An interactive video display at the front of a classroom

Advantages of Interactive Video in Education to Teach & Learn

Natalie Harris-Briggs  December 4, 2024

Visual aids have always played an important role in education. But times have changed in recent years, and students are no longer limited to watching linear videos. Instead, they have many more options, including interactive videos.

With the prevalence of phones, tablets, and mobile gaming, people are far more used to touching and interacting with screens, and there is no reason why this shouldn’t play a role in the classroom.

There has never been a better time to incorporate interactive video in education settings. But what are the benefits? In this guide, we’ll look at the main advantages of interactive video in education.

A young girl using an interactive whiteboard in the classroom

What Is Interactive Video?

Interactive video is a type of digital content that is characterized by participation. While watching a standard, linear video is a passive activity, interactive videos encourage students to get involved in some way.

Interactive videos ask viewers to engage with the video by interacting directly with the content. This could take the form of:

  • Quizzes – Video quizzes test the knowledge of students by asking them to click on different answers. They could also be used to gather feedback or in the form of assessments.
  • Gamification Videos – These videos incorporate rewards or points, encouraging greater participation by the students.
  • Branching Videos – In these videos, the viewer must make choices to influence the storyline and create different outcomes. Viewers control what the next action is, and characters respond to their decisions.
  • Live Broadcasts – Viewers can watch live videos and interact via comments and questions, such as when a tutor is holding a lecture or providing feedback.
  • Video Conferencing – Features like whiteboards can be incorporated into interactive video conferencing for education purposes. This can help when students and teachers are interacting with each other from different locations.
A teacher using an interactive video screen to teach young students about  planets

Key Advantages of Interactive Video in Education

There are many advantages of interactive video in education. Here are some of the most important:

Increased Engagement

The obvious benefit of creating interactive videos for education is an increase in engagement levels that it can have.

With linear videos, students watch but don’t participate. As such, they can become unengaged and lose interest. Interactive videos, on the other hand, demand their attention.

When you use an interactive video platform for education to encourage participation, the learning experience becomes more immersive for them—and more fun.

Whether they are answering questions in a quiz, getting involved in a poll, or clicking on different types of content to decide the outcome of a story, these are all elements that drive engagement.

Because they are more fun and interesting, interactive videos can help to improve the learning experience by boosting the motivation of learners.

When learners are directly involved in the content, they are more likely to pay attention and enjoy the experience, which can help to reduce drop-off and improve knowledge gathering.

Personalized

Learning with interactive video provides a more personalized experience. When you enable viewers to make their own choices and let them decide how they interact with the video, they are immediately enjoying a learning experience that is personalized for them.

This also opens up the option to tailor the content to cater to individual needs. As such, learners can interact and make different choices depending on their knowledge and abilities.

This gives the user more control over their own decisions and the journey they go on. They can choose how deeply they want to explore content, such as sticking to the main focus or exploring a side topic that interests them.

This can be a good option for students with different learning styles. People learn in different ways, and some people respond better to interacting while they learn.

This also encourages students to learn at their own pace. Students can pause videos, watch again, go over information they find more complex, and take a self-paced approach where this makes sense.

Students in higher education being taught using an interactive display

Accessibility

It’s important to consider accessibility in the classroom because different students have different needs. Interactive video can play an important role in creating an accessible and inclusive learning environment.

For example, interactive videos may give you the option to use translations, closed captions, or transcripts, while other features like adjustable speed may be available too.

This takes account of the diverse needs of learners and their preferences. It is especially useful for learners with disabilities to ensure they can access the same content.

Interactive videos can help to make the learning process accessible to all and remove barriers, irrespective of the abilities of individual learners.

Useful Insights via Data

Interactive video offers teachers the option of gathering useful insights on their students by gathering data.

For example, teachers can gather actionable insights on user behavior and preferences via the interactions of each student, providing important data on engagement levels.

By providing granular data on interactions, interactive videos can help to improve personalization, which could help play a role in the creation of future education materials.

They are also excellent feedback tools. Interactive quizzes and exercises can be embedded into the video to provide instant feedback, and teachers can use this to identify gaps and adapt their methods.

Interactive videos could even be used for student evaluations so teachers can instantly get insight into how students are performing.

Better Outcomes

Perhaps the most important benefit of all is that interactive videos can lead to better learning outcomes.

Due to the increased engagement and better personalization mentioned above, interactive videos can help to enhance understanding and reinforce material.

This can lead to better memory retention because the information is easier to absorb, leading to improved comprehension.

Because they are more engaging and use interactive elements to apply knowledge, interactive videos may make it easier for students to remember what they learn.

Accessible on Many Devices

Interactive videos are very accessible, which gives you a lot of freedom in how you incorporate them into the learning experience.

They can be accessed on computers, phones, tablets, and dedicated interactive screens. This allows students to access them in more places, which could mean they can use them as a learning tool outside of the classroom as well as inside.

Versatile

Interactive videos are incredibly versatile, which is one of their primary benefits. Interactive videos can be used in a classroom setting as part of a digital learning environment, but they could be used as either the whole lesson or as only part of the lesson.

They can be very simple, like using an interactive video maker for education to create a short five-minute quiz, or they could be much more elaborate. This allows them to be incorporated into the learning process in various ways.

They could, for example, be used for microlearning, where access to information is provided in a more digestible size, which is ideal for people with shorter attention spans.

Using interactive screens in education will also help to ensure you are preparing for the future in the classroom, as technology will only become more advanced for learning.

Schoolboys engaging with a touch screen display in the classroom

Incorporate Interactive Video in Education

Interactive videos are an excellent way to engage learners of all ages, from the very youngest to students in higher education.

Incorporating interactive video into the learning environment helps learners to engage more with the learning material, improve retention, and enjoy a more personalized learning experience.

You may want to create your own interactive videos in the form of simple quizzes or by adding interactive features to your regular video chats. For more complex videos, you may want to hire professionals to produce the content for you.

However you use interactive video, you will need to have the right equipment, which could involve computers, tablets, or high-quality interactive screens in the classroom. Once you have the equipment in place, take advantage of interactive video to improve the educational experience.

© Avocor 2023. All rights reserved, 9375 SW Commerce Cir Suite A7, 97070, Oregon, United States
Book a Demo
Top envelopecalendar-full
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram