrate short video narratives. A fewsuggestions:

• Introduce characters in a learning game orsimulation with a super-short, punchy video; this is a great way to draw learners in, engaging them in theeLearning.
• Show, don’t tell. Many learners will master a procedurefar more quickly by watching a video than reading a description of the steps. Simpleprocedures, like this six-second science example, don’t even need audio.
• A longer or more complex procedure might neednarration, but it doesn’t have to be heavy-handed or moralistic. Try to keep instructionalvideos short (under three minutes); use humor if appropriate, as Average Betty does withher cooking demos. Some instructional videos can stand on their own asmicrolearning units.
• When offering a tip, feature someone who hassuccessfully used it to improve performance, boost sales, or save time, likethis guy in Video Tip #2 who demonstrates a tool to improve sound quality. This approach canalso be helpful in compliance training, where the interviewee shares anexperience that illustrates the importance of a rule or process.
• Borrow TV reporters’ “person-on-the-street interview”technique: Ask three employees or clients the same question, or ask them todescribe their experience with a product, process, or problem. Limit (or edit)their responses; 10 – 15 seconds per person can give a succinct but meaningfulintro to an eLearning module.
• A longer interview—or series of interviews—canfocus on an engaging character who shares her experience with a product, tool,or procedure. Learners who identify with the character’s experience might seeadded value to mastering the eLearning. A single character can “stand in” forall of us—the one representing the whole. Two can show opposing views on atopic; three show a range of experience, allowing most learners to identifywith someone.

Keep it short and simple

Even very short videos are an effective way to tell storiesand connect with learners. Many eLearning developers assume that they’ll needto hire actors to create powerful video, but that is often unnecessary. Animatedvideos and screencasts, like Google’s Parisian Lovestory, can be evocative and memorable. This simple video also highlights theimportance of the audio or soundtrack; the snippets of ambient sound enhancethe storytelling evident in the sequence of searches shown on-screen.

Layering images with text, narration, ambientsound, and perhaps sound effects or music, it’s possible to create an immersiveexperience; creating a sonic environment is what sells the story, according to “Video’s Stepchildren: Writing, Audio, and Soundtracks.” A well-crafted short videocomplements other content—a simulation or game where learners participate, or links,text, checklists, images, or charts—to generate buy-in from learners, inviting themto an experience that pulls them in, carries them along, and stays with them.