MSU Extension Organizational Development

So what types of videos are the most engaging? Like everything else in teaching your audience may have different ideas about what is engaging. But let's consider some research and some common sense. We're going to look at a study on the behavior of learners with videos and Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. And this is the one where they decided six minutes was the magical time at which engagement dropped off. But they also looked at what types of videos were engaging. And the recommendations coming from the study will follow. First, recommendations about setting. Try filming in an informal setting where the instructor can make good eye contact. And this actually will cost less than, might be more effective than a professional studio. Students liked talking heads more than just slides, and they didn't seem to be impacted by high-quality production backgrounds. But more engaging does not mean more learning. So this study didn't focus on recall or learning. But there's another study that did, and this recommendation is countered by the Stanford study that shows that students do want to see the instructor's face. But that doing so does not help them in recalling the information. So it may be a preference, but it's not really important for learning. So it's really up to you. In the MOOCs study, they recommend using Khan style tutorials when possible. So that's when you see an instructor writing out a document camera like this. You don't have this tool and you use slides. You can add emphasis to the sides by annotating on top of them And here are my thoughts on this. The drawing not just shows us what to focus on, but it involves constant change. Think about professional videos, from news reports to commercials to Hollywood. Camera angles are always changing. So there's constant change and what you're seeing and that's what we're used to. Change, keeps our attention. So don't keep your images in your video static for too long. Their recommendation on delivery focused on instructors that spoke with natural enthusiasm. And they also spoke a little bit faster. So just know that you want to be enthusiastic. It's okay to speak a little bit fast. And you just want to go back in and edit out pauses and filler words and post-production. So here it is. In summary, keep it short, keep it informal. Show your face. Maybe if you want to. And if you can use Khan style tablet drawing. My thoughts on this is that it's kind of a slippery topic. The content and the learner's characteristics such as their motivation and their past learning experiences, their personal preferred learning format are going to all influence what will keep their attention.