Secrets of Video Training: We Betray the Instructional Designer's Guild (page 2)

Presentation Method

Presentation method means your overall approach to getting the selected contents across. Most training programs use one or more of three approaches.

Straight exposition. This approach shows the material in logical order, supplemented by an anonymous narrator and appropriate graphics and titles.

Demonstration. Here, the narrator moves on-camera as an expert presenter: a famous chef in his studio kitchen or a do-it-yourself maven on a job site. Typically, the expert talking head moves off-camera again for direct how-to footage, again supplemented by graphics and titles.

Interview. If the expert is not an experienced demonstrator, you can elicit the key information through adroit questioning and then drop in the questions from the interview. You can, of course, lay the answers over footage.

Presentation Media

Most training videos are combinations of visuals, narrative, and graphics or titles. That's because each piece of information is best delivered by a particular medium.

Video. If you can see it, show it. The core medium of video is the image. The best way to present threading a sewing machine is through visuals that clearly show the process.

Audio. If you can't see it, talk about it. You can show setting thread tension at position five, but you can't show why. It's much more effective to augment the video with voice-over narrative, "Generally, position five is a good tension level to start with. Then you can adjust it as necessary."

Graphics. Sometimes graphics are more effective than live-action visuals because they eliminate all extraneous details so that the relevant ones stand out more clearly. Titles are indispensable for focus and for eminding learners of where they are in multi-step proc…