What is Video-Based Learning?

Video-Based Learning is an instructional approach that leverages the affordances of the video medium to achieve a specific set of learning goals. It is centred on the belief that videos can be instrumental to learning, beyond its demonstrated potential to capture students' attention.

What are the affordances of the video medium for learning?

Videos are moving visual images, usually packaged together with a combination of dialogue, narration and music. The primary appeal of videos is visual, the key medium through which key messages are communicated. Videos thus, naturally lends itself to the concretisation of abstract concepts. For example, the Royal Meteorological Society produced a video that demonstrated an experiment approximating cloud formation, making an otherwise invisible process visible to students. PBS Learning Media also produced a similar video, but in the style of documentary, to explain how clouds are formed.

Videos also have the power to overcome spatial and temporal constraints through visualisation of remote events and contexts. For example, students can obtain a more accurate understanding of historical events such as World War I by viewing historical footage, which enables them to see for themselves what war was like, instead of having to imagine what war was like after reading the textbook. A Grade 8 teacher in Singapore used a video to show her students how life was in Russia during World War I, so that her students would be able to grasp the impact of war on both civilians and soldiers.

Embedded within videos are perspectives and assumptions that guide the video concept as well as content selection and presentation. This means that videos can potentially provoke contention. For example, BBC's video on poverty in Singapore, exposes a social issue unknown to many Singaporeans, hidden in plain sight. The video on hidden slums in Singapore which shows the living quarters of migrant workers in Singapore is another instance where video is used to evoke a response.

How can we leverage these affordances?

The three affordances of videos outlined in the paragraphs above have unfortunately remained largely untapped, a situation which we hope to turnaround through Video-Based Learning.

One potential use of videos is to bridge new and existing knowledge, as a source of information that seeks to expand students' knowledge and skills base. For example, the cloud formation experiment uses what students already know, i.e. clouds to what they do not know and need to learn, i.e. how clouds are formed.

Videos can also be used to spark dissonance. The power of video to show instead of tell students a reality that might not gel with their assumptions, is often effective in getting students' attention and getting them interested. The earlier example of BBC's video on poverty in Singapore does just that, calling out a problem that many students erroneously assume is not a problem for Singapore.

Another use of videos is to evoke resonance, which when used appropriately goes a long way to shaping our values and world view. For example, the video by BERNAS on reunion dinner used a simple story of brokenness and sacrifice to illustrate the love of parents for their child, which brought tears to the eyes of many viewers, making a strong case without words for filial piety.

What do we mean when we say that videos can be instrumental to learning?

To claim that videos can be instrumental to learning is to claim that videos can make a direct contribution toward enabling learning, presupposing that two conditions are met. Firstly, it requires leveraging the affordances of videos. Secondly, it assumes that the use of videos is purposeful, i.e. clearly aligned to the desired learning outcome. In simple terms, it means that when the video is removed, the learning design in impacted and the lesson cannot continue.

In a nutshell, Video-Based Learning involves leveraging the affordances of videos to concretise abstract concepts, visualise remote events and contexts and provoke contention, with a view to enabling learning. Centred on the belief that videos can be instrumental to learning, video-based lesson designs involve the use of videos to spark dissonance, evoke resonance, and bridge new and existing knowledge.