Use Cases

Many scholars and experts have attempted to categorize and list the best cases for using video in learning. In his openly published Pressbook, Teaching in a Digital Age (2015), Tony Bates provides an excellent overview of the pedagogical utility of video (see chapter on Video here). He says that because it combines text, audio, and dynamic visuals, video is in a pedagogical league of its own; it allows us to bring abstract principles to life, demonstrate phenomena, model skills, and present real-world scenarios.

Hansch and colleagues (2015) offer a simple framework describing video’s affordances for online learning that includes “building rapport, going on virtual field trips, manipulating time and space, telling stories, motivating learners, showcasing historical footage, conducting demonstrations, using visual juxtaposition, and leveraging multimedia presentation.” (p.11) They stress how important it is to align the use and production methods of video to the intended learning outcomes.

In Designing Video and Multimedia for Open and Flexible Learning, Koumi (2006) suggests 27 cases that video is best used for in three broad categories:

1. Aid cognitive learning and skills development

2. Offer vicarious experiences via portraying the otherwise inaccessible, and

3. Nurture motivations and feelings

He claims that what makes video best suited to these use cases are its presentational attributes including factors like dynamic visual representation, audio, chronological sequencing, variable pacing and framing, effects, and transitions.