5 FAQs About How to Teach With Video

This coming Monday night is the first night of How To Teach With Video hosted by me with special guests Tom Richey and Keith Hughes. I've answered a lot of emails about the course. Here are the most frequently asked questions and their answers.

1. What is the format of the course?
This is a live course delivered through GoToWebinar. Each webinar will run from 7pm to 8pm Eastern Time (or later if there are a lot of questions). The webinars will be recorded for folks who cannot attend all of the live sessions. You'll have unlimited access to the recordings. You can ask questions throughout the live webinars, via email, and through a Facebook group.

2. Do I need prior experience or special equipment?
No, you do not need to have any prior experience making videos. Likewise, you don't need any special equipment in order to participate.

3. Can I earn graduate credits?
Unfortunately, I can’t grant graduate credits for this course. However, I will give you a certificate for three hours of professional development time.

4. Who is Tom Richey? Who is Keith Hughes?
Tom and Keith are teachers who have created massively popular YouTube channels that teach all kinds of history and government lessons. Through their respective channels they have helped hundreds of thousands of students and teachers. See Keith here and Tom here.

5. What does it cost?
The price for this course is $97. That includes the live sessions, unlimited access to recordings, and a professional development certificate.

Register here for How to Teach With Video. 

Intro to Teaching With Video

Last week Keith Hughes, Tom Richey, and I hosted Introduction to Teaching With Video. If you missed it, you can now view it on my YouTube channel or as embedded below. In the video we share some of our favorite tips for teachers who are new to creating instructional videos. You'll also get hear us share our thoughts on the equipment that you do and don't need to get started.


11 days from now Keith, Tom, and I will be hosting a three night course titled How to Teach With Video. Register here to join on November 27th.

Three Things That Can Help You Teach With Video

Whether you want to make your own instructional videos or you just want to make sure that your students are learning something from the videos that you share with them, there are a few basic things that you should know.

1. Short and sweet.
Two well-made videos that are each two minutes long are better than one video that is four minutes long. Check out the research the Wistia published last summer. Check out the research the Wistia published last summer. Based on data from more than 500,000 videos played more than one billion times, Wistia determined that there is a significant drop-off in viewer engagement after the two minute mark.

Not every concept or topic can be boiled down to two minutes, but the point is that brevity is best when it comes to videos. This is true whether you're having students make videos or watch videos.

2. Outline
Writing an outline for a video that you are going to make will save you time in the long run. Writing that outline will help you cut out tangents and filler material. (Save those tangents for subsequent videos).

3. Video as supplement, not replacement. 
Even the best videos can't entirely replace good classroom instruction and good books. Look at the videos you make and share with your students as supplements to your instruction and their reading, not complete replacements. When you look for a video to share with students, think about the gaps that it fills in your instruction or the gaps that you will have fill after students watch the video.

Learn more about teaching with video in the upcoming Practical Ed Tech course, How to Teach With Video.