Jadrian Wooten remembers professors instructing him to check out DVD clips from the library when he was an undergrad. Today, as an associate teaching professor of economics at Penn State in University Park, Pennsylvania, Wooten is on the flip side of the camera; he creates his own short educational videos to enhance traditional reading materials and lectures. “Today’s students generally want deeper or more nuanced information from their professors,” he says. “And they like to use video to get foundational information super fast.”

Today’s students generally want deeper or more nuanced information from their professors.

University of Texas at Austin psychology instructor Brooke Miller adds that the internet and YouTube have changed instruction. “We can use short videos to help students who are falling behind—and to give more advanced students the chance to have deeper discussions in class.”

While both agree on the merits of instructional videos, they know how difficult it can be to find “perfect” content—short but not too short, engaging but not gimmicky, and offering the right information with the right level of detail. They also agree that producing original videos can be daunting: It requires competency in videography, sound, graphics, diction, and more. This is why Miller and Wooten recently teamed up with Course Hero, a platform where professionals in higher education share their teaching innovations, inspiration, and practical advice.

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