Can You Use YouTube Videos in Employee Training?
Video is an excellent medium for teaching and training. It provides many benefits, from being more attention-grabbing to improving information retention. As such, video is brilliant for learning new skills.
Due to the benefits of video content, many employers have turned to the medium as a means of training their employees. But, with so many video hosting platforms online, it can be a challenge to settle on which to use. As YouTube is the most well-known video hosting platform with the most extensive library of content, it makes sense that many employers ask the question – can you use YouTube videos for training?
In this article, we will answer this question, and give a few tips on how you can include YouTube videos in your employee training materials. Let’s get started.
Can you use YouTube videos for training?
The short answer is yes. YouTube can be an excellent source of visuals for your training workshops, with high-quality videos on practically every topic imaginable. By including YouTube videos in your training materials, you can complement your static data points, or more tedious concepts, with a visual aid that helps capture and keep attention.
While you can create your own video content to support your training materials, it takes time, skill, and resources. To create videos of a high enough quality, you need equipment, along with video capture and editing skills. For those without said equipment or skills, creating content isn’t much of an option. Thankfully, YouTube videos are both free and effective, making them an outstanding alternative. Oftentimes, it’s better than creating your own content, even if you have the means to do so.
If you intend to use YouTube videos in your training workshops, you should know the two main categories: Standard YouTube License, and Creative Commons Attribution License. Depending on which category the video you want to use falls, you will have certain freedoms or limitations when using the content.
YouTube’s licenses explained
YouTube videos are categorised under two licenses, as we mentioned earlier. The purpose of these licenses is to protect the rights of content creators. This essentially stops people from pilfering content and masquerading it as their own. But what do these licenses mean?
Standard YouTube License
The Standard YouTube License is the most restrictive. The creator of the video has sole control over it, meaning all you can do is watch it. You can use the video as you found it by embedding on your website or via a link, but making any edits to the content is off-limits.
Creative Commons Attribution License
A Creative Commons Attribution License is a bit more lenient in what you can do with it. As long as you attribute credit to the original creator, you can use the content for most purposes, including commercial ones. However, this is dependent on the wishes of the creator, as they have the right to how their content is used. Not seeking approval or crediting the original creator is a surefire way of landing in trouble.
Where to find licensing information
If you’d like to include a YouTube video in your employee training workshop, you should first look for the licensing information. This can be found in the publication window under the video itself. Once you have the licensing information, you can decide how you use the content, or whether to use it at all. Be sure to abide by the appropriate licensing rules, however. Breaking them can cause problems, especially if you end up in breach of copyright infringement rules.
Another way to find out if a video has a Creative Commons License is to run a search and then adjust the filters by selecting the creative commons option.
Once updated you’ll get a list off all the videos from your search that have a creative commons license.
How you can include YouTube videos in your employee training
Now that you have a catalog of YouTube videos to include in your training materials, let’s discuss how best to use them. Adding the videos without any extra steps will already add value to your employee training workshops, but there are ways to eke out just a bit more value from them. Here are a few tips.
Engage your audience
To get the most out of your employee training sessions, your best bet is to engage them. How you do this is up to you. Encouraging your audience to participate by demonstrating skills or knowledge is one approach, while asking for in-session feedback is another. Consider the various personalities in your audience and tailor your approach accordingly.
Include video tutorials
Written explanations of ideas or techniques are perfectly fine, as are written facts and figures. However, they pale in comparison to the effectiveness of video. Including a video that condenses the information into a more easily digestible format will likely work wonders for your employees, and for you by proxy. A video tutorial can help put across an idea in a memorable way, while your written materials can help expand upon the topic with more detail, or in a way more suitable for your workplace.
When using video tutorials, you should aim to place them ahead of your written materials. Most of your employees are likely to benefit more from visuals, and putting them first is more likely to get your employees engaged and knowledgeable.
Create playlists for your training videos
Organising your training videos into playlists is a great way to structure your employee training workshops. They can also provide you employees with an easy structure to follow in their own time, too.
YouTube has a playlist function, one that can be created, edited, and shared with ease. With this feature, you can organise your training videos into category-specific playlists, or department-specific playlists. For example, you could create a playlist of videos for your customer service department, including videos on how to deal with irate customers, or videos on leading a customer through a troubleshooting process. In doing so, your training materials will be both carefully organised and easily accessed.
Wrapping up
Including YouTube videos in your employee training program can make the whole endeavour more effective. Compared to written materials, video content is much easier to remember, and captures attention with ease. By implementing video into your training programs, your employees will have an easier time digesting the material, giving you better results. Before using a YouTube video, however, be sure to double-check the licenses.