Bad Training Videos are bad even if you like the Instructor

I have discussed in few of my articles the impacts and benefits of training video and the way it is becoming a concrete part of organization’s overall learning strategy. May be you would have just seen the one aspect, which is positive and thought provoking when it comes to achieving learning outcomes through this innovative medium. Therefore, here I am discussing the bad training videos; videos that can just spoil your entire learning strategy, resulting in huge losses, both monetary and non-monetary.

As far as the effectiveness of training videos is concerned, the training videos are really the fantastic learning mode for corporate training and development. Whether you are conducting leadership training or giving training on avoiding sexual harassment, videos are indeed the best medium to enhance the return on investment and make sure your employees are really getting something valuable from the training.

By using video learning and the similar tools, what would you want? Indeed, you use these tools to be a good instructor, engage your learners, making them interested and inspired in learning since that’s what going to make them interpret and retain the information. If you are feeling that despite of doing all this, you are ending up with unaccomplished learning goals, greater chances are there that something went wrong with your videos. If this is happening, your training session definitely needs to be fixed since it would create a negative and long term impact on the learners[1]. May be they like you as an instructor, but they won’t surely be having a good word of mouth for your session. So, here are the things you should keep in mind in order to make sure your video learning strategy is effectively being delivered. These points basically make you aware that if your video is going bad, what could be reasons behind that. Hence, then you would be able to avoid turning your videos into bad training videos.

1. If your video is just the collection of PowerPoint slides, trust me you are not going to have learners’ engagement for more than an hour even. The major purpose behind using video learning is enticing interest among learners to learn more and avoid making them dull, overloaded or uninterested. A good learning video must be visually unique and exciting, and just few slides with background and music are not going to make your learning session engaging. As per one of studies, around 70 percent of the learners didn’t return to a specific trainer in an MOOC, just because they found the learning videos not good as expected[2]
2. Another important point is the length of the video. In my previous posts, I have immensely emphasized the importance of 7Cs for the learning strategy. One of the element i.e. concreteness is of utmost importance here. Video must be short, to the point, interesting, easy to understand and yet complete, otherwise it would turn out as a bad training video. You must understand that learners have particular attention span and if your video is short and concrete enough to fit into that, you have accomplished your goal successfully, it implies. Usually, I recommend 5- 10 minutes videos for learning and training purpose. If your learners are just not willing to grasp the information, it doesn’t matter how much information you have in your video[3]. In case if you have to cover the entire video, split it into various segments. For getting an idea of short and straight forward training video, take into consideration the SnapChat model[4], where stories give users quite brief videos that develop their audience and capture their focus faster. One of the recent studies by Deloitte revealed that bad training videos is the 3^rd most common reason behind bad feedback of the learners.
3. Today’s corporate employees are overwhelmed with getting videos and imagery constantly, making them quite discerning audience. The learners know right away if your training video is obsolete and only a single image that seems from older days can be enough to make them losing their attention from your video and training session in general. Worst are the cases when the video is old enough to show stats and charts of few years back[5]. This turns out to be a blunder in finance and economic training session that just blows the mind of learners off. We all live in a digital era and want updated and the latest information, especially through the training sessions that we are attending, after managing the time in hectic schedule. Therefore, never disappoint your learners by showing them off bad training videos.

If you are a learner and experiencing the case of bad training video, you should not comprise being silent just because you like your instructor in person[6]. Even your instructor wants you to give you the best learning value. Therefore, always provide the feedback before it gets too late.

[1] http://www.eleapsoftware.com/time-for-a-change-9-signs-your-training-videos-are-bad/
[2] http://www.intertech.com/Blog/15-worst-employee-training-videos/
[3] http://info.viddler.com/blog/video-for-training-learning
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat
[5] http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/how-to-deal-with-a-bad-training-session
[6] http://www.infiniteskills.com/training/be-the-best-bad-presenter-ever.html

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