Academic Writing Video Tutorials: Are They Effective?
Students have access to all kinds of services. They have not only classical textbooks, class notes, etc. but also additional sources, such as video tutorials. Those video tutorials can be specialized (related to a particular topic in a particular discipline) or broad (how to write academic papers, how to do research, etc.). It is important to use all the possible means to make your education better, but at the same time, it is equally important to choose your battles wisely. It means you should use only effective methods, without wasting time on something you hardly need to strengthen a particular skill. Here, we will analyze whether academic writing video tutorials are effective.
Pros
Video content is more popular for a reason. Video content gets more popular online with every year passing. Video with subs is more than three times more efficient than just a post with text. You cannot deny that millions of people prefer videos over any other type of content. It is popular, and there is a reason for it.
Videos keep your mind alert. Thanks to the moving pictures and audio, your brain stays alert a little longer compared to the time it would be if you were just reading a textbook. Even the fact that you are not reading a textbook, but watch something on your PC makes it feel less like studies and consequently leads to less antagonism.
It can be watched anywhere. All platforms like Coursera, EDX, Udemy, work on PC, and other devices. Even with the worst LTE connection, you can enjoy watching educational videos for free. It means that you can study while in traffic jams, when commuting, waiting in line, etc. It makes education more accessible. Professional academic writers from SmartWritingService claim that they use video tutorials about one-third of the overall time spent in lines or traffic.
Graphical information is easier to show on video. You can watch in a faster or slower mode. You can make print screens to save the most valuable information, etc. such interactions with video make you more involved in the process and consequently help you to remember things better.
You can make some lectures go faster. Play with speed indicators — 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x to listen through a particular lecture faster. We don’t recommend listening to any educational information faster than 1.25x mode, however.
Cons
It is not easy to make notes when watching the video. If you want to take notes when watching tutorials, you will have to stop the video all the time. As usual, you will not be able to stop it at exactly the needed place, and later you will have to rewind it trying to find that 0.5 second moment. It can be really irritating. As an option, use 0.75x mode when you need to make notes.
It is hard to find a specific rule, tip, advice, form you are interested in. You cannot note down every minute and second of lectures, and even if you did, there is no search, so you need to click 20 times before you finally find that particular moment.
There is no search mode. When working with pdf or an article, you can look for some information very fast using a search console. Here, if you miss something and want to go back, or need just several sentences from the entire video, you spend too much time on it.
It is your choice whether to use video tutorials or not, but if you decide to, please, make sure that you use quality websites for it. Also, if you don’t like the quality of videos provided by your college, but you like the format in general, look for the alternatives. There are many websites that have better content than official educational resources.
Read more: https://viralviralvideos.com/2020/04/07/academic-writing-video-tutorials-are-they-effective/
