Education is a boon to everyone, and educators across the globe have always dedicated themselves to providing the best education to their students.
But, ever since the COVID-19 broke out, they had to put in more and more effort. Even the traditional teachers, not so tech-savvy, are trying their best to make students learn the most of what they are exposing. They are turning to YouTube to make educational videos that can be used to help kids and peers learn via the Internet and social media.
YouTube, the most preferred social platform, has always been a great and easy source to both disseminate and grab information and at present, creating a YouTube account for your school is essential, as it will allow you to connect with the students far away. To do so, you need to open an account and publish a few video lectures. As mentioned above, your YouTube name must reflect your area of expertise. You should have a high-quality webcam/ good mobile camera, a good microphone and a good Internet connection.
But is it enough to make great teaching videos for YouTube? Teaching holds a big responsibility, and such responsibilities come with more carefulness; teachers have to check their planning and scramble for ways to make effective teaching videos that keep the students seated while learning.
In this post, we bring a few expert-recommended tips and strategies to guide you on how to make teaching videos for YouTube.
Break instruction into parts
Highly skilled teachers have a great deal of information to talk about. As a child, you may have experienced it in the classroom. However, video creation is different. As per research, a learner has been shown to begin to lose interest after passing the six-minute mark of a video—and it drops dramatically after nine minutes. Therefore, it is essential to divide the teaching video into different parts so that each video covers a single learning objective or task. It is preferable to make multiple short and sharp videos than a long video full of information.
Create compelling video-ready slides
The best teaching videos are the ones that are very focused, up to a point, use multiple visual cues to highlight important information, and has less text on the screen. It is advisable to build a clear, simple and visually compelling slide deck rather than a boring text-full slide.
Record videos
Whether new or a master at recording videos, many things need to be taken care of, right from using the right angle to shoot a video to using the right tool.
When recording, make sure you use a good camera for better video quality, and the camera angle is right. Also, remember that tutorials must have clarity; they should be easy to consume and learn. Keep a check on the pace and flow of information.
Furthermore, you may use a screencasting program like Explain Everything, which allow educators to pause and re-record specific segments of their video easily. It is perfect for shunning out the pressure of getting a perfect take. It is preferable to find a program that has a robust video editor and an embedded annotation tool.
The next important tool is the Microphone. It is essential to use a pair of headphones with external micas. It helps improve the sound quality and ensure that your videos do not contain background noise.
Improve engagement
Imagine yourself simply sitting and watching over videos for a long duration; you may lose focus, so can students. Therefore, it is essential to create a video that keeps the learners actively engaged.
Research reports that students, who take notes or answer guided questions by watching videos, retain material better than those who watch passively. So integrate questions into your videos. It can keep learners involved and enhance student interaction and provide you with invaluable formative assessment data. It would be best to encourage students to think that watching a video is something they must actively accomplish to learn.
Model the real you
When making a video, make sure to model your authentic personality as the most important element of a great video is authenticity.
It is always better to commit mistakes and behave the way you are than to copy any famous personality or accent. Learners may find it uninteresting and fake. So, make sure you speak in a natural, conversational, easy and enthusiastic tone. Allow your authentic personality to shine through the video. It will keep the learners most engaged and they, in actuality, appreciate knowing that it is their actual teacher behind the video.
Avoid these mistakes
Trying to make it perfect
Many of us work on getting the perfect outcome out of our effort and fail to understand that perfect is an illusion. If you begin with perfection in mind, it will apparently paralyze your creative process, and you will have a hard time doing the work.
So, stick to the goal of making a video that has valuable information to disseminate, not giving the perfect shot. If you fulfil the sole purpose of the video, it is good to go, and you do not need to worry about other things.
Stressing upon equipment
Not everyone needs to have those perfect pieces of equipment. A perfect video can be made with the tools you already have. No doubt, having the latest and fancy tools would make the work fun, but it is not a necessity. It is advisable to begin with, what you have, learn the basics, and slowly upgrade your tools.
Making boring videos
There are possibilities of coming across a lesson, which may be boring and dry, but that does not mean the video to have to be the same. Avoid teaching the way it is; try to make the videos as interesting as possible to keep the students interested.
Taking longer to come to the point
As already mentioned above that students begin losing interest after crossing the six-minute mark of a video. Thus, it is very important to keep the video intact and get to the point at the shortest soon. Plan each piece of the tutorial video properly to avoid getting to the point after a long duration.
To learn more, you can watch this guidance video
