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I suspect if I told you that
the best friend your training program can have right now is
a video media specialist, you’d likely raise an eyebrow at
me. I don’t blame you. After all, how often do we give video
media a thought when developing training? Not often I
imagine.
Yet, in all other aspects of
our lives, we give video media a thought everyday. Video
surrounds us. It defines our culture, structures our
lifestyle, and promotes communication in ways we would have
never imagined.
Video is powerful. So powerful
in fact that an article, published on the CBC website
last September, stated that TV sets now outnumber people in
a typical US home and that the average Canadian watches more
than 2 hours of TV each day. This is coming from a society
of people who constantly complain that they are so busy they
don’t have enough time to do many things they’d like to do.
Yet, busy as we are, we all find time to watch two hours of
TV inside of every demanding day. Video is powerful.
So how can you tap into this
dominant medium? How can your training program take
advantage of this powerful tool?
The idea of using video for
training isn’t new. However, the issue with video based
training has, for the most part, been this: for decades,
video media existed primarily for television broadcasting
which gave video an elitist reputation, having us believe
that only companies with big budgets, or with the intent of
gaining revenue from their training programs, could take
advantage of such a powerful mechanism. And for the most
part, that reputation was well earned.
The costs of producing a video
based training program were high and involved big, clunky
equipment. And the post production costs weren’t cheap
either, with the need to make video broadcast ready –
whether or not it was being broadcasted via networks, VHS,
or DVD. Editing the footage to fit within the constraints of
a television colour gamut took time and money.
But video technology has
changed dramatically over the past few years. We can thank
the internet for the best part of that. The World Wide Web
is mankind’s new frontier, and we are still exploring its
vast lands with strong enthusiasm – first with text, then
with photos, and now… with video.
The result? Video cameras
alone have seen a dramatic technological change. They are
smaller in size and in price. Yet, they are capable of
capturing a much higher quality image than in past years.
There are professional video cameras on the market today
that boast the ability to capture footage at film-quality
level.
But I digress. Let’s get back
to the topic at hand: How can current video technologies
advance your training programs?
We are still in the baby
stages with streaming video on the internet. But at least we
are up on two feet. Video streams much faster and with a
sharper image than before. We don’t have to tolerate those
“loading” countdowns anymore. And muddy, pixilated images
are a thing of the past.
This is good news for training
courses that are designed for intra/internet usage. And that
good news even spreads through to computer based training
that is burned onto CD or DVD. A higher quality image and
sound with a smaller file size means video now has a much
wider broadcasting gamut.
This gives instructional
designers a much wider range of choice, when designing their
training. Because the internet and the computer CD/DVD are
multimedia capable, they provide instructional designers
with the ability to construct their courses with the tools
of many medias, including the most powerful communication
tool available – video.
I remember a time in my years
as a corporate educator, where I would have given my eye
teeth to have video as an assisting tool in my classroom,
when I was teaching demanding new technology topics. It
would have saved significant time and money for my employer
if I no longer had to negotiate, on a regular basis, with
customers to allow me to bring my students in to see the
technology in action.
Video would have provided
continuity in that particular course, because some days my
students and I were allowed in shop. Some days we were not.
Some students saw the technology in action. Some did not.
From continuity to motivation,
the advantages for video to be included as part of a
learning program are vast. And the advantages grow even
larger with high demands being placed on instructional
designers today to keep the course length as short as
possible and to design self-paced learning where they can.
In this visually stimulated
world, and now with the economic feasibility of video, video
can be the instructional designer’s best tool to meet their
clients’/employer’s strict needs while ensuring that the
highest quality learning exists in their courses.
With video, information is
presented more quickly and concisely, and students learning
on their own are motivated to learn more easily. Recent
research has found that 70% of students are more likely to
finish a self-paced course if video is included, and that
there is a 51% increase in understanding of a subject
presented through video. Video is powerful! And now, with
new technologies… much more feasible!
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