Interactive Video for eLearning: How to Engage Learners & Boost Results
Interactive video learning is not a static process. It’s dynamic and fluid, and in the context of the modern world, learning processes are evolving every day.
Gone are the days of having to sit through a long-form lecture or reading a bulky book to acquire new information. eLearning and microlearning platforms have changed the game entirely.
Interactive video learning is a small yet notable part of the entire eLearning experience. By combining the immersion you get from a good story and the flexibility to learn on your own time from any of your own devices, a good interactive video can be extremely handy for training your employees.
But leaving it at that won’t be doing it proper justice. In this article, we’ll talk about how you can benefit from interactive video-based learning and how you can engage learners and get credible results by using this powerful learning tool.
And once you understand what interactive video learning can do for you, why not book a free consultation with us to help you strategize moving forward?
Key Benefits of Interactive Video Learning
If you want to integrate a valid eLearning strategy into your business that includes interactive videos and microlearning, then you need results. You don’t want to sink your resources into making interactive videos if it doesn’t bring you any output.
So here are some of the main benefits that you can only get by using an interactive video for learning.
1. Multi-Device Accessibility
The biggest benefit of interactive video learning is that you have all your lessons on every device you own. And that means you get to access your lessons anywhere, any time. It really takes away any time constraints that you might have while acquiring new knowledge and information.
We believe that flexibility is essential to a good learning experience. And having the interactive videos available on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop at the same time makes for a more accessible learning environment for the learners.
2. Personalized Learning
With interactive video lessons, you can take a fully personalized approach to learning. What matters most here are the learner choices giving them complete freedom to explore their options. Learners can take on specific roles and fill their knowledge gaps through interactive lessons.
It’s entirely dependent on the learners how much they want to focus on a specific subject or how far they want to branch out towards relevant topics. The user-driven decision-making format of interactive videos also increases the knowledge retention capabilities of the learner.
3. Increase Learner Engagement
Interactive videos have the power to keep the learners engaged in the course material by immersing them in a story. Of course, the interactive video content itself needs to be designed properly, but when the lesson is well-designed, interactive videos can keep the learners hooked.
Through interactive video-based learning, the learner can create a personal connection with the content and can create their own narrative through a decision-based learning experience. While gamification of learning materials is fun and exciting, interactive videos can take things to the next level.
4. Flexibility
As a learning module, interactive videos are extremely versatile. They can be designed as long-form content or can also be used to deliver short, efficient microlearning materials depending on your desired learning outcomes.
And designing the courses can also be done pretty fast and flexibly. While better production will often net better results, technically, as long as you have a video camera or smartphone and basic video editing software to edit the content, you can create engaging learning experiences quickly through interactive videos.
5. Cost-Effective
For businesses, it’s important to train employees without ramping up the training cost to an absurd level. And interactive video learning, because of its cost-effective nature, offers an excellent way to do exactly that.
Creating engaging videos to train employees shouldn’t be too difficult with some practice. The cost of creating an eLearning video considering the level of benefits it provides isn’t much at all. Since it’s easier to absorb new information through videos, your employees will also be able to pick up new skills much easier.
Take Learners On a Journey With Interactive Videos
Research shows that employees are more likely to learn by watching a video rather than by reading a document or email.
The goal of creating an interactive video is not only to teach but to take your learners on a journey through realistic scenarios. Yes: it helps in acquiring skills and knowledge, but the more critical part is that it allows the employees to understand how to use the acquired skill in the real world.
The biggest strength of videos, interactive or not, is that it allows the viewer to visualize everything, and you need to use that to your advantage. Here’s how you can get the most out of interactive videos.
Interactive Storytelling
At the core of a solid interactive learning video, there’s a good story. You should never underestimate the power of good storytelling. It will engage your learners better and improve their knowledge retention capability.
And when you’re making an interactive video for your employees, make sure they are learning through a good story that they can use in the real world. This is the best way to hook your audience and help them acquire knowledge efficiently.
Branched Videos
Have you watched the new Black Mirror: Bandersnatch on Netflix? That’s a good example of how branched videos work. Basically, with branched videos, the viewer is asked to actively participate in the narrative by choosing one path in different branching scenarios in the form of a pop-up screen in the video.
This lets the learner choose their own adventure and learn the outcome of their choice in a fun and controlled way. While it might seem daunting to design, there are many helpful tools available these days to make things easier.
Immersive Learning Experience
You should aim to give your learners an immersive experience when designing interactive video learning content. It’s not a slideshow, so don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and really connect with your students.
An immersive experience goes beyond passive observation. By incorporating interactive elements, real-life scenarios, and engaging visuals, you can transport learners into an active and captivating educational journey.
Learner Feedback & Analysis
These days, most, if not all, of the reputable microlearning platforms allow you to look at the feedback and monitor the performance of your employees. And when you’re making an interactive video for them, taking a look at past analytics can provide fascinating insights into what elements the learners respond to better.
Final Thoughts: Interactive Video for eLearning
Training employees is an important part of a business. But the truth is tight budgets and deadlines can often get in the way of results. People can get demotivated, and with the short attention span becoming a real problem, it’s important to take an efficient approach to learning in a corporate environment.
Using interactive videos for training employees is a step in the right direction and offers many benefits. What’s more important is that it brings results while keeping the cost of training and learning from getting to an absurd level. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Interactive Video Learning FAQ
How Do I Make an Interactive Training Video?
The thought of creating an interactive training video might seem daunting at first, but if you follow the basic guidelines we talked about here, you should be fine. The first step is writing the video script, and you really don’t want to rush that. Once you have that, the rest of the steps should come naturally.
What Are Some Examples of Interactive Video?
Basically, any video that lets you interact with it in some capacity can be considered an interactive video. Non-interactive videos come with a couple of functions, such as stop, play, pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. But with an interactive video, you get to interact with the narrative itself in some way.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend are two great examples of interactive video content. For corporate learning or employee training, elements such as quizzes or branching videos are often used as interactive components.
If you’re looking for a complete eLearning solution for your business, give Ninja Tropic a try, we’ll provide you with a commitment-free sample plan that meets your objectives.
GET A FREE CONSULTATION
Are you aware of the sheer power of engaging eLearning solutions but not sure where to start? Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with a Ninja Tropic expert to analyze your association, university, or enterprise’s content objectives and map out the interactive blueprint to achieve them.
