Videos and Micro Chunks.

I am currently in Anchorage, attending the state technology in education conference.  I have learned so much in the first couple of days.

One of the speakers shared some important information which was brand new to me.  According to the speaker, the longer a video is, the fewer people will watch it to the end.

Apparently, the magic number is 59 seconds.  If a video is over a minute, fewer people are willing to watch it compared to 59 or less seconds.

This speaker who is a math teacher, stated it is best to make very short videos breaking down the process to no more than 30 seconds long.  In fact, she suggested that you make a video for each stop when working any problem.  This makes it easier for students to rewatch the material. 

The longer the video, the harder it is for students to rewind to a specific spot where they got distracted.  In addition, by breaking it down to one video per step, a student only has to rewatch the one step they are stuck on.

The speakers comments support what I've read about breaking the steps down into micro chunks so students see everything.  We should not assume every student understands the jumps.  I am guilty of telling students they do not need to write down each and every step if they understand it.  Many hate to write things and will write down the minimum.

Others do not want to admit they do not understand the material.  I like the idea of creating small videos showing each step.  Students do not have to write every step but they can repeatedly watch the step until they get the hang of it.

Furthermore, micro chunking material into small videos encourages students to take responsibility for their learning.  The speaker also mentioned that when you make them do more for themselves, they tend to fight the shift, including watching videos, because everyone hates changing.

I think I'm going to have to find a bit of time to create these mini videos.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Let me know what you think.  Do you do it?  How does it work?