How to Create Effective Training Videos

Training videos are an excellent way to improve learning outcomes in your organization. 

Their use dates back to the 80s and the rise of the VHS media format. VHS made it possible to create, share, and re-use training content on the cheap, reducing reliance on in-person training. 

VHS became deprecated over the years, but the practice of using video for training is going strong to this day. Thanks to online video creation tools, it is now easier than ever to produce training video content.

If you want to start making training videos for your organization, you have come to the right place. In the remainder of this post, we will go over everything you need to know to create effective training videos.

Training Video Benefits

Let’s go over the reasons why you would want to use training videos. There are three main benefits to consider:

• Efficiency –  It takes less work to create and distribute training videos than it does to conduct training sessions. Once you build up a training video database, you can simply direct your employees to a video distribution point and let them learn at their own pace.
• Consistency – Having everyone watch the same set of training videos is a way to ensure consistent learning outcomes. This also frees up your training staff to work on better things (such as improving training content), instead of giving the same lectures over and over again whenever there is a recruitment drive.
• Cost-effectiveness – With today’s technology, it takes next to no investment to produce quality training videos. Recording equipment is cheap and widely available, stock video websites offer plenty of clips to round out your content, and you can run video production tools directly from the browser, often for a minor fee.

How to Make a Training Video

The process of training video production is fairly straight-forward. It can be divided into roughly three phases: planning, production, and distribution. Let’s unpack each of them.

1. Planning

The planning phase is where you define the formal parameters of your training video. We can sub-divide it into the following steps:

1. Understand the audience – Training videos are always made with a particular audience in mind. You must take into account what the audience already knows, their role in the organization, as well as other pertinent information specific to their position (unpaid interns, remote workers, etc.)
2. Set goals – The role of a training video is to facilitate learning. There are three main learning outcomes training videos can facilitate:

• Teaching skills and techniques necessary to perform a given job.
• Teaching organization policies that trainees are expected to follow.
• Teaching the cultural values of the organization.

3. Specify equipment and tools – Video production is a technical process. As such, it requires a number of hardware and software tools.
   1. Hardware – To capture quality video footage, you need the following equipment:

• HD video camera
• Tripod
• Basic lighting kit
• USB condenser microphone

2. Software – As for software, you typically need:

• Video editing tool
• Screen capture software
• Animation software
• Software for special effects

4. Choose video type – There are several types of training video you can produce. They typically fall into these categories:

• Screencasts – Screencasts are commonly used for software tutorials and demos. Screecasts typically use a voiceover narration to teach learners how to complete a set of tasks in some software tool.
• Microvideos – Microvideos are very short videos (typically 5 to 15 seconds long)“ that demonstrate a single idea or process. They rarely have narration. Instead they rely on visuals and text to convey information.
• Presenter videos – Presenter videos are the video version of in-person training. The instructor is shown on screen as they present information to a virtual audience.

2. Production

This is the phase where the magic happens. Here you will create a video from scratch using the production tools you have assembled. 

1. Writing the script – A quality script is the backbone of an effective training video. Going into details here is beyond the scope of this article. If you want to know more, check out our guide on how to write an effective video script. With that being said, following these best practices is good way to improve the quality of your script:

• Start with an outline.
• Keep it short.
• Use clear language.
• Write in a conversational tone.

2. Designing visuals – Visual elements are essential for a good training video. Provide illustrations, infographics, screencapture clips, text overlays, and other assorted visual elements to stress key ideas and make them easier to remember.
3. Composing audio – Audio typically plays a more subdued role in training video production, but it is nonetheless essential for a quality end product. Some tips to consider when composing audio footage:

• Record in a space with sound isolation.
• Use sound effects to keep the viewers engaged, but don’t go overboard.
• Consider using subtle background music.

4. Recording the footage – On a technical level, this is the most difficult part of making a training video. We can’t afford to go into details here, so we’ll offer a few tips to keep in mind while recording footage:

• Plan the date, time, location, and schedule of your shoot.
• Record in optimal lighting conditions.
• Always use manual focus.
• Use the rule of thirds to properly position your speaker.
• Record b-roll footage.

5. Editing the footage – Once you’ve assembled all the footage, you need to cut and paste until it all fits together in a seamless whole. Some advice for video editing to keep in mind:

• Get accustomed to using your video editing tool of choice.
• Use consistent transitions between shots.
• Align visual elements with organization branding policies.
• Use annotations when appropriate.
• Chose the right export format.

3. Distribution

Training video distribution is a small, but vital phase in training video production. Choosing the wrong distribution channel for your training content can render it ineffective, so you want to think things through before sharing. Here are the two main channels organizations typically used for distributing training video content.

• Video sharing platforms such as YouTube are good when you want to keep hosting costs down. Just remember to keep the videos private, and then share the links directly to trainees.
• Keeping the files hosted on an internal servers is another good option. This gives you more control over the distribution, but it requires technical staff to maintain the infrastructure.

Conclusion

Training videos are an excellent compliment to your onboarding strategy. They have a proven track record of improving learning outcomes, and the production costs are easily offset by savings you’ll make on training.