5 Video Editing Tips for Creating E-Learning Courses

The use of video for various educational and training purposes is on the rise. There’re numerous statistics about the importance of visual aids as part of learning, and video is one of the most common ones. But how can we utilise these videos as instructional designers or e-learning developers? With this post, I’d like to give you 5 simple ideas about how to edit and use videos in your e-learning courses.

Introduction

This is just one of the staggering facts related to the use of videos for learning. Due to recent worldwide events and the continuously arising opportunities that are brought to us by technology, there is an ever-growing demand for the use of this type of media to assist or enhance learning.

To look at the topic from a slightly different angle, using videos can contribute hugely to personalising the content we create. In a survey[2] of over 1,400 learners and professionals, 98% of the respondents said that videos play an important role in creating personalised learning experiences. The value of understanding our learners’ needs was discussed in my previous post where I briefly talked about the human-centred design.

However (!), the importance of utilising video in our courses doesn't mean that we've found the secret ingredient to creating amazing learning experiences. The next step is to think about why we want to use a specific video and how. This is where Storyline and the video editing tools come into the picture. With the use of these and a few simple editing techniques, we can help the learners to experience the content in chunks rather than long and tiring blocks of repetitive videos. We can also enable them to interact with specific parts of the video and create a customised learning experience to match their needs.

But now without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the tricks that are out there to make our e-learning courses better.

#1 Standard cut

This is the most basic editing technique that almost everyone uses when working with this format. Being able to cut raw material that you have available is fundamental to focus on specific points and save time by not making your learners watch the full length of it.

The video above is to showcase my e-learning portfolio entries and the goal was to make it as short as possible. The standard cut allows us to show just very short bits of an action, keeping our audience engaged and giving them a different perspective at the same time.

#2 Zooming in

Another easy-to-learn trick is zooming in. This is also a very basic tool and the great things about it are that a) it doesn’t need any complex editing skills, and b) you can use it with a simple image to make it more interactive. The example below was used for a project related to environmental protection and corporate awareness and it’s a simple image of the North-American continent and cities.

The zoom-in effect can give a great background next to or behind your text and it helps to bring your learners’ attention to specific parts of an image. This tool is ideal for interviews where you can slowly zoom in on someone’s face to give a little bit of motion instead of the still image which can be a little bit tiring for the eye to look at for a long time. It can also allow you to bring a static image to life and keep your learners engaged by making the learning experience dynamic.

#3 Hovering

This technique is slightly similar to the previous one in terms of its purpose but it provides more variety. Instead of (just) zooming in, this time the close-up frame moves around on the screen, allowing the users to see different things and enabling you to fully guide their attention.

The clip above was made for one of my portfolio projects, which is about invoice processing for Accounts Payable associates. The content of the course can be a bit dry as the main points are related to understanding the different parts of an invoice. The rationalisation behind using video here was to only show specific parts of the invoice at one time so that the learner can look at the document just as they would when processing it as part of their regular job.

#4 Interactive video

There are many ways of adding interactivity , and one of them is enabling the learners to click on various parts of the image when they are watching the video. This encourages them to not only passively watch the media but also be actively part of what’s happening.

You have a wide variety of options to choose from, for instance, providing your users with more information (example below) or creating a mini quiz based on what they see.

And where does video editing come in to the picture? As you can see, the clip above is using the previously mentioned hovering effect (#3) plus some standard cutting (#1). This can be further edited in Articulate Storyline’s built-in video editor to match your needs.

First, you need to familiarise yourself with using hotspots and triggers, then you can play with the other features to make the xlip stop and start whenever you’d like it to.

If you’re interested in creating something similar, I recommend checking out these videos David Anderson posted on LinkedIn learning.

#5 Adding text, images and sound

This last tip is using editing to be able to further personalise the video that you use. By adding extra text, images and sound, you can design the video in a way that best fits your learners’ needs.

A good example for using these can be creating scenario-based e-learning. Using simulations and scenarios in learning experiences is a great way to make our learners think about the content they are working with. By providing them options to choose from, we can make them consider the possible outcomes of their decisions and engage with the material on a higher level.

Kimberly Goh has recently posted a video on this topic in which she uses examples from Star Wars (amazing!) to list the 5 most important tips related to creating e-learning scenarios:

Check out her other posts too, if you want to see other video editing tricks and the use of media for instructional design.

Pitfalls

After mentioning all the tips above, let’s not forget that there’re risks involved too. These are frequently mentioned when it comes to discussing instructional design and learning theories, but I feel they need to be emphasised in this post too.

The first rule is don’t use videos just for the sake of using it. In other words, we shouldn’t automatically think that if we use videos in our courses, they’ll be better. It can be the opposite. Videos won’t bring engagement and success on their own. Try to think about how to use them in a meaningful way so that there’s an appropriate balance between them and the rest of your content.

Rule number two is try to avoid using long videos. This format is the same as any other learning material and learners can focus on one thing for only so long. Think and plan carefully what you want to use and how before you start editing and embedding them into your courses.

Rule number three: be careful with overusing effects. Less is often more. Make sure that you can do the basic editing confidently and work your way towards more complex tools step-by-step before attempting to create the next time travel / space jump effect in your course.

Video editing can be quite time-consuming, especially at the beginning when everything is new. This is why you need to be careful with how often you use it and what kind of technique you decide to go for.

Software and applications

Last but not least, there’re various applications that we can use and I’m sure the list is just going to get longer and longer. For some of the techniques I mentioned above, I think it’s good to get used to learning about one of the more complex video editing pieces of software like Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas. There are thousands of tutorials on YouTube on how to use them, so you just need to search for the one that you’d like to learn and apply it to your own materials.

For simpler solutions, Camtasia and the built-in video editor of Articulate Storyline are perfectly adequate too, so it’s worth checking them out before diving into mastering the more advanced platforms.

Conclusion

The tendency for the growing need for different types of digital media is something that is unlikely to stop in the next few decades, so learning about the basics now can pay off in the long run.

I hope this post was useful for you to collect some ideas about how we can maximise the potential of using videos to make our e-learning courses or any other educational material more personalised and enjoyable for our learners.

What about you?

What kind of videos do you like to use for your courses?

Let me know in the comments below!

Cover image source: <a href='https://www.freepik.com/photos/computer'>Computer photo created by frimufilms - www.freepik.com</a>