Educational video allows instructors to expand how they teach, giving them more opportunities to connect with students and more ways to share course content. It improves and enriches students’ learning experiences and education equity, while enabling a wider range of perspectives to be shared on campus. Let’s take a closer look at educational video’s benefits, from how it increases instructors’ options to how it will continue to make an impact as schools move into the future.

Close the distance between instructor and students

With video, students can get to know their instructor and class content, even before a course begins. It provides an opportunity for the instructor to become more familiar, relatable, and also develop a rapport with students. Throughout the course, asynchronous video allows learning at any time. This is especially helpful for instructors who want to provide support to students who may not want or be able to use office hours, or to students who are struggling with material.

Share video content from other instructors and courses

Instructors are able to expand their course content by incorporating videos from other sources, including fellow instructors and other courses. This strategy allows them to offer different perspectives and teaching styles, as well as share video creation work. With more instructors providing content, there’s more freedom to experiment with new ways to share video content across courses.

Show students unique experiences and perspectives

By using video, instructors can provide a much broader range of course material. For example, beyond classroom lecture instruction, they can record and share laboratory work, a tour of a relevant facility, guest speakers, panel discussions, demonstrations, and more. The ability to watch a recorded video at a different time and place–called time-shifting and location-shifting–allows students to consume their classes anytime, anywhere. It also means that they can see new, unique, and engaging course content from geographically dispersed people and places that the instructor wishes to incorporate via video. This can broaden student perspectives and experiences.

Give more opportunities for interaction

Video provides more opportunities for interaction, both student-to-instructor and student-to-student. By incorporating different modes of content delivery, as well as video assignments, student presentations, discussion boards, and evaluation/observation recordings, instructors broaden their interactions with students and encourage connections between classmates. 

Instructors can also gain a better understanding of students’ comprehension and offer a richer learning experience through features like video quizzes, individual and group notes, supplemental information, and search and navigation features.

Educational video benefits instructors as well 

We recently spoke with Barb Puder, Associate Professor and Chair, Basic Sciences, at Samuel Merritt University, who has incorporated asynchronous and synchronous video into every course she teaches. She says, “Having the videos accessible is super easy for everyone. It’s easy for teachers. It’s easy for students to access.”

Just as video enriches student learning opportunities, it also engages instructors and expands the teaching experience. Using video can spark creativity and help instructors bring a subject to life in a highly engaging medium. With a need for expanded access to educational resources, video allows teachers to reach all students across all learning styles, lifestyles, places, and times. Video is both an art and a science. It takes learning the tools and building the skillset, along with an openness to change and learning something new. The good news is that the actual steps to create and share instructional video are remarkably easy and incredibly rewarding.

Video is the way forward. Students are demanding video as a way to learn and make education more accessible. Schools are now beginning to label classes in their course catalogues as synchronous and asynchronous, giving students the option to select courses based on content delivery and what fits their learning needs. Professors have found that not including asynchronous video options can have a negative impact on their student reviews. 

“Videos have just opened up the world for the students,” says Puder. “If I don’t change with the needs of the students, I’m not going to be valued…video is the way to go.”

Rather than view video as just another area to figure out, instructors should think open-mindedly about its options and many benefits. The end result will be increased education equity, deeper student engagement, and highly relevant teaching and learning experiences that will set students up for the future.

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