Video is one of the most powerful methods of improving student outcomes. According to recent benchmarks, the use of video can boost student performance by up to 20%. When implemented correctly, academic videos have the potential to equip students for excellence across their various industries.
Whether you manage a small college or a fast-growing university, familiarizing yourself with the ways that video enhances academic performance will ensure everyone’s ongoing success.
How videos improve academic performance
Educational videos are repeatedly found to enhance knowledge retention and learning capabilities for learners of all ages.
Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies point to a similar conclusion. After watching academic videos, both online and residential students show increased signs of:
- Knowledge retention. Students recall their subject matter in greater detail.
- Better classroom focus. Learners make the most of their time spent in lectures.
- Higher test scores. Videos condense critical information into streamlined visual knowledge, supporting students' test-taking abilities across all subjects.
The more frequently that educational videos are leveraged in the classroom, the stronger the results will be on a student’s academic performance.
Ten ways to improve academic performance through video
Jumpstart your students’ success with videos that truly enhance their studies.
1. Keep them short
Research suggests that short videos are far more engaging than long ones. Do what you can to keep lectures, spotlights, and recap videos between six and twelve minutes. If that isn’t possible, try building chapters or tags directly into your videos.
2. Rely on quality
Students are more likely to pay attention to videos with adequate sound, lighting, and color. Provide access to quality recording software within your institution or specific training on best practices. You may want to distribute quality lecture capture software that all educators can access at your organization.
3. Add extra accessibility
Video accessibility is for everyone, not one specific demographic. In fact, 80% of people who use captions are not deaf or hard of hearing. All academic videos should contain multiple levels of accessibility; captions, playback options, and multilingual support are highly encouraged.
4. Focus on safety
Safe videos are engaging videos, especially in a college setting. Make sure your video hosting solution takes security and privacy seriously. This includes integration with SSO technology to protect media against unwanted attacks.
5. Increase dynamic visuals
Pictures, charts, and moving graphs are all examples of dynamic visuals. Adding these elements to your videos may synthesize complex information into smaller, more digestible chunks. Even a simple Excel chart can dramatically enhance your student's academic performance.
6. Integrate with others
Educational videos have greater impact on students when integrated with other software or course materials. If your institution uses a learning management system (LMS), look for video systems that support third-party platforms. You may also want to leverage productivity tools that simplify the video creation process, notably PlayPosit, Cielo24, and CaptionSync.
7. Keep it organized
Organized video systems are far more accessible to both students and teachers. A centralized media library enables you to track video usage, video effectiveness, and areas for improvement at scale. It also supports educators and content managers as they update, remove, or evaluate individual videos.
8. Record variety
Learners perform better when exposed to a variety of academic videos. Consider implementing lecture capture videos, live event recordings, and test recap videos with added post-production elements. You may want to identify which formats are more engaging for your students via polls or analytics.
9. Offer adaptive playback
Adaptive playback automatically adjusts video quality according to individual connection speed. This ensures that every student can load and view videos without interruptions, no matter where they are. In this way, adaptive video content encourages students to learn on the go, regardless of location or Wi-Fi strength.
10. Support multiple devices
Modern students watch videos in myriad ways, which is why educators must offer cross-device compatibility for today’s most common devices. The best video platforms support HTML5 playback on all major browsers and devices, including mobile phones and tablets.
Across all ten of these suggestions, don't forget to track your student's performance results with powerful analytics software. This enables video management teams to keep tabs on what works and what doesn’t, providing deeper insights into how your efforts are genuinely improving student outcomes.
Improve academic performance with Warpwire
Even designed with best practices in mind, academic videos may still fail to perform as intended without the help of integrated platforms. Proper video management is essential for implementing, monitoring, and measuring the results of ongoing academic video campaigns, which is exactly what Warpwire was built to accomplish.
With Warpwire, all video content can be housed in the same place for simple, easy access. You can immediately get access to tools that modern students need to succeed, including captions, adaptive playback, and multi-device support. You can even connect with platforms already in your tech stack, including major LMS and other mission-critical software.
Trusted by hundreds of colleges and thousands of educators, Warpwire is the country’s leading platform for successful academic content management.
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!
