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SDU CTL | February 2025

Newsletter February 2025: Using video for active teaching and learning

In February's newsletter, we take a closer look at what teachers could be aware of if they want to utilise the potential of videos to support engaging teaching and active learning. We also focus on tips and tricks for getting started with creating your own instructional videos, and whether AI can play an active role in this process.

By Pernille Stenkil Hansen, , 3/31/2025

Tony Bates, one of the leading experts in online and blended learning, has recently summarised the key insights from his 50 years of research in learning technologies in a newsletter article titled "Teaching with Video in a Digital Age". He particularly highlights the underutilisation of the potential of videos to support teaching and learning in higher education.
 
"I think the most important lesson is that video is greatly underused in higher education teaching” (Bates, 2025).
 

The Potential of Videos in Teaching

Numerous studies show that well-planned use of videos in teaching can make a huge difference for students' learning (see e.g., Brame, 2016, or Godsk & Møller, 2024). Videos are generally well-received by students – even long video-recorded lectures. This is partly because they fit well into students' flexible study patterns. However, videos can be used in many other more rewarding ways in teaching.

Below, you can find Tony Bates' examples of how videos can particularly support students' learning in ways that are not as easily achieved in traditional in-person teaching.

    1. Video is good for demonstrating examples of dynamic change (representing and explaining)
    2. Video is good for providing concrete examples of abstract principles through the use through the use of graphics and animation or physical modelling
    3. Video is good for interpreting or analysing performance.
    4. Video can be very useful for bringing to students demonstration of activities and analysis by specialists in their field that may otherwise be difficult or impossible to provide because of location, timing or danger to students.
    5.  Video can be used to show synthesis of a wide range of variables to suggest how real world problems can be resolved, and to motivate students to action
    6. Audio offers the analysis or abstractions, while the video image gives concrete images to support the analysis.
    7. Video can carry a strong affective or emotional impact for learners
    8. Video can take a complex argument and compress it into a short time. This allows or often requires follow-up discussion with the class.
    9. Video is good a demonstrating change over time through the use of animation, slow-motion, or speeded-up video
    10. Video can be used to demonstrate decision-making processes or decisions in-action
    11. Video can be used to provide opportunities for student decision-making and feedback on their decisions. 
    12. Video can explain complex processes that are difficult or impossible to observe with the human eye 
    13. Video can be used for games to elicit a strong emotional response from students, increasing their motivation and engagement 
    14. Video can be used where resources are unsuitable for student experimentation such as live animals and human body parts 

    The examples above are supported with specific instructional videos in Tony Bates' article.

Realising the Potential of Videos in Teaching
Despite the educational potential of videos, many teachers do not feel qualified to produce videos or are uncertain about how to most effectively integrate them into their teaching. Teachers also find it time-consuming to find good, freely available online video resources or to produce their own videos (Bates, 2025).

Help can be found within cognitive research and Richard E. Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Teachers can use Mayer's 12 multimedia design principles as guidelines in their production and selection of videos, as well as their use of videos to optimally support students' learning outcomes.

Rachel Mainero, specialist in educational technology, provides a good informative introduction to Mayer's principles and explains the rationale behind them in four short videos.

  • The first video gives an introduction to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning and an insight in how the brain processes information.

  • The first five principles of Dr. Richard Mayer’s Principles of Multimedia Learning that will be covered in this video help to reduce extraneous load. Extraneous load refers to the way information or tasks are presented to a learner. Follow this link if you prefer a written guide to the first five principles. 
  • The next three principles in this video can help to manage intrinsic load. Intrinsic load refers to the effort or complexity associated with a specific lesson. Follow this link if you prefer a written guide to three principles.  
  • The final four principles in this video help to optimise germane load. Germane load refers to the work put into creating a permanent storage of knowledge in the long term memory. Follow this link if you prefer a written guide to the last four principles. 

Cynthia J. Brame, a recognised researcher and teacher at Vanderbilt University, also provides a valuable overview in her article “Effective Educational Videos: Principles and Guidelines for Maximizing Student Learning from Video Content.” She outlines strategies and methods for using video in teaching that can help optimise student learning outcomes – summarised here in English via Copilot chat (original source: Brame, 2016, p. 3):

    1. Use signaling: Highlight important information to reduce extraneous load and enhance learning.
      Examples: Key words on screen, changes in color or contrast.
    2. Use segmenting: Chunk information to manage intrinsic load and enhance learning.
      Examples: Short videos (≤ 6 minutes), chapters or click-forward questions.
    3. Use weeding: Eliminate extraneous information to reduce load.
      Examples: Eliminating music, complex backgrounds.
    4. Match modality: Use auditory and visual channels to convey complementary information.
      Examples: Khan Academy–style tutorial videos, narrated animations.
     
    1. Keep videos brief: Increases the percentage of each video that students watch and may decrease mind wandering.
      Examples: Multiple short videos for a lesson.
    2. Use conversational language: Creates a sense of social partnership between student and instructor.
      Examples: Using "your" instead of "the", using "I" to indicate the narrator’s perspective.
    3. Speak quickly and with enthusiasm: Increases the percentage of each video that students watch and may increase the sense of social partnership.
      Examples: Speaking rates of 185-254 words per minute, expressions of instructor excitement.
    4. Emphasize relevance: Highlight the relevance of the video to the course.
      Examples: Videos created for the specific course, explanatory text to situate the video in the course.
    1. Interactive questions: Increase cognitive load and improve memory.
      Examples: Integrate questions into videos 
    2. Interactive features: Give students control and increase cognitive load.
      Examples: Create "chapters" within a video.
    3. Guiding questions: Increase cognitive load and improve self-assessment.
      Examples: Questions to observe behavior and responses.
    4. Part of larger assignment: Increase motivation and cognitive load.
      Examples: Videos with accompanying questions or problems.

Can AI Help Teachers Use Videos?
Certainly. Text-to-image AI solutions can assist in the design process of your video presentations. While language models, such as those used in Copilot chat, are designed to understand and generate human language, the so-called diffusion models are specialised in generating images, audio, and video. However, it often requires a paid license for diffusion models to produce high-quality results. MidJourney and Stable Diffusion are examples of two popular and user-friendly AI-supported image generation solutions, where users get good assistance in 'prompting' something useful.

Via your SDU access to Copilot chat, you can try OpenAI's DALL-E, which allows you to generate images from text. It requires good questioning/prompting techniques and a large amount of patience to achieve something useful. It can often be more time-efficient to search image databases like Colourbox or Skyfish, which we have access to at SDU.  You can read more about access to the image databases on SDUnet.

When it comes to AI-based solutions for generating audio and video, ElevenLabs stands out for voice generation, while Heygen serves as a versatile tool for video production. It offers a wide range of features, including translation and adaptation of video content, AI avatars, and voice cloning, making it possible to create highly realistic digital replicas of real people. You may want to read and experience Ethan Mollick's somewhat frightening example of using Heygen, where he, based on a short video recording of himself, creates a digital copy that can speak multiple languages:


At SDU, we have access to the video tool Clipchamp, which has become part of Office 365. It can assist with generating automatic subtitles and removing background noise from audio recordings, which can improve the sound quality of instructional videos. It is also possible to convert text to speech with options among 400 different voices, where both pitch and speed can be adjusted. Many teachers at SDU use the recording function in PowerPoint to produce short lecture or introduction videos. The seamless integration with Clipchamp can make it easier to post-process and edit these videos. You can find Clipchamp as an app via your Office 365 account or via Stream, which is also part of Office 365.

As more AI-based continue to evolve nd new possibilities emerge, it is important to maintain a curious and experimental approach in exploring potential. However, we need to assess that, although something is technically possible, it does not necessarily support students' learning optimally. For example, using a 'talking head' or webcam recording in your PowerPoint presentations is not always a good idea, as according to Mayer's multimedia design principles, it can create cognitive overload.

 

Get started with Creating Your Own Instructional Videoes?
SDU CTL offers the following two courses that can help you get started with producing your own instructional videos and using them most effectively to support your students' learning:

  • 'How to design, produce and use videos for teaching and learning' is the shorter version of SDU CTL’s courses accounting ¼ ECTS, where you will receive assistance in a fully online course to produce videos relevant to your teaching.

    The course is structured as a flipped learning program, where you will initially be introduced to Richard E. Mayer's multimedia design principles in a self-study module. This will prepare you for a 3-hour online workshop, where you will exchange experiences with colleagues and engage in hands-on exercises. In the final self-study module, you will receive 1:1 feedback on a specific video production.

    Read more about the course and register for the next session starting in mid-May.
  • In SDU CTL’s course 'Flipped learning – a self-paced, online course', you get the opportunity to both produce videos and organize a flipped learning program in a longer course accounting ½ ECTS, which can be integrated into your existing courses in itslearning. You work at your own pace but can draw inspiration from colleagues who share their flipped learning designs in the course.

Read more about the course and registration here.

 

References 
Bates, T. (2025). Teaching with Video in a Digital Age. Contact North | Contact Nord. 

Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective educational videos: Principles and guidelines for maximizing student learning from video content. CBE Life Sciences Education, 15(4), es6.1-es6.6. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0125

Godsk, M., Møller, K.L. (2024). Engaging students in higher education with educational technology. Educ Inf Technol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12901-x 

 
Responsible for this month's newsletter
Pernille Stenkil Hansen

Pernille Stenkil Hansen

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Editing was completed: 31.03.2025