What do you like in a tutorial video?

pcullum

Moderator
I am building a video, just want to know your opinion on what you like in a tutorial video:

Do you like the in-depth, 5 minute or 2 minute video ?

Do you like animations in videos?

Do you rather have someone talking through the process or just have written instructions in the description that you can follow?

Anything else you like/dislike is welcome, please share your honest thoughts to make my videos better.

Thanks in advance.
 

Allenafaith

Member
I prefer a video that shows how to do everything and when the person goes slow and explains everything fully so I can actually understand what to do.
 

pcullum

Moderator
I prefer a video that shows how to do everything and when the person goes slow and explains everything fully so I can actually understand what to do.
which onn do you prefer viewing, a long or short video? or exactly how many minutes do you think a video should have?
 

Argus

Active Member
I think something that has more information is better for this. Some of those videos will skip parts and you can not figure it out easy. More information and more helpful will be the best for the people.
 

Dean

Well-Known Member
I would prefer a more in-depth video over a short one that skips some details. Lots of tutorials out there, especially on Youtube, skip or overlook vital pieces of information leaving the person that is trying to learn. This leaves that person to try to figure out what happened or what didn't happen and why.

In-depth over brief is what I would choose.

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Dean
 
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ProfMike

Active Member
Pcullum,

You hit me right up my alley with this question. I have actually completed a thesis study on this topic many years ago. I was surprised at the responses and the depth of responsive's I received from the students that were polled. But it is good to read through the responsive's that the members have responded with closely correlate to those polls.

Most students were not concerned with the length of the videos as long as all the important aspects of the topic were covered. They wanted good, in-depth information on the topic, they wanted the presenter to speak clearly and explain in detail what was occurring in the videos. One of the most important aspects that were brought up over and over was that the exercises had to work. When I dug deep into this I found that many of the students had attempted to complete video tutorials on line that did not work as they were presented. The presenter left something out or did explain something clearly and that caused the entire exercise not to function correctly.

That may sound silly but if the presenter does not accurately explain the environment that he is developing the tutorial in, and the students environment doe snot match that work space, the lab exercise may not work.

Many of the larger learning sites limit or attempt to limit there video to 5 to 10 minutes per topic. On many topics, especially in programming, web development, web design, etc, that is just not enough time to cover a topic with any degree of completeness. I am not certain if you have seen any on my videos but many of them, especially on the more complex programming topics can run over 30 minutes.

I developed an HTML course that runs over 26 hours, but it is based on a college course I teach and covers everything I cover in that semester. I did the same thing with a Bootstrap course that I wrote for the web. It is over 24 hours of video and covers the semester course on Bootstrap.

I am working on a CMS (Content Management System) course for developing your own CMS and the way the development is going it may be well over 30 hours. And that course will have prerequisites in HTML and CSS that will need to be understood prior to taking the course.

By the way those two long courses on my site are very popular and sell quite well. Of course part of that is that they are priced very well for what you receive.

So it is not about length, it is about content, completeness and accuracy. Cover what needs to be covered, cover it well and make certain to fully explain and demonstrate the process.

Let the complexity of the subject determine the length. Some tutorials may be a few minutes, others may be much longer. You will be able to tell when you hit the right mark by the feedback from your users.
 
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yahm2001

New Member
I love to watch video tutorials where I can learn many things in actual. Its easy for me to follow steps in actual. Those videos are entertaining for me. I like the most in a tutorial videos when it is something realistic and interesting.
 
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