7 Reasons Video should be in Your Training Materials

A lot of corporate trainings are boring. You sit in a padded chair that isn’t quite comfortable. You listen to a speaker who probably isn’t too engaging. And you do it for 8 hours at the request of your boss.

 

Yeah – I don’t like them either.

But, how do you make training more exciting. How do you get people to look like they want to be at your training?

 

Video.

 

Many companies are taking advantage of video. And they have all the reason to. It’s a great way to teach concepts, support reading materials, and facilitate discussions. Oh, and keep everyone from falling asleep!)

 

The visual nature of video supports how our brains work. Just look at these stats from StudyMode.com:

 

  • Approximately 65 percent of the population is visual learners.

  • The brain processes visual information 60,000 faster than text.

  • 90 percent of information that comes to the brain is visual.

 

See? We’re a visual world. It’s time to change your training and accommodate this popular learning style.

 

Here’s 7 reasons you should dig out your video camera:

1. Read for 5 minutes or Watch a Video for 2?

Video gets your concepts across quicker. Why have your training students read a pamphlet when it can be communicated through video in half the time? While you shouldn’t turn the entire training into video just to make it shorter, a video an hour is likely to increase your engagement.

2. Not everyone learns by reading

I don’t have to go into too much depth here, but reading is only one of a myriad of learning styles. Some people learn by reading, other visual, and others a mix of both. By not incorporating a visual (and auditory) element into your training, you’re potentially missing an entire segment of your training group.

3. Tasks are taught better visually

If you’re trying to get your students to do something, it’s better taught visually. Watching a woodworker turn a bowl is going to enhance learning much more than reading. Similar to a corporate trainer talking about leadership skills. This may be better explained with a video skit. Want to top a video skit? Get your students at act out the skit for the other participants.

4. It’s cheap to produce and edit

For a couple hundred bucks, you can get a camera and all the lighting equipment you need for an at-home or in-office studio. Check out Wistia’s DIY lighting kit for a list of what you need. Screw up the video? Just tape over it. Video is one of the cheapest media sources to produce and edit.

5. Video is on-demand

Trying to reinforce a concept from last month’s training? Rather than have participants crawl their brain to remember, make your training videos available on your blog or a password-protected site. That way, your students can learn about leadership and how to deal with HR problems from the comfort of their own home.

6. Anyone can make one

Just take a couple of minutes to search YouTube. You’ll find 83 year old rappers, 7 year-old musicians, and upset teenagers. What’s that tell you? Anyone can make a video! You can, your business partner can, your students can. Not everyone can write well, but everyone can produce a short masterpiece.

7. YouTube is the second-largest search engine

There’s no denying YouTube’s success. According to their website, more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month. They watch over 6 billion hours of video – that’s almost an hour for every person on earth. That’s crazy! Don’t you want a piece of the huge video pie? I would certainly hope so!

 

With YouTube exploding and more people publishing video content, there’s still plenty of room for one more. And that’s you! Grab a video camera, some corporate training buddies and make a few videos. Post them to YouTube and use them in your trainings. Your participants will be glad you did.

Have you used video in your trainings? Has it worked out?