6 Types of Instructional Videos

Instructional videos are the ideal medium for providing employees or students with learning, training, and educational content. More engaging than textbooks, and more visual than emails, videos help viewers learn and retain information in an engaging manner. This makes them exponentially more effective as a training tool, and can also serve as great pieces of evergreen content to boost your digital marketing ROI and attract new potential customers.

Choosing the right type of instructional video to convey your message is almost as important as the message itself. Depending on the information you are trying to present, the right type of instructional video will serve your efforts better than others. Consider the following popular video types to help you better determine what you should use to help you accomplish your goals.

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1) Explainer Videos

As one of the most popular and effective types of instructional videos, explainer videos can cover a wide variety of topics effectively. Put simply, an explainer video is a short, engaging piece that explains or demonstrates a particular product or service. Typically used to provide a visual illustration of product use or how a service might benefit you, explainer videos come in many forms. Motion graphics, live-action, illustrations, and many more styles of explainer videos are all over the Internet.

The animation or live visuals engage the viewer and better explain complex ideas or instructions. They can even explain business concepts or a company’s overall brand philosophy.

2) Micro Videos

These are short videos that provide instruction, information, or explanation about one specific topic. Lasting only about a minute at the most (and usually much less), micro videos convey a message in a simple yet engaging manner, appealing to an audience with short attention spans but a desire to learn about something quickly.

Micro videos are most feasible when you want to present information on a simple topic in a few steps, such as explaining software features. For related topics, you can create a series of micro videos that viewers will happily watch in rapid succession.

3) Training Videos

Training videos are ideally suited for onboarding new employees and introducing new hires to your company culture. They can also teach current employees new workplace skills, such as how to use a new software application. In addition, training videos are frequently used to educate and inform on cybersecurity systems and processes, imperative for the modern business environment.

Whatever style a training video is developed towards, the key is to make the information clear and concise.

Because training videos are typically meant for employees, and not the public, they are usually not published on YouTube or other free video hosting sites. It is beneficial to use a professional video management platform for managing, hosting, and streaming training videos. 

Viostream has advanced audience and security features that enable you to make sure just your team is watching your training videos.

4) Tutorial Videos

Another common type of instructional video, tutorials provide instructions using a series of easy-to-follow steps. These videos are typically longer than explainer videos or micro videos as they cover the subject with more detail.

Tutorials engage the viewer while providing instruction by using live-action demonstrations, voiceovers, animations, annotations, or screenshots and recordings. While usually covering smaller scale or more niche concepts, tutorials can differ from training videos as they are more often associated with public access.

5) Screencasts

Screencasts, or screen recordings, are ideal for showing individuals how to use various software application features. Screencasts can be made fairly easily and are very inexpensive or even free, as they are essentially just a recording of the actions being performed on a computer monitor screen. 

Viosteam also provides a free recorder that you can install as a Chrome widget.

6) Video Presentations

Not everyone can attend or view a lecture or presentation when it is first performed. Video presentations are just recordings of the presentation that can then be viewed at any time in the future by those who need or want to see it but missed the original presentation.

Understandably, these types of instructional videos are typically much longer than any of the videos mentioned above, and usually consist only of an individual giving a presentation on stage, though this depends on what kind of presentation is being viewed.. They require a larger investment of time and attention from viewers, but do serve a valuable instructional purpose.

Thankfully Viostream also helps mitigate the time sink of viewing long form presentations by enabling the user to create Chapters for viewers to easily navigate through.

How Viostream Can Help

Now that you know more about the different types of instructional videos and when to use them, you can get started creating your own.

Viostream is the premier video management platform that's capable of delivering solutions tailored to your organization. We provide the tools and features needed to simplify the video process so you can focus on delivering the most effective lessons. Our enterprise-grade video management platform features robust analytical tools, live streaming, dedicated video portals, and much more. Start your free account today.