Video learning is gradually establishing itself in higher education. New ways of delivering courses are emerging, along with ever more innovative features. At the same time, new questions arise: how can we make our educational videos truly engaging and keep students' attention?

In this article, I’ll share 5 key trends to follow if you want to take your educational videos to the next level! Shall we take a look together?

1 - Subtitles and automatic transcription 

We’re kicking off this top 5 with one of the must-have tools to implement ASAP: automatic subtitling. This feature is nothing short of a game-changer for online courses! The possibility to access content without worrying about language barriers makes it a real breakthrough, doesn’t it? After all, if every teacher had access to such a tool, online learning could truly become a cornerstone when it comes to inclusion in education. It is a major asset for accessibility, enabling non-native speakers and students with hearing impairments to follow courses in the best possible conditions.

Yes, we just talked about automatic subtitling, but we shouldn’t forget the all-important automatic transcription, which makes it much easier for students to engage with course content (no matter if they have a disability or not!). Likewise, for students who have to study in noisy environments, or when the audio quality of the video isn’t the best, transcription makes for a more than appropriate solution.

According to Prosperity, by 2028, one billion learners will be taking online courses worldwide. For all these potential new students, it becomes essential to offer optimal access to educational resources, and what better place to start than with automatic subtitles?

2 – Enrichment through AI

Let’s continue our exploration with a feature that’s the latest hot topic! For the past few years, “AI” has been the number one topic of discussion, and for good reason. This tool seems to keep pushing the boundaries of its capacities. But how does it show in the world of online learning? Artificial intelligence is already making its mark in education, sparking conversations about best practices in order to save time without sacrificing creativity or critical thinking—both for teachers and students.

And in the world of video learning, it’s truly a game-changer! AI can, for example, help teachers improve their performance when recording themselves by providing feedback and concrete suggestions to make their videos clearer and more effective. Having a virtual assistant that can offer constructive input allows educators to improve faster and create content that better suits their learners while also suggesting improvements they might not have considered on their own.

On the other hand (as it is the case with the video platform Nudgis by UbiCast, which now integrates Aristote AI developed by Centrale Supélec), artificial intelligence can enrich educational videos by making them interactive in just one click! No more tearing your hair out trying to find extra resources to boost your video’s value; with AI, you save precious time: generating a title, a description, quizzes to assess student understanding, or even keywords to improve video searchability on your platform… everything is designed to make your daily work easier! Saying these elements are crucial in order to make a video easier to digest without adding extra workload is an understatement! AI is, in that sense, both a major time-saver for teachers and a powerful ally for students.

Looking ahead, future improvements could take things even further by suggesting personalised content or video segments tailored to each learner based on their quiz responses, therefore offering a unique learning experience designed just for them.

In short, when used wisely, AI can be a powerful asset to enhance and energise video-based teaching!

3 – Short video lessons

It’s a fact: students’ attention spans tend to melt away overnight… So unsurprisingly, a two-hour lecture format isn’t always the best way to ensure strong retention of key information.

Thankfully, video is here to help, and many institutions that have replaced traditional lectures with pre-recorded theoretical videos to be watched at home before in-person practical sessions have already seen the benefits. If you’re on board with video too, why not give short-format lessons a try?

Why is it essential? Because we can notice a widespread shift toward increasingly shorter video formats, they have already become the backbone of platforms like TikTok and Instagram. If there’s one piece of advice we can give you, it is to follow that trend; if you’re trying to win over this new generation, you’ve got everything to gain from it! 

Short videos not only help keep students' attention longer, but they also force you to sort out the information and focus on what really matters: the key concepts of your course. With video lessons lasting no more than 10/15 minutes, you can break your lessons into more digestible segments, aligned with students' attention spans. Interested in trying it out? Download our free practical guide to learn how to script your own effective learning capsules 👇

And on top of that, short video lessons make life easier for students juggling classes and part-time jobs. They’re especially convenient because they fit more easily into busy schedules. After a long day of work, watching a quick video requires far less time and energy than sitting through a two-hour lecture. Choosing a short format also shows you care about your learners’ real-world constraints and help provide them with better learning conditions.

4 – Gamification

Let’s move on to the fourth trend in this list: gamification!

But what exactly is gamification? Gamification involves making your teaching more engaging by incorporating mechanics from video games (reward systems, points, challenges…). Given how popular gaming is today, many students would pick a round of Mario Kart over a study session without a doubt. So how do you manage to spark their interest in your lessons? That’s where gamification comes in: it makes learning more fun and shows that you, as a teacher, are adapting to your students’ habits by offering content that resonates with them.

And in our opinion, it's even easier to implement in video learning!
Have you ever used tools like Wooclap or Kahoot? Well, those platforms are perfect examples of gamification! Using quizzes to reinforce specific points from a lesson is a great way to facilitate learning without making it feel too formal or rigid. And now, you can even ask AI to generate quizzes for you in order to save time (especially with Aristote, the AI integrated into our solutions!). 
And for your most dedicated learners, don’t hesitate to introduce a virtual reward system like trophies or leaderboards to create a healthy competitive atmosphere. 

Another idea: why not create interactive videos? You know, those videos where you’re asked to make choices between two scenarios in order to influence the storyline? Depending on the viewer’s decisions, the outcome is never the same! Well this model can totally be applied to educational videos! 

In short, gamification is an excellent way to engage students while fostering both healthy competition and collaboration to reach learning goals.

5 – Dubbing

We've already reached the fifth and final point of this list (it went by so fast!).

So let’s get to the heart of the matter: what is dubbing? 
Even though the term sounds unfamiliar, chances are you’ve already experienced it without realising. Dubbing is really all about replacing the original audio track of a video (movie, series, video game, etc.) with a new audio track in another language. Voice actors record new lines in their own language, syncing them as closely as possible to the lip movements of the original actors on screen. 

The main strength of dubbing? Inclusivity! Just like subtitles, dubbing allows international audiences to access a wide variety of content. But then, what makes dubbing different from subtitles? Well, it’s simply more immersive! Watching a movie in french with subtitles for instance, demands a higher cognitive load: you have to read and watch the scenes at the same time while trying to ignore the audio in the language you don’t understand. You need to make an extra effort, which makes it harder to fully dive into the story. And that’s exactly where dubbing has the upper hand. By eliminating the need to read or focus on a foreign language, the viewer can more easily engage   themselves in the experience.

While dubbing is still mostly reserved for big-budget films for now, things could soon change with the rise of artificial intelligence. It is already possible to ask an AI to dub a video (you may have already seen this on YouTube), and even though the technology still has some room for improvement, it holds great promise for the future.

Conclusion

And that’s a wrap on our top trends! We hope it helped bring some clarity to the five video learning innovations that are already shaping higher education and that, we know for sure, will soon become essentials! 

The future of higher education undeniably lies in the smart and creative integration of video. From intelligent subtitling to engaging gamification, the power of AI, the efficiency of short video lessons, and the linguistic immersion offered by dubbing, these innovations provide powerful tools to make your video lessons more accessible, engaging, and tailored to your students’ needs. So, what are you waiting for? Give these new approaches a try!