Videos can be an incredibly powerful educational tool. They demonstrate complex topics in a much more simplified way through visual content. Visual content is, after all, a much more retainable form of content.
As the world has gone digital and most learning is now inclusive of virtual education, the need for educational videos is even more apparent and on the rise. Luckily for us, there are plenty of online video tools that can be used to make educational videos in no time!
Here we will be discussing some of the top video and lecture tools available online that teachers make use of!
What are the Benefits of Using Video in Class?
Here are some of the key benefits of using video in class:
- Video can engage students easily over all types of activities: writing, reading, and listening exercises.
- Students can view videos at any time, and as many times as they need at their convenience to get further assistance with their courses.
- They can simplify all types of subjects, regardless of the complexity.
- Information provided via videos is more retainable.
- Videos are incredibly useful tools for virtual or hybrid learning environments.
- Videos are an affordable educational tool; anyone can make personalised videos for the classroom as long as they have a phone camera or PC at hand.
5 Best Online Video and Lecture Tools for Teaching
Here are some of the top 5 online video and lecture tools teachers can use to create amazing educational videos.
1. Doratoon
Doratoon is a free animated video maker tool that can help you create engaging and entertaining videos from various customizable themes and education templates. Free animation websites such as Doratoon come with animated characters showing facial expressions, perfect for engaging young kids and students. You can add background music, dubbing, and sound effects to deliver information through audio paired with your videos.
You can also upload your own audio recording for dedicated lecture videos or use Doratoon’s AI intelligent dubbing feature that converts text into dubbed voice. What ties it all together is Doratoon’s AI-enabled intelligent software technology to create video with animations. This helps the software anticipate your animation and provides appropriate colours, pencil thickness, and animated effects. In short, Doratoon is your best bet to create video with animations.
2. Animoto
Animoto is a cloud-based video slideshow-making tool that allows you to turn photos, videos, and audio into engaging video presentations. Teachers can create short educational clips, school ads, event recaps, newsletters, and social media posts. Your students can also use the platform to create and share photo essays, student projects, and reports.
What makes Animoto popular is its easy-to-use interface (simply drag and drop the media you need), a wide range of editable templates, stock videos, and photos for you to use. They feature over one million images, videos, and over 3000 music tracks that you can add to your video.
The only downside is that while there is a free version of Animoto, the more complex features are only available on paid versions. The basic free plan will provide you with unlimited free videos (at 720p), 50 music tracks, 3 standard fonts, and unlimited sharing.
3. Vyond
Vyond is an animated video-making tool that allows you to create animated videos for your students. You can use their whiteboard animation features to illustrate concepts better or add their animated characters to make your video more attractive and engaging. Vyond also provides you with charts to display your content more creatively. You can also add your own recorded voiceover to your videos or use their text-to-speech feature to make animated characters deliver the speech.
Vyond is also paid software, although they do provide a 14-day free trial version for you to test out. After that, you can sign up for their essential, premium, professional, or enterprise package, with their essential plan being the most basic starting at $49/month.
4. Soomus
Soomus is a video presentation maker tool that allows you to create high-quality educational videos. It comes loaded with a larger number of templates for you to choose from; you can also import your PowerPoint presentation and overlay it with your webcam lecture footage. You can use their virtual background feature to virtually create a background and add to your webcam footage. If you want to record and share your video presentation, you can also do that with the Soomus presentation recording software.
Moving on to pricing, you can try out the free version of Soomus or get their paid version for extra features (starting from $4.5/month).
5. Biteable
Biteable is a cloud-based video making software that allows you to make video content for teaching. You can use their customizable templates, over 1.8 million stock footage, and images, and an animation library to add visual elements to your videos. It allows you to add transition effects and music to make your videos more entertaining. You can easily edit your videos through their drag and drop timeline interface.
As for pricing, you have two options. You can choose the free plan, which allows for access to 4 million stock images, clips, animations, and premium video clips from Shutterstock, or you can get their paid versions for additional features.
Conclusion
That’s all! As teachers, you understand how important it is to engage your students. Incorporating educational videos into your courses can boost classroom engagement, better impart knowledge to your students, and give them the extra assistance they need to understand concepts from the classroom.
Give these tools a go and create some powerful educational videos for your students today!
