Tip 1: Duration - Make it short!

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi, teacher Paul with crazy again.

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  One of the most asked questions I get about video making is,

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  How long should I make my videos?

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  And, well, that's complicated, but I generally say, as short as you can make him.

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  Obviously, that doesn't make sense all the time,

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  and I'm sure that I leave people scratching their heads a bit.

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  So let's unpack video length with some nuance so

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  we can make informed decisions about what we produce.

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  Let's get started.

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  Let's take a look at this bit of research.

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  This is from Glow Kim and Ruben,

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  and it digs into the watching habits of six point

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  million college level adults engaging in an online book.

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  I think there's four videos that they bring into this study.

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  They show that video watching for educated purposes

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  starts to tap out at about six minutes,

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  with 6 to 9 minutes being about the sweet spot.

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  If we look a little closer,

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  the graph also illustrates that certified students tend

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  to be more engaged than other students,

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  which is likely associated with their level of motivation,

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  which is a very interesting area to contemplate.

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  Since all sorts of things can affect motivation, it's a meaty topic, Right?

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  So let's look at one of those areas. And this is human development.

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  Or how the age of your what? The age of your audiences. Alright.

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  Consider these folks, uh,

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  and how they would respond to instructional videos based on their age.

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  They all have different ways of watching, Right?

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  Um, so Caitlin Tucker, who specialises in K 12 education,

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  came up with a simple rule of thumb.

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  Now, this isn't research based,

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  but it's been from her experience and others in the field.

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  All right, Tucker likes this model. I think it's pretty good, too.

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  So, in grade one, the video should be about 1 to 2 minutes in length grade,

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  2 to 3 minutes in length, grade, 33 to 4 minutes in length and so forth.

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  Um, but you might be wondering Well,

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  what happened to all that research in that six minute bit?

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  Because after a while it starts capping out, right?

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  Um, but I want you to remember the context of that study,

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  so just don't follow it blindly,

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  But really think about your content in relation to the time and what you're doing.

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  Instructional e.

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  Um,

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  those videos might have been really boring or really out

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  of content may be the context was really dull.

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  And so that depresses the motivation to watch those videos.

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  We don't have any information on that.

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  So, um,

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  what she says is really sort of take these types

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  of things into consideration as well as your content.

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  And I agree with that.

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  With my college level students, I really tap out at about 15 minutes.

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  Actually, I'm like, I don't think they can watch more than that.

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  If I do see that, I'm going beyond that. I'll start chunking the videos into bits,

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  and that helps out with engagement quite a bit.

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  And I'll have these activities that they do in

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  between those videos or things to think about.

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  Okay, so,

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  oddly enough, getting a video down in time can be really hard,

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  especially if you're committed to the content.

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  This video itself.

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  I've had to do that multiple takes on this to try to bring down the time.

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  So what should you do?

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  So step number one.

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  Break up your content if possible. Where are those parts? That makes sense?

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  Uh, and will gain the most attention from your students if you lot if it's longer,

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  they'll start losing track.

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  So think about chunking that video and actually cognitively.

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  It probably makes sense to do that

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  because people can only hold really seven plus or minus two

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  things in their brain at once in short term memory.

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  So you want to remember that a bit,

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  so you'll also want to increase your speed of delivery.

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  Um, some people talk super slow.

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  I'm one of those people, so I have to rev it up when I'm doing my videos.

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  So speed it up, people.

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  The other thing is, you want to watch out for superfluous commentary.

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  I do this all the time. I go off on a tangent and I'll say, I have to start over.

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  Keep it to the things that you want to cover and then get out. Don't start ad libbing

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  and then finally practise your presentation because after a few

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  times and really the first time you'll be like,

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  Oh, I can cut this, I can cut that,

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  do that. It very much helps out in the process and really makes for a shorter video.

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  Okay, there you have it. The full scoop on duration.

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  Just remember that these tips have to make sense for what you're doing.

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  But for the most part you want to stay on the shorter side with people.

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  Think about those varying factors that are going in like age

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  and content motivation as well. Anyway, I'll see you at the next tip.

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  I'm looking forward to the to that,

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  and it will probably start getting into more engagement as well.

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  Thanks so much. Bye bye.