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You may be asking yourself: “What is she talking about? Workshop content on Learn is free!” Unfortunately time and high data costs can be exclusionary.
While this may sound reasonable for an introductory video, this should use approximately 160 MB of data.
At an Out-of-Bundle rate, this is approximately 2.5 x minimum wage for domestic workers in a developing economy – and therefore inaccessible by and exclusionary to many users.
Quality
Videos on Learn only offer the ability to turn on High Definition.
There is no option to set the video to a lower quality setting for streaming.
This is an inherent limitation of VideoPress.
Speed
Videos on Learn can only be watched at 0.5, 1, 1.5. and 2 speed.
These speeds tend to be unnatural.
Unfortunately, VideoPress does not currently offer 0.75 and 1.25 speeds, which are more natural.
Proposed Solutions:
Content Guidelines
Instructional videos should be scripted.
Discussion videos (panel discussions) on more complex topics can be very valuable content on Learn.
However, particularly for introductory topics, scripting topics heavily avoids repetition and should help to keep video lengths efficient.
If a contributor would like to submit an unscripted workshop, they should include a compelling motivation in the application why this best serves the interests of Learn users.
Lesson Plans should be submitted for all Workshops.
To ensure that Workshops benefit from input regarding curriculum development and best practices in terms of teaching philosophy, this proposes that a Lesson Plan (in outline form) should exist before workshops are recorded.
This will also facilitate the harmonization of Workshops and Lesson Plans into Courses at a later date.
Chapters
Workshops should be broken down into chapters, with descriptive titles.
Long-format videos are not conducive to meeting the needs of students in particular, as the information contained in workshops is not searchable.
Video is not an ideal format if you would like to review information again at a later date.
This proposes that a “Chapters” widgetWidgetA WordPress Widget is a small block that performs a specific function. You can add these widgets in sidebars also known as widget-ready areas on your web page. WordPress widgets were originally created to provide a simple and easy-to-use way of giving design and structure control of the WordPress theme to the user. is added to workshops on Learn, with time-stamped links.
Subtitles
Subtitles should be submitted at the same time as the Workshop.
Users should not have to watch the video to get access to subtitles.
Subtitles should be viewable on Learn itself (possibly as a custom blockBlockBlock is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.) and should be downloadable.
Subtitles (in the original language) should be required for all scripted videos on Learn.
Subtitles for unscripted videos like panel discussions should be uploaded as soon as practical.
Browser-side Caching
Carefully consider caching behaviours on Learn.
Content on Learn should not change often and the caching periods should be as long as possible, unless a user manually clears their browser cache.
If possible, use version cache busting.
Buffering
Investigate whether the buffering is sufficient for users on slower internet connections.
Download Option
Make it possible for users to download videos directly from Learn.
This is particularly desirable in educational settings, where multiple users may share devices / a copy can be placed on a central network for everyone’s offline viewing.
Licensing
In order to facilitate downloading, sharing and to encourage proper academic habits in relation to citations, prominently include licensing information on the Learn website and preferably in the videos themselves.
Feedback:
We need your input and engagement in order to realize the goals set out above.
