Learning on ScreenThink Visual
Catherine Chambers, Senior Producer at The Open University explores why storytelling is the key to engaging learners with short form video in informal and formal learning.
About the author: Senior Producer at the Open University, Catherine Chambers produces short form content across all subject areas for multiple platforms, including iTunes, YouTube and FutureLearn Moocs. Prior to this, Catherine worked for the BBC in radio production and as an AV Producer on BBC 5Live, producing the popular Kermode and Mayo film review and on campaigns including Wimbledon 606 and Sports Relief.
‘The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is’ – from The Prisoner (1923) my Marcel Proust, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff
This quote from Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu is apropos to the role of video and visual storytelling in teaching and learning. Video can take viewers on a journey of discovery they may not otherwise have had access to; visual storytelling can transform that journey into a rich learning experience. The simple narrative structure – the beginning, middle and end – has provided the staple storytelling framework for centuries but the craft of storytelling can take many different forms. In the context of short form video it involves being creative with visual tools in ways that inspire audiences to think differently and perhaps question their deep rooted perspectives; enabling them to engage with subject matter with new eyes – in only a few minutes.
… Visual Storytelling transports learners to places (and contextualises events) in a way the written word cannot
Short form video has become increasingly popular in the digital age. Modern technology has enabled an explosion in online learning (for example the rise of MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses), giving the learner more control over their learning and influencing how people choose to learn, with video playing a key role in the online learning experience. This is not surprising when we consider that seventy percent of learners are visual learners – that is to say they learn through visual aids such as images, diagrams, charts, film, and infographics, animation photographs for example. Video itself accounts for over fifty percent of internet traffic (predictions suggest this will rise to seventy percent by 2017) and there is now an expectation for content to be delivered in visual form.
Video is a valuable tool for teaching and learning for many reasons; making the inaccessible accessible, transforming complex, difficult or even dull subject matter into engaging thought provoking content, in developing analytical, observational and critical thinking skills, and in retention of key learning points. Short form video can add great value when it comes to revision, for example in the form of bite-size approaches to concepts and theories; conversely it can also be used to capture students at the beginning of a course, with an introduction to key themes or ideas or as a trailer/course marketing tool to attract potential students, among many other uses. The Open University’s 60 Second Adventures series, which combines character driven animation with comedic script to engage learners across a range of topics, were initially produced as part of an informal learning public engagement content strategy. These animations found their way from MOOCs to course modules when educators of MOOCs recognised their value – and the value of humour – in formal learning.
