Animated Educational Video: Diversifying How We Teach
The impact of Covid-19 has meant that now more than ever before, the need for digital learning is increasing in parallel to the necessity of alternative education formats.
ENTER: Animated Educational Video
Animated educational videos have surpassed status as a mere supplementary tool for face-to-face learning. They now stand alone as a sufficient alternative for those required to learn remotely in today’s modern world of online teaching.
They also allow for a more accessible and welcoming form of education than the rigid, arguably outdated models of education that emphasize a singular style of teaching in-person lessons with ever-increasing class sizes. With little-to-no focus on individual learning and the fact that students are all unique in their learning styles.
DIVERSIFYING HOW WE TEACH
It’s of utmost importance that we recognize different modes of teaching work for different students and topic matters.
Animated educational videos can offer a pillar of support to many areas. Whether it be a formal school setting, online presentation for colleagues – an animated educational video can be a crucially accessible tool to capture, enlighten, and ultimately expand people’s minds in short periods.
AZBigMedia.com states that the average attention span of a Millennial is a brief 12 seconds only. As a result, 2021 will see companies begin to trial innovative means to convey their brand and, most importantly, call to action. This is not a trend specific to marketing patterns.
While the use of a short, catchy animated video to inspire your marketing strategy is a savvy direction to take, such can also be applied in the education sector. Humans naturally thrive off of sensory experiences. The efficacy of explainer videos is founded on their unique combination of audio and visual stimuli to explain a concept in very simple terms.
Many of us are visual learners, meaning that we learn by seeing pictures and remembering things by sight.
Most students would prefer to watch a YouTube video explaining Pythagoras’ theorem over opening a dusty old textbook in today’s digital age.
Videos are not only more engaging than other types of content but more memorable. According to Insivia, viewers can retain up to 95% of a message from a video they watched rather than a text they read.
A perfect example can be found in a video that would constantly be shown in my primary school classroom: Think! Hedgehog Road Safety-King of the Road (1998). The basic fact that the video was made in 1998 and is still used today to teach children the importance of road safety speaks volumes. The medium displays the Hedgehog parodying the classic King of the Road:
It has since become a British symbol and part of educational memorabilia. The iconography of the Hedgehogs showing and telling us that it is our responsibility to be road-safe is timeless. You simply mustn’t have attended a British primary school if you are not familiar with the phrase ‘Stop, Look, Listen, Live.’
Initially, the thought of going down the educational video route may be intimidating.
We are here to help!
Why is the animated educational video such an influential instrument?
Firstly, these types of video have proven to be an extremely effective and tactical way to convert overly complex theories and concepts into more digestible content.
Take a science video, for example, or describing Pythagoras’ theorem. Both large and small theories and hypotheses are majorly restricted by obtuse and hyper-specific jargon. Such can be simplified through the everyday language offered in our scripting accompanying the animations since the imagery shows how it works instead of just telling.
So how would one go about making an animated educational video?
Step One: Outlining
Animation can be a labor-intensive process. As with most projects, much of the time is allocated to the planning stages.
Whether you are hoping to animate the video yourself or would be more comfortable outsourcing the work to a professional, it is crucial to establish your video’s outline as soon as you can. This is simply setting your goal for the video and how you ultimately hope to reach it.
At Animation Explainers, we don’t expect you to have a frame-by-frame breakdown in the planning stages. If you can provide a beginning, middle, and end, this will be advantageous towards getting your video aspirations up and running.
The bottom line is that without a strong outline, your video simply won’t get its point across. Did your school teachers never tell you that if you fail to prepare, you must prepare to fail?
The next part of this step is the script.
Don’t be alarmed; it’s ok if you’re not the next Woody Allen.
We have creative scriptwriters at Animation Explainers that will take your ideas and produce them into content abundant in eloquence to accompany your video.
Likewise, as often is the case with educational content, if your topic is devised of daunting and heady material, our scriptwriters will work hard to make it digestible to the masses.
Once again, it is helpful to outline your overall brand tone. From here, our scriptwriters can translate what you want and need to say into video in a quick turnaround.
We not only have an extensive portfolio of previous video examples that you can see and work from as a foundation, but we offer our services every step of the way if you desire a more hands-on approach.
We can be as involved as you like. You may have only a vague starting idea for your video and require us to get involved with every angle of the project. On the other hand, it may be the case that you have already established an awe-inspiring, opulent, and inspirational vision and just need a little push to get your project completed.
Step Two: Storyboarding
Storyboarding is a natural extension of the initial outline since it simply breaks down your video in more detail. This means that when you come to animate your video, you are well prepared and not taking any shots in the dark creatively, nor wasting time coming up with last-minute ideas.
As has been previously mentioned, having a strong vision and outline is key. The storyboard step will give you a good idea as to how the final version of your educational video will look. Couple this with a compelling and coherent script, and you are well on your way to finding the aesthetic and message you are looking for.
A GOOD TIP: be as vivid and descriptive as you can at this stage – it will only make it easier to complete the task at hand. Also, don’t eat yellow snow.
Sounds like a lot of work for one person or a small team with little animation experience, doesn’t it? Get in touch with us at Animation Explainers. We can do all the legwork to help bring your ideas to life.
Step Three: Figuring out your animation style.
So,
- you’ve outlined your animated educational video,
- you’ve storyboarded it,
- now it’s TIME TO ANIMATE
Before you can do this, you need to figure out what type of animation works best for your topic matter.
Animation Explainers has many types of animated educational video templates, each with their own advantages and functions.
Here are a few examples to give you an idea:
Animated Typography Videos:
Animated typography videos are an invaluable tool for helping people identify keywords and phrases and log them into their memory.
Words are a compelling educational device. Listening to someone drone on and dictate a subject can be tedious. However, when words are directly displayed in front of your eyes in a colorful and creative way, they are much easier to not only engage with but remember.
This format is perfect for an educational topic that doesn’t need much visual explanation or examples, such as Nelson Mandela’s I Have a Dream speech or quotes from famous authors.
Animated typography does not necessarily have to be used in isolation. It can be an effective supplement to other animation styles to bring your video together.
2D Animation/Cartoon Videos:
These types of videos can be labor-intensive to produce, but they’re especially appealing and have vast potential. There is tremendous opportunity here for this format to be used as an animated educational video tool. This content can effortlessly translate complex ideas into more easily absorbable information with cheerful characters and colorful images.
Animated cartoon videos work especially well if you have to communicate specific examples to your audience. For example, teaching your class the process of digestion. It’s a well-known notion that animation can make learning formerly tedious and complicated scientific processes visual, fun, and ultimately captivating.
Animated Infographic Videos:
Dealing with a lot of numbers? Animated infographics are an innovative way to alleviate monotony from numerical data. Data is presented in a way that is more palatable and dynamic to the audience.
Step Four: Animation and Production
If you decide to be brave and give the animation of the video a go yourself, then you’ve made it.
Step four is, in fact, ANIMATION: piecing together bits from your script and storyboard to produce a high-quality video.
Unfortunately, without studio-quality microphones for narration and editing software, you’re probably going to struggle to achieve this. On top of this, it may be that you are struggling to find the correct voice talent to captivate your intended audience. To pull all of this off, there is no doubt that you will require a healthy budget and plenty of time.
Fancy taking the load off a little? Animation Explainers’ team of experts will take care of all the above for you with a little-to-no effort from you.
The bonus? You are free to be as involved in the process as you wish!
Animation Explainers are here to work with you. To help turn your unique vision into a charming and functional animated educational video. With as little demand from you as possible.
We will take the heavy burden of you having to learn the complicated animation process and cooperate with you to produce an inspiring animated educational video that you will be proud to display.
