Playbook Guide Education March 2013
Created by the YouTube Next Lab, March 2013
What is a Creator Playbook Guide? In 2011, we released the Creator Playbook – the one stop shop for best practices to build a loyal and engaged audience on YouTube. Since then, we’ve been working hard to tailor these strategies to the unique needs of our different content creators. Whether you’re a nonprofit organization trying to drive social awareness, or a musician looking to engage further with your fans through live streaming, we recognize that you all have different needs.
Table of Contents Education Category Overview Educational Principles for YouTube Producing Educational Videos Tent-pole Programming Curricula on YouTube Video Optimization Teaching Through Interaction Further Reading and Resources Thank You 4 5 12 15 20 24 30 37 41 47
Category Overview
Category Overview Introduction YouTube EDU (youtube.com/edu) is home to high quality educational content from around the world. Our vision is ambitious: to provide a vibrant, global platform where anyone, anywhere can learn – or teach – anything they want. Whether you are a teacher by profession, a gifted storyteller looking to inspire an audience with your passion for a particular topic, or simply curious about the world around you, YouTube EDU is the place for you.
Category Overview Educational Resources from YouTube YouTube for Schools For schools that block access to YouTube, YouTube for Schools is a gateway feature that provides the school network with access to YouTube’s educational videos, while continuing to block the rest of YouTube. Additional features include disabled comments and related video suggestions that are limited to YouTube EDU content. Learn more at YouTube.com/schools. YouTube.com/Teachers As a dedicated resource for educators, YouTube.
Category Overview Important Features and Category Trends for YouTube EDU There are a variety of benefits associated with becoming an active part of the YouTube EDU community: Access: YouTube EDU gives your channel the opportunity to be viewed by a broader audience. • Access to schools: Thanks to ‘YouTube for Schools’, all of the channels within YouTube EDU are viewable by schools around the world that have this feature enabled, giving your videos a larger potential audience.
Category Overview Programming Strategies for Education Content The scope of educational content that lives on YouTube is diverse, and so too are the accompanying channel strategies. Channel strategies primarily differ along three dimensions – content style, content scope, and programming strategy.
Category Overview Programming Strategies for Education Content Programming Strategy • You might choose to create single, self-contained videos, where each video focuses on a different topic. • Alternatively, you might organize multiple videos sequentially in order to create a course or lesson series.
Category Overview Programming Strategies for Education Content Okay, so we’ve learned that EDU channels vary across content style, content scope, and programming strategy. At this point, you also have a better understanding of the YouTube EDU landscape, and how your channel fits into that broader picture. So, now what? All of these details collectively inform how you think about strategies and optimizations for audience development.
Educational Principles for YouTube 5
Educational Principles for YouTube What are some strategies for effective instruction? Learning on YouTube relies on effective instruction. Whether you are teaching in person in a traditional classroom setting, or virtually on YouTube, sound educational practices will help your learners get more out of your lesson.
Educational Principles for YouTube Use different approaches and examples to teach the same concept • Helps build a richer understanding of a concept. • Provides more opportunities for learners to engage with the topic and further reinforces the core idea. Multiple examples to illustrate one concept • Use visuals to support learning • Tightly coordinate visuals with audio and text content so that they complement one another.
Producing Educational Videos 5
Producing Educational Videos See Playbook Sections: Captivate Your Audience, Calls to Action, Playlists How can I produce more effective videos for YouTube learners? Learners watch YouTube videos both in and out of the classroom, so your videos must be able to keep their attention. • /1veritasium starts with a question to intrigue his viewers. • /PlayPianoKing starts off by playing the piece to be taught.
Producing Educational Videos As you create or repurpose your own existing educational materials for YouTube, think about how you can apply production techniques to transform your lesson into the best video it can be! Think about how you can effectively utilize intros, outros, cutaways, and supplemental footage throughout your videos to create an engaging, compelling experience for your viewers.
Producing Educational Videos Long Form Content Educational videos can often be long-form, especially if they’re lecture-based. So, how do you make these videos more consumable and accessible for your audience? Consider editing your videos in various ways for posting on YouTube. 18 • Create shorter videos - teasers, clips, and trailers - to supplement and direct viewers to the full versions. These abridged videos may act as doorways for curious viewers who can then commit to the fulllength version.
Producing Educational Videos Primary/Secondary and Higher Ed YouTube EDU channels have the option to create a ‘Course Playlist.’ This option can be found in the “Playlists” tab of “Video Manager.” Click “Edit” on a playlist, and select “Education.
Tent-pole Programming
Tent-pole Programming See Playbook Sections: Tent-pole Programming, Playlists How does an education channel take advantage of tent-pole events? Tent-pole programming is just as important for education as other pop-culture categories. When you create content around tent-pole events and then optimize those videos, you increase your video’s visibility by tapping into trending topics. Remember, tent-pole programming is about creating and curating the right content at the right time.
Tent-pole Programming Tent-pole Playlists and Channel Feed Curation Education channels can also create tent-pole playlists featuring content from their channel or others that is relevant to a tent-pole event. Older videos that are relevant to a tent-pole event can be curated by the channel to be featured in their feed for subscribers. • Feature tent-pole playlists you’ve assembled in your channel feed by using the ‘channel post’ feature.
Tent-pole Programming Core standards and Courses as Tent-pole Programming For academic channels, core standards and course-based timelines can act as the right tent-pole programming strategy that will help plan your programming calendar. Create, publish, and curate content to tie into the courses offered and followed in schools across the country. Create a playlist of videos that will supplement these lessons.
Curricula on YouTube
Curricula on YouTube See Playbook Sections: Annotations, Metadata, Playlists How can I build a curriculum experience with a YouTube channel? For education channels that feature multi-part lessons or courses completed across several videos, it is important to optimize and organize content for this curriculum on YouTube. Packaging & Editing Curriculum Videos • Use graphics and text to complement your footage.
Curricula on YouTube Annotations Annotations for Curriculum Navigation Annotations can be extremely useful to build an interactive, curriculum experience for your viewers and to help them navigate to the previous and next videos in the lesson, especially in the absence of in-video messaging. • /crashcourse uses annotations at the end of the videos to direct viewers to the rest of the curriculum.
Curricula on YouTube Playlists Are your videos designed to be viewed in a particular order? Playlists can be used not only to create a clear path for your viewer to get from one lecture to the next, but they are also a great way to organize your content around a curriculum. • Create a playlist for a course featuring videos that should be watched in a specific order.
Curricula on YouTube ‘Course Playlists’ are available for YouTube EDU channels Using the Channel Feed to Promote Your Curriculum As an EDU partner, if you utilize the EDU-specific metadata features that are available, you’ll also have access to a special EDU-specific UI for course playlists. Education channels producing curriculum content can use the channel feed to help promote these curricula. Additionally, channel feed can be used to curate content for an existing subscriber-base.
Curricula on YouTube: Building a Better Experience 29
Video Optimization
Video Optimization See Playbook Sections: Metadata, Thumbnails, Reaching All Audiences How do I optimize educational videos when I upload? What does video optimization mean for EDU content creators? While the same optimization best practices for all types of creators still apply for EDU content creators, there are a few EDU specific optimization strategies to consider.
Video Optimization In the case of single, self-contained edutainment videos: It’s useful to include: • • • 1-2 brief sentences describing what the video is about, what viewers can expect to learn, and/or how it will be shown. • Relevant links - including channel page, link to subscribe, and social media channels. Use compelling titles that leverage search trends. Consider formulating your titles as questions.
Video Optimization Descriptions for academic courses or lessons Descriptions for standalone edutainment videos • • /Harvard /vsauce Remember that it is a violation of YouTube Terms of Service to use misleading metadata on your videos.
Video Optimization Tags Thumbnails Consider including tags that capture specific questions (i.e. why is laughing contagious, how to divide fractions) in addition to keywords. What questions does your video address that your audience is likely to search for? Brainstorm about these questions, and include these tags.
Video Optimization If you’re a Primary, Secondary or Higher Education partner in YouTube’s EDU program, lucky you! You have access to a unique set of education metadata fields. If you click to edit one of your videos, you can view these tagging features through the ‘Education’ tab. Quick Fact: Youtube.
Video Optimization Transcriptions and Captions Accessibility is becoming increasingly important in the classroom. Captions make your videos easier to comprehend for English as Second Language (ESL) learners, as well as students with special needs. In general, if you offer translations for your videos, it increases your videos’ international appeal, allowing you to reach viewers across the globe.
Teaching Through Interaction
Teaching Through Interaction See Playbook Sections: Calls to Action How can I build a conversation around my videos? Like in the classroom, the best learning happens when students are engaged and interact with the lesson. Education channels should create content that encourages interaction and dialogue around their videos. Calls to Action and Questions in the Video 38 • Ask specific questions to the viewer in the video.
Teaching Through Interaction Interactive Videos Videos that are produced to be fully interactive with the viewer create a robust learning experience for the audience. • Produce videos as if you were talking directly to the viewer. Interaction can be as simple as making the viewer feel like they are in the classroom talking with you instead of just watching a video. • Create interactive videos that have viewers pick what answers they think are correct.
Teaching Through Interaction Continue the conversation outside of YouTube Creating a community is not limited to what you can do on YouTube. Leverage your YouTube following to drive traffic to your related website and continue the conversation. Consider using other Google products to keep the conversation active like Google Moderator (collect questions and ideas to use for your next video), and Google+ Hangouts (a platform for virtual office hours).
Further Reading & Resources
Further Reading and Resources Playbook Sections • • • • • Captivate Your Audience Calls to Action Playlists Tent-pole Programming Annotations • • • • Metadata Thumbnails Reaching All Audiences Involve Your Audience Channels to Explore Harvard: Structured, full-semester length course lectures from one of the world’s most prestigious universities. goo.gl/KuD1w Khan Academy: From Algebra to World History, Sal Khan makes the most complex subjects easy to understand through his videos. goo.
Further Reading & Resources YouTube Tools / Features for Education Face blurring tool - Protect the privacy of people and/or sensitive information you film with this blurring tool: goo.gl/qCv25 Captions and Subtitles - Add text to accompany your video, making it more accessible and suitable for different learning types: goo.gl/0zhE8 Hangouts on Air - Host a live lecture, offices hours or demonstration on your channel with a Google+ Hangout: goo.
Further Reading and Resources Example Links Category Overview 6 6 6 6 Sesame Street goo.gl/g5Hjs Khan Academy goo.gl/KxtgE MIT goo.gl/2x9xI Big Think goo.gl/Q58Ni Educational Principles for YouTube 13 14 14 Veritasium: Misconceptions about Falling Objects Minute Physics: The Speed of Light in Glass CGPGrey: The Difference between United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England Explained: goo.gl/UXFTC goo.gl/ku98S goo.
Further Reading & Resources Example Links Curricula on YouTube 25 26 27 28 Stanford University: Nine Key Frameworks for Entrepreneurship Crash Course: That’s Why Carbon Is A Tramp: Biology # Richthornley: IB Chemistry Video Review Harvard goo.gl/23mhm goo.gl/zjtdD goo.gl/cqbGA goo.gl/jYbUt Video Optimization 32 32 32 33 33 34 34 34 Vsauce: What If Everyone JUMPED At Once? goo.gl/PgXIR TEDEducation: Insults by Shakespeare goo.
Further Reading & Resources Program Requirements To have your channel added to YouTube EDU and to become a YouTube EDU partner, there are two steps: 1. Become a YouTube Partner Once your channel is up and running, you can get access to advanced features such as premium branding, longform video uploads, advanced analytics, and/or video revenue sharing by applying for the YouTube Partner Program. This also gives you the option to monetize your videos.
Thank you!
