Interactive videos have taken the world by storm. There is a wide array of interactive videos being released by brand’s all across the world, including big-name brands such as Honda, Allianz and Maybelline.
With this new trend comes a wealth of new and improved opportunities to connect with an audience. While interactive videos are a fantastic resource for marketing, they also have an incredible success rate when it comes to the world of e-learning.
What is an Interactive Video and What does it Do?
Interactive video is a type of video that allows for interaction from the viewer. Unlike linear video, interactive videos can have any of several features that require or allow those who are viewing it to have some kind of input and take some level of action.
The best way to describe an interactive video is as a video that gives you something to do rather than just sit there and maybe watch it the whole way through. There are several different ways that a video can be made interactive, including;
- Branching or “choose your own adventure” style videos, which give viewers a series of options to choose from at key points within the narrative. The choices that are made directly effect the outcome and direction of the narrative, with the more choices there are to be made, the more complex the branching becomes and the more possible storylines and outcomes there are.
- Hotspots or clickable areas types of interactive videos allow viewers to click or tap on certain, highlighted areas withing the video in order to receive certain information or cause a reaction. Picture Puzzle is a good example for hotspots and clickable areas types of interactive video.
- Multi-view and 360-degree view interactive videos are a great choice for VR and give viewers the option to view an area or object from any angle. Often utilised to showcase products and landscapes. Such as Rome ,
- Gamified interactive videos add an element of competition into the video, allowing viewers to perform action that have consequences or result in receiving scores. Math Puzzle and World Cultural Heritage are good examples for gamified interactive videos.
Why are interactive videos better than Linear videos?
Linear videos can be a great tool, but interactive videos are generally considered to be better for a lot of reasons. First of all, they’re more engaging. How are they more engaging? Well, mainly because they’re not passive like linear videos are. They require some form of action of behalf of whoever is watching, requiring engagement that ensures that viewers are paying more attention.
Another reason that they’re considered superior to linear videos is the fact that they’re much newer. Video has been around for decades and decades now, with online videos and the rise of digital marketing being around a decade or so old. Interactive videos aren’t as mainstream as traditional videos yet, so they’re even more fun and exciting for viewers as it’s something quite new to them.
As well as the fact that they’re quite new, there’s also an endless potential for creativity available within interactive videos. While linear videos can be creative, the fact that there are fewer interactive videos out in the world means that not everything has been done yet, opening up the door for originality and paving the way to the future.
Why You Should be Using Interactive Videos?
Let’s get to the crux of the matter, shall we? Why exactly should you be using interactive videos of part of you e-learning dossier? What makes them stand out among a crowded sea of learning material? What makes them more successful and more likely to lead to people performing better?
Let’s go through our top five reasons why you should be using interactive videos for you e-learning campaigns.
1. It’s incredibly engaging
Interactive video is such a big deal in e-learning because of how highly engaging it can be. Almost every interactive video produced actually requires some level of engagement, that is, input from the user. Aside from the literal engagement that it brings, interactive video is also just more fun.
It’s active rather than passive like linear video, so people pay more attention to it and are more likely to relate to it and interact with it. The active experience that is centred around the user can be made to be anything but dull and boring.
It’s engaging because video is engaging, we’re much more likely to pay attention to moving objects than stationary ones, and they can tell a story. Interactive videos take this one step further by allowing you to BE part of the story rather than just observe it.
2. It’s simple and effective to gamify
Gamification is big news for e-learning. It allows what could be considered boring subjects to be made more exciting, as well as improving how much attention people are paying to the subject. It’s well known that people learn differently. Some people are visual learners, some audio, some kinetic and some a mix of all the above. Gamification allows all of these to be integrated into a short, bite-sized chunk of engaging content that makes it more likely that people will pay attention and remember the content that they’ve learned.
Interaction is the key to success, and gamification requires probably the most level of interaction and rational thought than any other type of interactive video. Having to overcome obstacles, work our problems and perform other actions, all with the promise of a higher point score or the avoiding of negative consequences such as character death, add up to create a well-thought-out system that has plenty of layers allowing users to become more immersed.
3. It supports higher retention
As time goes by and new generations are formed, attentions spans are getting smaller and smaller, making it all that much more difficult for information to actually be retained within the memory.
In order for us to store things in our short-term memory, we have to be paying attention to it. It’s the first step, so losing people at the first hurdle because they weren’t paying attention to whatever it was you were trying to teach or tell them can be a big killer in e-learning.
Interactive video, especially gamification-style videos, are highly engaging pieces of content that people are much more inclined to pay attention to – overcoming the first hurdle and allowing the information to be stored into the short-term memory.
After this, it’s about repetition and attention. To store something in your long-term memory, the best method is to repeat or recall the information while still paying attention. This can be done through writing, tests, exercises or other ways that have you recall or relearn the same information over and over again.
Interactive videos help with this too. Studying, revision and other methods of trying to remember information can be boring, time consuming and often stressful. Interactive videos offer a fun alternative way to help people to repeat and relearn information through the use of interactive tools that they can actually enjoy, increasing the likeliness of something staying in the long-term memory centres of our brain.
This all helps people to retain facts more easily and for longer periods of time. We tend to retain things that we enjoyed and found to be fun, exciting, emotional or otherwise memorable, and interactive video offers the opportunity to make learning all of those things.
4. It’s mobile-friendly
Making sure that your users can interact with your brand on mobile devices has never been more important. More and more young people use mobile devices much more than use laptops and PCs or televisions to consume content. Placing interactive videos onto to mobile-friendly platforms that can be viewed and interacted with on a smart device is a key step to ensuring that they engage with the content you need them to.
Millennials and other younger generations are best reached via mobile devices, so interactive videos for e-learning that are placed in their path as they’re going through social media on mobile is the best way to grab their attention.
Being mobile-friendly also means that there is more time for these generations to actually consume the content, as many use mobile devices while out and about or travelling, increase the amount of time they can spend consuming content.
5. It’s low impact
One of the best things about interactive videos for e-learning is that it’s not high impact. What do we mean by high impact? Well, it’s not intense and it doesn’t require incredible stamina or intense concentration for long periods of time. It doesn’t require a certain setting and it’s not overwhelming.
The low impact and low-intensity nature of most interactive videos that are used for e-learning are light-hearted and fun. They can add elements into the learning experience that can’t be achieved through print, images or even just linear videos. It’s active participation, but a low impact one that people will be more inclined to try when they’re relaxing.
How do I Get Involved With E-learning Interactive Videos?
It’s easy to get involved with interactive videos for e-learning. All you really need to do is know what the content is that you’d like to teach people and think about the best way to portray that in an interactive way.
Consider your audience and the subject matter when deciding the best kind of interactive video to produce and layout all the interactive features you feel will perform best at engaging with the audience and helping them to retain the information that’s provided.
Are Interactive Videos For E-learning Just For Institutions?
Absolutely not for just institutions. E-learning can be comprised of anything that teaches a person or people about something, so it’s definitely not just centred around learning institutions. Companies who want to teach new recruits about the rules and regulations, training videos for brands and across a range of sectors, as well as just something made by an organisation or person to teach people about an importüant topic, are all fantastic examples of e-learning where interactive videos can be used to help.
While interactive videos can help students to learn better, especially those of a younger generation, they can also be used to teach new staff members how to act in a certain situations, how to perform certain tasks and what the company policies for certain things are.
They can be used to raise awareness around subjects that have misinformation, or just not a lot of public information. They can be used to help the public üunderstand complex topics, perhaps related to a product or service, or perhaps not.
They can be used in a multitude of ways to enhance learning opportunities across the world and further the knowledge base and memory retention of our population, with everything from science, maths, and English to history and art.
Conclusion
Essentially, interactive videos provide a stimulating, engaging and fun way for people to actually retain facts and information. Their interactive nature and light-hearted approach to serious topics can resonate more with people, allowing them to become more emotionally invested. Creating narratives around teachable moments and information can have an impact how people see the world around them, simply by created an environment that allows them to take more control.
Now the content that people consume is changing. More and more people want everything to be mobile, fast, engaging and learn as quickly as possible, but they want the minimum effort required to do so. Interactive video allows viewers to fulfill all these desires.
People are more likely to watch interactive videos to learn than to consume any type of content. It’s more engaging, fun and effective at holding their attention, in other words they don’t feel bored or mentally drained from watching.
If you want to discover interactive video with Cinema8, write to us.