Learning in the Era of Online Videos: How to Improve Teachers’ Competencies of Producing Educational Videos

Abstract

Online videos have gained huge popularity among people seeking for entertainment, and increasingly also among learners. People seek for tips in videos, ranging widely from improving language skills to bike reparation, or from solving mathematical equations to indoor decoration. At the same time teachers are facing challenges of producing professional videos that can support learners to learn the variety of topics. Teachers at the higher education institutes are often professionals in presentation skills in classrooms, but can face challenges when presenting in videos. In this paper we present a process for improving skills needed to produce educational videos. The process starts from the assumption of often explicit question by the teacher: “How can I produce professional educational videos?” The process includes identifying main challenges teachers face, and continues with a series of hands-on workshops targeted to develop each of the skills followed by the video production itself. We report also an evaluation of the process with teachers from the Aalto University, discuss the implications and resulting categorization of production models.