Top Types of Classroom Instructional Videos & Why You Need Them

Instructional videos are increasingly being used in classrooms of all types from grade school through high school, training programs, and many other forms of educational institutions. As a teacher or the operator of an instructional program, you might be wondering how far you can go with classroom instructional videos to teach your students and the answer is, endless! The various different types of classroom instructional videos make it possible to create a wide variety of content for your students to learn and grow from. 

The different types of classroom instructional videos can be used for a variety of purposes. To help you plan out the best types of instructional video content for your classroom, we’ve put together a comprehensive list of the most frequently used types of classroom instructional videos and some details on why you might want to consider each for your classroom.

1. Explainer Videos

Probably the most common of the various types of classroom instructional videos, explainer videos can be used to cover virtually any topic you wish making them incredinly popular for classrooms of all shapes and sizes with students of varied age groups. Students appreciate explainer videos because they make concepts easier to understand, teachers love them because they’re relatively easy to produce, and audiences love them because they feature engaging audio and video which provides several unique touchpoints to learn from.

Not sure how to implement explainer videos into your own classroom? Consider explainer videos to provide insight or instruction on complex topics, ideas, individual instructions for projects, what to do in the classroom, or a variety of other topics. Just make sure that when using explainer videos you’re prepared to cover the topic in about 1-2 minutes, so it cannot be overly complex.

2. Training Videos

Another commonly used type of classroom instructional videos are the training videos. Exactly as they sound, training videos are used to train the audience on how to perform a process or role. Often used in corporate classrooms to train new or existing employees on proper work skills, training videos can be used in other ways, too.

In your classroom, you might use training videos to provide instruction on how to perform a specific task. Training videos are especially useful if you operate a classroom that has remote students as training videos can be used to help students learn things like: how to recognize and report cyberbullying, how to improve specific life skills, or how to achieve virtually any process.

3. Tutorial Videos

Quite similar to training videos, and sometimes even used interchangeably to describe the two, tutorial videos are a type of classroom instructional videos that are used to provide step-by-step instructions on how to achieve various tasks or to perform a specific action. Tutorial videos can be longer than your average explainer video, but like other forms of classroom instructional videos, should generally be under 10 minutes total length.

You might put tutorial videos to use in your classroom to provide students with step-by-step demonstrations or instructions on very complex or potentially time-sensitive processes or procedures. Sometimes called a “how-to” video, tutorials are going to show exactly how to achieve a task with great audio and visual detail that makes the task easier to complete.

4. Micro Videos

Named not so much for their content or outcomes, but for their length, micro videos are part of a form of classroom instructional videos which is focused particularly on making sure that students can actively learn a wide range of topics, by video, in about 10 minutes or less. A concept referred to as microlearning, is essentially means that learning can be engaging and effective, without being overly long and drawn out. 

Thus, micro videos provide microlearning opportunities for students in short bursts. While the actual length of micro videos may vary, they’re generally under one minute total length. These are the type of classroom instructional videos which are used to deliver quick concepts, often through a series of microvideos which can be shared on social media, a website, or any other desired location. Because they’re so short, these videos actually have a lot of uses.

5. Presentation Videos

When your students cannot all be available for the daily instruction that you intend to provide, or in the event in which you cannot manage to get everyone into class together at the same time, presentation videos are an excellent solution. Used to capture your presentations, these types of classroom instructional videos are generally a bit longer than the traditional instructional or training videos. Students are generally more likely to invest more time and more of their attention into watching a presentation than they would with other formats of training content.

Recording presentation videos is generally a good idea if you intend to provide a limited, or complete recap of whatever occurred in your classroom during a previous presentation that took place. These videos can be used to provide instruction on a variety of concepts, topics, or specific details depending on the very unique needs of your classroom. 

AS you can see, the top types of classroom instructional videos can be used for many purposes across classrooms that are teaching students young an old. If you’re a teacher considering these or other videos to complement instruction in your classroom, Beverly Boy Productions can help! With more than two decades of filmmaking experience, and professional film crews spanning all around the nation and the world, finding a Beverly Boy Productions team to help you is just a phone call away!