How to Ruin a Good Video and Other Mistakes We've All Made

What makes you click away immediately from a video vs. stay glued to the screen? Maybe it’s overwhelming background music or cursor movements that make you feel seasick.

We’ve all seen videos that don’t quite click for us (and perhaps made a few of them ourselves). So, in this episode, we look at common instructional video mistakes to avoid to keep your learners watching. It’s an older episode and one of our most popular ones but is still packed with plenty of must-know tips.

Host Matt Pierce sits down with Andrew DeBell (Sr. Learning Solutions Strategist at Atlassian), Cara North (Founder and Chief Learning Consultant for The Learning Camel), and Chandra Owen (our former Lead Instructional Designer), to hear their biggest tips on pacing, audio, editing, and how to make sure viewers get the most valuable information. And because this is a safe space here, everyone shares their own common mistakes and things they’re still working on. After all, even the pros can make mistakes.

P.S. Matt also reveals news about a brand new free TechSmith tool – Camtasia Online. Listen out for details in the intro or click the link below. 

Learning points from the episode include:

• 00:00 – 04:00 Introduction to Cara, Andrew and Chandra
• 04:00 – 08:23 When do you choose to use video?
• 08:23 – 11:37 One tip for improving how they use video or images in their work
• 11:37 – 12:27 Ad break
• 12:27 – 15:22 The number one thing that ruins a good video
• 15:22 – 21:09 Small mistakes that can make a video hard to watch
• 21:09 – 26:04 The top reasons people stop watching videos
• 26:04 – 30:34 Music at the top/tail end of a video
• 30:34 – 34:07 Using picture in picture in video best practices
• 34:07 – 39:09 The mistakes we’ve made and are still working on
• 39:09 – 43:08 Speed round questions
• 43:08 – 43:58 Best place to connect with Cara, Chandra and Andrew
• 43:58 – 46:08 Final takes
• 46:08 – 47:04 Outro

Important links and mentions:

• Connect with Andrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewdebell/
• Connect with Cara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caranorth11/
• Connect with Chandra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandraowen/
• Get started with Camtasia online: https://camtasia.techsmith.com/