Trainers and HR professionals often ask us: What length do you recommend for a learning video? Now we answer this question in our blog as well!
Learning videos under 3 minutes long
The clear recommendation from the blink.it learning experts: Keep your video as short as possible – ideally under 3 minutes! Experience shows that the ideal length is actually only between 1 and 2 minutes.
It may be difficult for you to keep it that short when creating a video yourself. Then I have a simple tip for you: Imagine you are entering an elevator. Next to you stands a person to whom you want to explain your learning content. As you both ride up in the elevator, you have only a little time to convince the person of your message. This method is known as the Elevator Pitch and is usually used in sales conversations.
By the way, funny irony: If you search Google for "Elevator Pitch" or "Elevator Statement," you hardly find any videos under three minutes.
“Are you still there?” Attention is limited!
So why should you use such short learning videos? There are two main reasons for this:
Focus: Every piece of content has a core message that needs to be conveyed.
Attention: The human attention span is very small.
This fact is increasingly recognized by companies: Studies show that videos in a business context are getting shorter and shorter. In 2017, an average video was still 6:07 minutes long, in 2018 it was only 4:07 minutes (Source) – that's a full two minutes shorter!
Especially in times of digitization, where we are bombarded with media and videos from all sides, our attention span is decreasing. Therefore, not only should a learning video in e-learning and online courses be kept short, but every piece of learning content should generally be dealt with in a maximum of 5 minutes. This was also the result of our own study to define the perfect length of an online course.
And if a video is longer and you would like to use it for your online course? Our answer: Try to divide the video into meaningful sections or edit it so that only the most important core message remains. This is not always easy, but it is worthwhile for the learning effect. Your message should be clear and immediately understandable – it is generally not the participant's job to perform content analysis!
Therefore, the rule is: Shorten videos for online courses so that the core message is clearly conveyed – and complement the learning unit with a precise call to action: What should your participant do with this statement now?
Rule of thumb for the perfect length for learning videos: Stay under three minutes!
The topic of learning videos is, of course, not covered by just the ideal length: What equipment do I need to shoot a learning video? What else should I pay attention to besides length? – Answers to these and other questions can be found in our video guide, which we offer to you as a free download. Enjoy your learning videos!
