Nowadays, the use of educational videos is an effective way for teachers to enhance students' learning experience. With animated texts, vivid images, audio, and videos combined, teachers can easily introduce the classroom rules to kids, explaining abstract concepts or making presentations through video learning.
So, in this post, I'll show you how to choose a topic that many people might be interested in, plus offering you actionable strategies to create engaging educational videos for YouTube and promo.
[Do you want to create online videos that attract and educate your audience?]
If so, you need to know how to choose the right topics, create engaging flows, and design effective messages for online platforms.
In this post, I will share with you some tips and tricks from Youtube Creator Academy, which is a great resource for anyone who wants to start or grow their own education channel on Youtube. I will also share some of my personal insights and experiences from planning online courses with experts from various fields. ** Note that these tips are not about how to teach well, but how to make popular and high-quality educational videos on Youtube. If you are looking for more detailed guidance on how to design online learning contents based on educational engineering principles, I recommend you check out the guide from Udemy.
Are you curious about what topics people are eager to learn online?
Choosing a topic is the most crucial step in creating online videos. It can make or break your success. Demand is the keyword here. You can have the best message in the world, but if no one cares about your topic, your video will be forgotten. You need to catch people’s attention with the right topic at the right time. Here are some tips on how to find hot topics for your online videos. One, look for topics that are timely and relevant. Some topics are always in high demand because they are related to exams, careers, or skills. If you have expertise and interest in these areas, you can take advantage of these opportunities. Two, connect your topic with social issues or trends. People are more interested in topics that are related to what’s happening in the world. For example, since 2016, many people became more curious about history and politics because of the presidential impeachment and other events. You can see that many channels and programs emerged to explain these topics in an easy and fun way. Some YouTubers even used rap to tell stories. Three, show your process and know-how in your videos. People want to learn from someone who knows how to solve problems and achieve goals. Don’t just tell them facts, but show them how you do things. Videos that demonstrate your process and know-how are more engaging and educational.
Conducting pre-trend research using Google Trends can help you gauge the demand for a particular topic.
Search engines like Google are the quickest way to gather information on people’s interests. With Google Trends, you can easily obtain comparative data on the level of interest in a specific search term and see which aspects of a topic people are most curious about. For instance, if you’re planning to teach video editing, you can use Google Trends to search for the topic and discover which sub-topics are most popular. This information can help you decide which phrases to use and what materials to include in your lessons. Keep in mind that people’s interest in video editing, as well as related topics and cases, may change over time. While personal interpretation of the results may vary, one approach could be to use Google Trends to choose topics such as ‘video editing software’ or ‘Chroma key’.
If you are curious about the educational demand for more professional topics, refer to the materials from Udemy.
Udemy provides analytical data on the global educational demand continuously. Udemy is a representative global education open market. On this platform, the more people buy and sell lectures, the more commissions they can earn, so they systematically provide analytical information and help for educational content creators. If you look at the materials provided by Udemy, most of the lecture topics that are currently in high demand are related to computer programming. You can confirm that coding, excel, web development are topics with a lot of demand.
Communication is more effective in education.
One of the most innovative aspects of YouTube is its ability to facilitate communication. This is also true in the field of education, where lectures that engage in continuous communication with their audience are more popular than those that simply deliver information unilaterally. It’s important to keep in mind that having a large audience interested in your educational content is crucial. The number of subscribers is a key indicator of the success of your content, regardless of other factors. Direct communication doesn’t necessarily mean face-to-face interaction. For example, you could conduct a webinar using features like YouTube Live. Many educational channels that regularly upload content have recently started setting aside time for direct online communication with their audience. When conducting a live session on YouTube, viewers can ask questions through comments and receive immediate responses from the video creator. From an academic perspective, increasing the sense of presence - the feeling of studying with a teacher and peers as if they were right in front of you - is crucial in online education. Direct communication through comments and voice can greatly enhance this sense of presence.
Various ways of communicating
If you feel uncomfortable with webinars or live broadcasts, consider communicating through comments or questions. Live webinars may not be easily accessible for those who experience anxiety when broadcasting. While it’s important to work on overcoming this anxiety in the long term, there are easier ways to communicate in the short term. For example, you could include discussion topics or questions at the end of your videos using end cards, or encourage viewers to ask questions through comments. Choosing a good discussion topic and continuing the conversation through comments can be challenging, but it’s possible to facilitate asynchronous communication by encouraging viewers to comment on the differences between two confusing concepts or to share their thoughts on a topic related to your next content piece.
Please don't just list the information. Provide something of interest.
Incorporating entertainment elements into educational videos can attract a more diverse audience and increase the variety of traffic sources and viewing devices. Some popular YouTube educational videos include science lessons taught through rap, animated lectures, and puppet shows. Educational videos don’t have to follow a traditional lecture format; conducting interviews or inviting guest speakers can also be effective. Adding appropriate graphics and sound effects can help keep the content engaging and prevent it from becoming boring. Using AI avatar is also a way to make educational videos interesting.
