Learning Objective
Construct learning objectives for your content.
Educational videos are not meant to be one-to-one replacements for in-person lectures. As such, videos for an hour lecture don’t need to (and probably shouldn’t) be transformed into an hour of videos.
Content should be broken up into short sections, each of which meets one learning objective. This is called chunking. The learning objective is what the student should know or be able to do after viewing the video.
Each video should be between two and six minutes long.
Remember, if desired, these shorter videos can always be arranged into playlists.
Finally, when planning your video, it’s important to decide on your intended audience. Your videos should be geared toward a viewer who has a specific level of existing knowledge before viewing it.
Too much advanced detail will not be helpful for a beginner, and entry level information will be boring for someone who already knows a lot about your topic.
Ask yourself: “Who is the audience for this video?” If your answer is “everyone,” then it’s really no one.
Activity
- Take one existing lecture slide deck, and break it up into smaller sections.
- Add blank slides in between each section of content.
- Make sure each chunk of slides represents one discrete learning objective.
- Double-check that the audience will be able to meet the learning objective after viewing the video based on expected prior knowledge.
Resources
Steinhardt: Tips for Creating Educational Media
Steinhardt: Documentation about Student Learning Outcomes
Bloom’s Taxonomy Action Verbs (For Creating Learning Objectives)
FAS: Teaching By Design (Planning Your Activities section)
FAS: DIY Educational Video Outline Template
Examples
Downloadable or linked examples of chunked out slide decks to come.
