Using Video in a Classroom or for Online Learning

Video during your face-to-face or hybrid class can be very useful but the old method of showing a whole video for content purposes is dead (or should be). Sitting kids down with a worksheet and showing them a video has no place in the 21st century classroom. It’s time to innovate!

• Use a video clip as an example and then have students create their own. The process of brainstorming, planning content, scripting, casting parts, etc is multidisciplinary and will cement content you’re teaching. Instead of having your students watch videos, have them create different videos and piece them together or present them all as different parts of a whole unit of study.


• Have students watch a streamed video clip as part of stations. Create a scavenger hunt as a lesson and set up video, documents, games and other activities. As kids visit each station, they are looking for pieces of content and practicing relevant skills. This will also free up your time to work individually with students or in small groups.


• Have students create a set of questions about a video. Compile the best questions as a formative assessment for students the during the next class period. Kids will think at a higher level about the content in the video and will make it easy for you to see what they got out of it. This is a step closer to student-centered learning.


• Most online media providers allow students to have accounts. Kids in your classes can use video for research. Of course, the same rules apply for video as with any other resource. They need to cite the source and check their information with other sources for confirmation. While making a point during a speech or with all things persuasive, students can use video to have in impact on their audience just as we do for teaching and learning.

Video in an online class can be important for hitting multiple learning styles and to help students needing to see content in different ways.

• If you simply jump into a discussion about a longer video in a forum and the content of the video is in no way controversial it’s not likely to lead to any interesting discussion. Instead, have students process streamed content in different ways.


• They can search your online media provider or YouTube for a follow-up video. Have them tell you what vocabulary from the original video they used in their search. This will help you check their understanding of the content. Create a list of “response videos” as they have on YouTube.


• If you’re determined to have students discuss the video, put them in small groups. They can discuss the clip or video there but be required to post one collaborative response back to the whole group.


• Have students team up and create short quizzes using Google Forms or SurveyMonkey based on the content of the video. This will show you how much they remember about the content, forces students to think at a higher level and serves as a formative assessment.