Bring life to your online course! Videos are the absolute hit among the methods for blended learning: they are entertaining, feel personal, and stick in the memory. Find out now in this article why you don't have to choose between quality and simple production!
That's why videos bring life to your blended learning
Do you remember your school days when the class cheered when a film was shown in class? Videos have long been – and perhaps still are – a method for teachers to keep students satisfied and quiet with simple means. But our love for videos remains as we grow older. Adults also generally prefer moving images to static images or texts.
Our environment is moving, life is in motion. An online course takes place on a virtual level and therefore runs the risk of appearing static and thus boring. Videos are a great tool for trainers to bring life into their blended learning.
In principle, other formats such as quizzes or audio tracks are also a good way to provide variety and liveliness in the online course. However, videos have one more significant advantage: they are the binding piece between you and your participants – at least when you yourself can be seen in the video.
Videos in blended learning offer you the following three major advantages:
Close emotional bond between trainer and participant
Fun and variety in training
Learning content stays in memory longer
Utilize these advantages for yourself now and create videos quickly and easily with your own smartphone! You don't need much for that. To start, a look at our guide for good video production helps you. There you will learn many helpful tips on what to consider when creating videos with your smartphone and where to find more information.
Videos in online courses are fun and help to process what has been learned better.
Different types of videos for blended learning
The possibilities are numerous – my colleague Hans-Peter has listed 9 different types of videos in this blog post. Experience shows that trainers and coaches often choose the following types:
Selfie
Screencast
Scene
Note: In addition to these three typical types of videos in blended learning, several other variants are conceivable. For example, the typical explanatory video, where images, texts, and graphics work together (here is an example). This type of video is great to watch and effective, but also very time-consuming and expensive to produce. Many trainers and coaches therefore opt for much simpler types that still achieve a high impact.
Video Type No. 1: The Selfie
I call this type “The Selfie” – because everyone can imagine what is meant: You as a trainer or coach stand in front of the camera, and the viewer sees your face and a small part of your upper body. This variant is the unbeatable number 1 among trainers who work with blended learning. The reason: The selfie is easy to produce and creates a strong bond between the trainer and the participant. An example of a typical selfie video in blended learning:
Video Type No. 2: The Screencast
Sometimes trainers and coaches want to explain how participants should behave on a website or with a program. For this, you simply record your screen while you show with your mouse, touch, or trackpad what to do. For this, you need software (for example, Screencastify), a digital device, such as a laptop, PC, or tablet, and a microphone/headset.
The advantage of the screencast: You can vividly and simply show how something works digitally. The viewer can also pause your video and try what was said in a second window right away.
As an example of the screencast, I will show you a video I recorded a few years ago to present and analyze a learning platform for French:
Video Type No. 3: The Scene
As a third popular type in training, a real scene is filmed or staged, which the viewer sees and judges as an outside person. The advantage of the video type “scene” is that the presented situation is very illustrative and gives the viewer a real example to accompany the theory. Trainer Leif Kania has uploaded such a video type on YouTube:
In addition to the types shown, you still have several additional video styles to choose from. However, we recommend the types “selfie,” “screencast,” and “scene” as they are particularly appreciated by trainers and coaches due to their simple production.
When to use? Videos are suitable in various training phases
As mentioned above, videos are a great method for blended learning. Trainers, consultants, and coaches upload short videos to their online courses and motivate their participants sustainably. In blended learning, we can basically distinguish three phases: The preparation for the presence events, the accompaniment during or between individual presence events, and the follow-up for the transfer after the presence event.
When are videos particularly useful in blended learning? Let's briefly discuss all three phases to answer this question:
1. Phase in blended learning: The preparation
Our tip: Always start your e-learning component in blended learning with a selfie video! Especially at the beginning, you want to “take your participants by the hand” and build a personal connection.
Videos are suitable in the preparation phase of your blended learning for:
Getting to know + binding to the trainer
Easy entry for the participant
Especially suitable for these aspects in the preparation phase is the selfie video: You show your face and speak directly into the camera to your participant.
2. Phase in blended learning: The accompaniment
Depending on whether you are planning a single presence event or several at intervals of several days or weeks, online accompaniment is particularly important. If there are several weeks between individual events, you can selectively motivate your participants with videos and maintain contact with you.
Videos are suitable in the accompaniment phase of your blended learning for:
Strengthening the bond / maintaining contact
Bringing variety and fun into training
Simplifying complex topics
During the online accompaniment, all three mentioned types of videos are suitable. If you care about bringing variety into your blended learning? Then I recommend a good mix of all three video types. Try out different formats now and see how your participants respond!
3. Phase in blended learning: The follow-up
After the last presence event, an online follow-up is advisable to ensure a high transfer. Here, too, we recommend starting the phase with a selfie video. This way, you again take your participant by the hand and build trust and motivation for the transfer.
The video type “scene” is also suitable in the follow-up to clearly present what has been learned and to bridge the gap to practice.
Conclusion: We especially recommend a personal video at the beginning of each phase to strengthen the aspect of emotional bonding in the e-learning component of your blended learning. Try out for yourself what works best for you.
Quality is too expensive and complicated? Not at all!
We often hear the following statement from successful trainers and coaches:
I want to appear professional and don't know if I can achieve that with self-produced videos.
A understandable concern – professional appearance is essential for trainers. But what does professionalism mean, particularly in the context of training and coaching? We believe: A professional trainer is primarily authentic, transparent, and an expert in their field. The personal bond is worth much more than a flawless presentation.
At the same time, externally commissioned videos are expensive and not worth it for regular training. A “hero” video or image film can indeed be useful to introduce yourself and your training. However, these videos are unsuitable for the use of multiple videos as support in training.
This means: You don't need Hollywood-style to be successful with videos in blended learning. Instead, you can achieve 80% quality with a maximum of 20% of the investment (effort + cost). No participant rates a trainer negatively because a video in training does not appear 100% perfect.
Comprehensive information on shooting videos with a smartphone can be found on our info page:
Creating videos for online courses – easily with a smartphone
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With a few small tricks, you can easily create high-quality videos on your smartphone – achieving 80% quality with just 20% effort!
Checklist: What viewers really pay attention to in videos
Good sound: If I can’t understand anything, I switch off immediately!
The person behind it: Is the person sympathetic to me?
Content: Is what is presented relevant to me and seems plausible?
Conciseness: Attention drops quickly – try to keep it to 3 minutes!
Technical playability: You can influence good software; you cannot influence a stable internet connection on the participant's side.
In terms of image quality, pronunciation, and framing, you can be a little “imperfect” – because your participants know you are not a video journalist.
One more bonus for you: Small mistakes in self-produced videos make you authentic and approachable. This brings you sympathy points, which are much more important for you as a trainer or coach than perfect image quality.
However, there is one mistake you should not make: filming vertical videos. Our human eyes are horizontally oriented, and that’s why our PC screens, laptops, and tablets are also built in landscape format. Check out this funny video:
Start now with your first video for your training
You can talk a lot about videos, but in the end, only hands-on experience helps. Just start with a short video that you can comfortably record with your smartphone.
Many devices and software for video shooting are available cheaply or for free in a demo version. Test out different settings and then ask real participants (for example, from previous courses) how they assess such a video. You will see that your participants will love your personal videos!
We at blink.it have been working intensively with clients who use videos for their training for a long time. From these experiences, we have created a guide that gives you an overview of the topic of video in blended learning. From planning to actual shooting to follow-up – in the guide, you will find tips, checklists, and many examples.
Start now with your first video and bring life into your blended learning!
