User-Generated Video Adds Context, Drives Behavior Change

Integrating user-generated video into eLearning offers apowerful way to provide real-life context for instruction and assessment or inspirebehavior change.

“The best part about it is thatit gets directly to subject matter experts,” said Tara Bryan, the owner of TLS Learning. “By putting the ability tocreate video in the hands of your subject matter experts, you get that richknowledge transfer from them that anybody can watch.”

Provide step-by-step instructions

Streamline the learning process by having the experts teach:SMEs can record screencasts of the steps of a process as they explain the stepson the audio. This is a clever way to get camera-shy experts to teach learners aconcept, a procedure, or how to use software, said Bryan, who will present “1-2-3 Action! Creating Guidelines for User-Generated Videos” at The eLearningGuild’s Using Video for Learning Spotlight on December 6. One client who has used thisapproach has found that “it has really opened up their training, for them to beable to effectively get a lot more content out there.”

Short instructional videos can be very useful to learners,who can watch them over and over as needed, even calling up the eLearning videosfor a quick refresh at the moment they need to do the procedure.

A caveat: “Subject matter experts have different definitionsof ‘short,’” Bryan said, adding that she aims to keep videos between two andfive minutes. “We try to get them to focus on one discrete topic that they aresharing,” she said, and to break more complex topics or processes into severalshorter videos.

Assess learning and proficiency

Learners can record themselves performing a task or processto show that they have mastered skills taught in eLearning or face-to-facetraining. Not only does a user-generated video provide evidence that the personcan do the task, it can alleviate test anxiety that could interfere withlearners’ performance on written tests.

This application of user-generated video has beenimplemented by Comcast, according to Guy Sellwood, whose team designed thelearning and assessment program. Comcast engineers, who previously took writtentests to demonstrate skills needed for promotions, warmly embraced the shift.Comcast has also employed user-generated video in training for new hires,replacing less-successful training methods such as asking each new hire to makea presentation to the learning cohort. “Comcast Uses Mobile to Deepen Learning and Verify Skills” details Comcast’sinnovative use of these techniques to enhance and measure learning.

Drive behavior change

Rather than relying on top-down instruction regardingcorporate values and culture, ask employees to share stories and experiences.Anecdotal video storytelling—“any kind of sharing of a particular story or bestpractice”—can be an effective driver of behavior change, Bryan said. “You get alittle bit of that ‘story’ element: ‘Here’s something to watch out for,’ or ‘Here’ssomething that worked really well for me,’ or ‘Try this one thing…’”

Bryan described a client that successfully used thisapproach to change their culture around customer experience. Her team preparedeLearning that explained the model and had company leaders presenting thedesired changes. “And then we did a whole piece on how their team members areapplying the behaviors and the values,” Bryan said. “We did that within thecourse—and then, outside of the course, we actually created an intranet pagewhere people could put their own videos: ‘Here’s how I am using the behaviorsor the values to be more successful with my customers.’ It created a movementthat was beyond an educational piece; it created a this real-life application.”

The social element was a key to the success of the campaign,she said. And it was “super easy” to implement. “We just had them record attheir desk with iPhones and selfie sticks and whiteboards if they wanted them,and they went to town,” she said. “We got a ton of videos that we were able touse in different places—and that changed behavior,” she said. “It wasn’t aboutthe model and the values; it was, ‘This is how so-and-so used this on the job!That’s a great idea! I’ll try that next time.’”

Flexibility is essential when adding user-generated video to eLearning

While easy to implement, there are potential pitfalls, Bryanwarns.

Provide options for camera-shy users and SMEs. Acommon problem when L&D professionals want to create video featuringemployees is that people are reluctant to appear on camera. Bryan said that herteams have tried using “man on the street” interviews, but these are lesssuccessful than the screencast or anecdotal approaches. “A lot of times, peopleare uncomfortable: one, being on camera, and two, coming up with something offthe top of their head.” Narrating a screencast solves the problem neatly, and evenwith the anecdotal videos, she said, users had the option of writing theirmessage on a whiteboard or narrating it without appearing in the video.

Be willing to sacrifice some quality. User-generatedvideo is unlikely to be of the same quality as video that the learning teamplans, records in a studio, and edits. “That was one of the big conversationsthat we had,” Bryan said. But, “I think that there is a place for that kind ofvideo, and then there’s a place for user-generated video. They are bothvaluable.”

The source of much resistance is the “learning team or theexecutive team or whoever is controlling the messaging. They are just nervousabout handing people a camera or letting them use their phones,” she said. But,from the learners’ perspective, getting video from the SMEs explaining conceptsand procedures has “made a huge difference to how they’re getting that tribalknowledge, the on-the-job training that they weren’t able to get before.”

Discourage users from “winging it.” Theuser-generated videos have to be short; one way to rein in SMEs who might“over-talk,” Bryan said, is planning. Her team gives the SMEs guidelines forplanning their videos and advises them to have a content outline that chunkscomplex ideas into small, focused pieces. She also said that, once SMEs do somevideos and see the feedback, they learn what works—and get better and better.