Explanatory videos for schools and lessons

This is how you enrich your lessons with explanatory videos

The lockdowns and school closures during the corona pandemic promoted numerous new forms of digital teaching. Explainer videos were a staple of online learning even before these challenging times, but they’ve grown in popularity since then. Many teachers have recognized the potential of explanatory videos in class and now, after months of digital teaching, dare to create an explanatory video themselves. In the following we explain which types of explanatory videos are currently popular in school lessons, how you can easily create your own explanatory videos for school and how you can implement an explanatory video in the classroom together with students.

This is what explainer videos for schools can look like: creative approaches

Explainer videos are short multi-minute videos, which take up a problem or a task from the lesson and show solutions. Explanatory videos can by no means replace lessons, but are used in addition to imparting knowledge. There are several creative approaches to explainer videos that are currently popular:

Explanatory video with screen recording (screencast)

An explainer video with screen recording (screencast) is quite easy to produce yourself, since you only have one Video from your own screen makes. For example, you can show and explain a presentation (PowerPoint or Prezi) on your computer screen and take a screen capture of it. Explanatory videos with screencasts are well suited to introducing new topics or presenting tasks and possible solutions.

Screencasts can certainly be interactive: set small tasks during the presentation, pause in the video for their solution and then show the solution approaches. The explanatory videos from White Rose Maths, for example, demonstrate what this can look like. Even small animations and graphics can be well integrated into a presentation and provide interesting content.

The technical requirement for a screen recording is very simple: you only need a computer and screencast software such as Camtasia. Optionally, you can use a microphone for better acoustic quality. Once you have produced your screencast explainer video, you can upload and share it free of charge on video platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Blackboard video / whiteboard video with lecture in front of the camera

Even if a blackboard video is much closer to the real lesson than a screen video, it is a bit more complex to produce: They last like a lecture in front of the camera in class and film yourself doing it. Of course, this has the advantage that your viewers, the students, are very familiar with this type of knowledge transfer. And yet teaching in front of the camera is very different from normal teaching in front of a class. You should therefore practice and talk through the lecture several times before filming, check the speaking time and ensure a good technical setting. For a whiteboard video, you ideally need a camera and microphone, good lighting, and of course a blackboard or whiteboard. Of course, you can also record such a blackboard video with a smartphone or a tablet, but with a loss of quality. After recording, you should definitely trim and edit the captured video with video editing software before uploading it. Daniel Jung shows what successful whiteboard videos can look like: His YouTube channel Mathe by Daniel Jung has a real fan base and the individual explanatory videos have millions of views.

Explanatory video with laying technique

Also popular, but more complex to produce, are explanatory videos with laying technique. Here you use small paper elements for conveying content, which you place and move on a surface. You need a camera that you place at a 90-degree angle above your work surface, good lighting and, if possible, a microphone. This YouTube video with laying technique clearly explains how this works in detail.

Explainer video with stop motion

With the Stop Motion Studio there is an app (free in the basic version) in which you can easily stop motion movies can produce. The app is already suitable for users from the age of 6 and is very intuitive to use. How it works is simple: You take individual pictures of your object in motion, for example game figures, and the app combines the individual pictures into a film. In the app you can also set the duration of the individual images (frames), insert subtitles, graphic elements and even sound effects or backgrounds with blue screens.

This is why explanatory videos are suitable for use in the classroom

Get your students where they like to be and expect to have fun: in the digital world. You are guaranteed attention if you use an explanatory video in class or as homework. Videos are also ideally suited to explaining more complex relationships or giving practical instructions, for example on conducting experiments or solving tasks, thanks to the linking of image and sound. According to the JIMPlus 2020 study, more than 80 percent of the students surveyed watch YouTube for knowledge transfer. It doesn’t matter whether you post your explainer videos on YouTube or Vimeo or find another form of distribution – the medium is well received by young learners. Even if many adults still have reservations about the new media for imparting knowledge, they are excellently suited for use in the classroom. Of course, you should pay attention to the right amount and good quality: Too many videos or videos that are too long are more likely to cause boredom and explanatory videos can by no means replace personal teaching.

Have your students create explainer videos

Elementary school children as young as six are now producing stop-motion films or short films with their smartphones. Your students are probably on platforms like YouTube or TikTok almost every day and videos are part of their everyday life. If you have an explanatory video produced in class, you not only show that videos are also suitable for learning. They mediate at the same time important knowledge in dealing with new media. Which form the explanatory video should have, of course, depends heavily on the content and equipment of the school. You can also leave the decision of the form to your students, who may already have experience with screencast programs or stop-motion films. Many programs such as Camtasia or Stop Motion Studio are free in the trial version or in the basic version and can be used for a project on a trial basis. At the beginning of the project, watch explanatory videos in class and discuss with the students what was successful and what was less good. Pick a topic that can be covered in a short explainer video lasting several minutes. Explainer videos can also be planned and created well in small groups. Whiteboard videos in particular require filming a speaker in front of the board and are difficult to produce alone. In any case, plan enough time for editing the videos and maybe turn the presentation of the explainer videos into a small event with an award ceremony for the most successful videos.

Are explanatory videos already suitable for elementary school?

In principle, explanatory videos can be used in schools for all age groups. Explanatory videos can already teach new math or German skills, including practical exercises, in elementary school. Of course, the format and content of an explainer video primarily depends on the age and previous knowledge of the target audience. Explainer videos for elementary school students should tend to be shorter than for secondary school students. But here, too, the content decides. However, loosening elements such as small graphics, Pictures or picture stories in explanatory videos for elementary school students. And if you want to score particularly well as a teacher, then make an explanatory video as a stop-motion film with Lego figures. This guarantees you attention.