Educational videos: After the why, the how

Abstract

Purpose: The introduction of educational videos into university education is an indisputable reality. Numerous scientific publications have outlined the advantages to students: flexibility, motivation, encouraging self-learning, lower costs, etc. The aim of this paper is to explore the steps required to make educational videos and highlight the need for educational institutions to provide teachers with the means to enable them to improve the quality of their multimedia material productions. Policies in this direction would help to improve the training of future professionals and enhance the opportunities offered by podcasts.

Design/methodology/approach: A literature review and a survey have been conducted. Starting in the first semester of the academic year 2012-2013, a questionnaire has been applied systematically to students and the corresponding population parameters estimated with a 95% confidence level.

Findings: Students consider educational videos as supplementary material which complement traditional methodologies and favour self-learning as well as offering flexibility at no additional cost. Teachers can produce their own high-quality multimedia material, which in turn requires a consistent evolutionary process in elaborating within the changing possibilities that information technologies offer.

Originality/value: This work deals with the treatment of technical issues and based on our studies suggests the process to be followed by teachers when making educational videos. References to this subject in the literature were found to be somewhat limited.