Modern students have chosen video as their preferred media of choice. Today, 82% of educators believe that videos boost student achievement levels, particularly within the bounds of higher education.
However, college student engagement has dropped significantly with educational video content. Approximately 85% of college students report watching their lecture videos on two-times speed, showing that they may find educational videos to be a chore rather than a learning mechanism. This detracts from the efficacy and efficiency of college programs, particularly for online students.
Despite these statistics, encouraging students to positively engage with video content doesn’t need to be complicated. The right features can reawaken the average college student's interest in their studies, often with great success.
Let’s explore a few simple yet effective features of education video platforms that may improve college student engagement with video content.
Why students don’t engage with video content
Modern research posits that there are three major factors that cause disengagement with educational video content:
- Poor-quality videos. Studies show that quality matters for video engagement, often in more ways than one.
- Lengthy or bulky videos. Surveys indicate that short videos are more popular than longer videos, with the hypothesis that shorter videos receive better engagement.
- Missing accessibility. If students cannot comfortably consume your video content, they will not engage with your videos. For example, videos without closed captioning have fewer views than those with captioning.
Educational video content engagement is not an exact science. However, a few minor tweaks and considerations have the potential to enhance student engagement in many ways.
Increasing college student engagement using video features
The most effective educational videos enable students to dig into the visual content without sifting through extra fluff or extraneous material. This can be accomplished through optimized approaches and technological advancements, starting with a well-defined focus.
There are five steps involved in creating engaging educational videos.
1. Keep it organized
Organization is essential for a well-displayed video. Your video must be easily searchable and findable by students on myriad platforms.
Consider using a video platform with tagging, categorization, and other ways to organize your content. Libraries and content folders are also beneficial to simplify video recall, along with searchable key phrases.
2. Use dynamic video
If your video is simply a talking head or a series of PowerPoint slides, you’re likely to lose your viewers’ attention quickly. Instead, create videos that are dynamic and engaging, with plenty of movement and visual interest.
This includes the use of interactables, namely quizzes, questions, and other in-video pop-ups. These elements can increase viewers’ engagement by up to 86%, helping students maintain their attention throughout the video.
3. Add accessibility
Around 20% of college students live with some form of disability. Making your videos accessible ensures that everyone can engage with and benefit from your educational content.
There are many ways to make your videos more accessible:
- Use closed captioning or subtitles so students can still follow along without needing to hear the content.
- Make videos viewable in multiple languages to reach your audience in their preferred language.
- Choose a video platform that offers alternative audio descriptions for those who are visually impaired.
4. Reduce video length
While there are a few exceptions, short videos tend to perform better than long videos in terms of engagement.
The best videos have a single focus or concept that is explored in depth. In general, it’s best to keep your educational videos under ten minutes in length. Anything over this may be overwhelming to students and should be cut into smaller pieces.
5. Track engagement using specific KPIs
It's not enough to simply encourage video engagement. Your organization also needs to effectively track and measure the success of your efforts using key performance indicators (KPIs).
Three KPIs are commonly used for educational video content:
- Number of views: How many people viewed your video?
- Retention rate: How long did viewers watch your video?
- Completion rate: Did viewers finish watching your video?
It's clear that there are many considerations to juggle when creating engaging educational content. While it's possible to manage each element separately, it may be easier to rely on a one-stop shop for your video content, including curation platforms like Warpwire.
How Warpwire impacts college student engagement
Warpwire has all the tools that you need to enhance educational video engagement at a glance. Thousands of clients worldwide rely on its holistic video services to house, distribute, and track their content, boosting their engagement KPIs in the process.
Warpwire's easy-to-use interface and robust tools make it the perfect choice for video engagement optimization, with features that include:
Start engaging your college students today with the suite of engaging video tools from Warpwire.
Warpwire’s video platform provides analytics to help you track media assets, media libraries, and system-wide usage. Designed to explore engagement, Warpwire’s reports provide deep insight into how your institution interacts with media.
To see how we can help you better leverage your video content, get in touch with us today!
