January 6, 2009
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Hit the Target! Make Your Video a Successful Educational Product
By Joann Flick, AIT’s Broadcast/Training Professional
Video producers have many intuitive skills that can be directed to improve the instructional qualities of video-based media.
Use these tips—which follow the "nine events of learning" outlined by Robert Gagné in his book The Conditions of Learning (1965)—so that the video will be successful in the school market:
- Get the viewer’s attention! Do it often. Show kids actively engaged in their own learning process.
- Show them what you expect them to learn. Make sure you focus on valid, standards-based, learning goal(s).
- Think about what the viewers already know, and use your story to remind them of important details that will help them learn more.
- Present new material bit by bit.
- Guide the viewers . . . show them how you want them to learn.
- Strategically place a natural break or pause point every few minutes, and direct viewers to reflect on what they have just learned.
- Follow up a pause point with feedback on the topic so viewers can affirm that they are on the right track.
- Take time to review important details; make sure you have included plenty of opportunities for the viewer to get it.
- Show the real-life context for the learning.
Producers should use their experience to decide the best way to apply these steps. For practice, try these techniques:
- Identify valid learning goals based on a program idea.
- Run ideas past the staff at AIT or a classroom teacher.
- Imagine one way to change a program to activate learning. Resolve to incorporate that idea into the next project.
Educational, standards-based productions that teach essential skills and concepts in a compelling way are successful in the marketplace. Video producers can do so much more than just motivate or support the instruction—they can activate minds, inspire learners, and teach!