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Quick Take: Take a look at what teachers are looking for in educational videos:
- The 3 challenges that make educational videos not work now
- The 4 features that teachers are looking for in a solution
What makes a good educational video for teachers to use in their lessons? The criteria of what teachers are looking for may surprise some. In our recent whitepaper on video-assisted learning, we found that 96.6% of teachers surveyed use video in their teaching but access and the quality of good educational videos are a big concern for teachers.
The whitepaper identified both challenges teachers are facing when looking for educational videos and the key features teachers are seeking. Here are some insights gained:
3 key challenges teachers face when searching for educational videos
1. Time commitment vs workload: Overall, many teachers (36%) reported struggling to find time to search for videos. Our finding saw that most teachers are hard-pressed for time. This could be directly linked to the teacher’s workload. In the UK alone, a National Education Union survey of 8 thousand teachers found 81% of teachers have considered leaving teaching because of the workload. Thirty percent of those surveyed by the NEU said they spend more than 16 hours a week completing schoolwork during their weekend and evenings. Teacher’s workload and the time they can dedicate to preparing lessons (including video search) is under excessive pressure.
2. Quality in the free: The majority of teachers who responded to the survey reported they tend to search for videos online, using search engines such as YouTube (83%) or Google (61%). Although it is easy to search for content on any topic conceivable on YouTube and Google these videos come with uncertainties over content quality and relevance. There are also advertisements and inappropriate content embedded in many videos. Similarly, problems to consider are copyrights, the ability to share, and commitment to sorting various videos.
3. Frustrations over restricted access: Of the teachers we surveyed, 30% of teachers indicated that their institution restricts access to some popular websites. These types of restrictions largely limit the teacher’s accessibility to available content online, forcing them to use workarounds or forgo using the online tools. The American Library Association president Barbara Stripling said, “over-filtering blocks access to legitimate educational resources, and consequently reduces access to information and learning opportunities for students.”
For more insights on the challenges teachers face with using educational videos, check out: Are free educational videos worth it?
4 key features teachers seek in video-assisted learning
Four key features were identified when asked what are the features teachers highly value when looking for in educational videos:
1. Suggested Video Content: Seventy-one percent of teachers reported that they would like to see suggested videos. This would both reduce the time they spend looking for videos and reduce frustration when looking for the most relevant video.
2. Ablility to Store and Organize: Being able to store and organize videos came in as the second most important with 67% of teachers reporting this as a sought after feature. As teachers tend to stream most of the video content they use, having a place to store videos and access them later is vital. Many teachers are having trouble with figuring out how to store and organize video collections from many different sources and formats.
3. Ability to Edit: Slightly lower, 62% of teachers asked for the ability to edit videos. Some teachers need to shorten or take out unrelated parts of a video to keep the video relevant to their lessons. As our survey identified most teachers prefer videos 2 to 10 minutes long videos so teachers unquestionably need the ability to quickly shorten videos.
4. Ability to Share: Lastly, 56% of teachers are seeking the ability to easily share videos. As teachers may not be the only ones to use their prepared lessons, being able to save and share videos would help teachers organize and share lessons with other teachers, students, and parents.
Solutions for video-assisted learning
Video-assisted learning is the use of video technology to aid in the learning process. It engages learners by promoting analysis, syntheses, and evaluation of concepts by stimulus provided by the video.
Videos are a great educational tool that most teachers are using in their classroom. The many benefits of using educational videos have been identified in the paper, Using Educational Video in the Classroom, where Emily Cruse, M.Ed. summarize that educational videos can:
- Reinforces reading and lecture material
- Aids in the development of a common base of knowledge among students
- Enhances student comprehension and discussion
- Provides greater accommodation of diverse learning styles
- Increases student motivation and enthusiasm
- Promotes teacher effectiveness
ViewSonic has partnered with Boclips to provide teachers with access to the educational videos they can use without concern over restrictions, quality, and workload. Additionally, our platform offers teachers educational videos that can generate video suggestions base on the topic searched and the ability to organize and share videos easily. Our solution called myViewBoard Clips powered by Boclips was developed to confronts the challenges and desires teachers identified when looking for educational videos. myViewBoard Clips powered by Boclips is the video-assisted learning platform that provides educational videos from premier media brands to help teachers safely, seamlessly, and quickly create engaging lessons. It is commercial-free, copyright-cleared, and curated for educational subjects.
More insights into video-assisted learning can be found in our full whitepaper:
Video-Assisted Learning Insights: The Struggle for Teachers to Access Video Content
