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Demo and how-to videos

Video is often one of the better formats for demonstrations or for instructing students because it allows you to work around many physical limitations. You can also focus students on the essential parts with simple recording and editing tricks.

Demo and how-to videos often show a progression or process, but the different video types have different focuses and purposes. The video types' content can be digitally reproduced with animations and recorded with a camera or screen recording. These videos can be inserted as part of a longer video or attached separately after one.

The difference between demo and how-to videos

The line between demo and how-to videos can feel blurry as they can both contain explanations and demonstrations. The real difference is the purpose, explained under the following two headings.

Demo videos shows what happens

A demo video focuses on demonstrating what is happening and visualizing the possible outcome or reaction of the given premise. As a rule, the viewers are not expected to perform the act themselves but to participate in its outcome. For example, if you want to show the effect of an event in a laboratory or reproduce the measurement results of a device in a specific condition.

How-to videos describe the execution

A how-to video focuses on how a course or process takes place and also describes the execution itself. The purpose of this video is thus to describe an approach that the viewer should be able to perform on their own. Most often, the process is reproduced step by step with explanatory narration, but it can also be illustrated with the help of graphics and text flags. For example, if you want to show your students how to use a specific calculation model or how to set up and perform a laboratory.

Determine purpose and content

First, you need to decide why you want to record a video and what content will support the purpose of the video. You have probably already started thinking about a layout, so the rest of this page shows how to present it effectively in a video. Remember to Plan your recording using a script .

Clarify the focus of the video

If the students are unsure of what the video is supposed to show, it is easy for them to focus on the wrong thing in the video or not understand what is happening. This creates an unnecessary cognitive burden on the students, hindering their learning. Therefore, you who create the video should direct the students' focus to the essential parts of your video. To focus your students on what is important, you can do the following:

  • Vary the zoom. For example, use close-up to show details and full-frame to give an overview.
  • Emphasize with effects. For example, you can change the colour of the pen, circle a detail in an editing program, pause the image or play it in slow motion and much more.
  • Reduce distractions. The goal is that what you want the students to look at is the most interesting in the frame and that the students are not disturbed by irrelevant sounds.
  • Recite all important events orally. This is called verbalizing, which helps students understand what is being shown and also makes the video accessible to those with low vision.
  • Feel free to supplement simplified explanations or models with complicated or realistic examples.

Take advantage of the possibilities of video

A classroom demonstration or instruction has several physical limitations that a video lacks, for example, how many people can watch simultaneously. This allows you to show your demonstration or instruction in a new way as long as you take advantage of the possibilities of the video format. For example, you can do one of the following:

  • Pause or change the speed of a process while explaining it. For example, you can show fast events in slow-motion.
  • Record from multiple camera angles and switch between them. Then you give a more precise and complete picture than the students would have received if they had been in the room. For example, this can allow you to move more freely in front of the board without blocking the students. You can also show a process from difficult or impossible angles for humans, such as from a drone or inside an engine.
  • View two events in parallel on a split screen. It can be used, for example, to show a close-up of a measuring instrument at the same time as the event it is measuring or to compare two events or an event and a model of the event.

For more advantages and possibilities of video for demo and instructional videos, read the following pages from KTH:

Tip

  • Clear names that communicate the purpose of the video can suffice as introductions to a short demo or how-to video.
  • Please take a look at KTH's sample videos: .