Videos: All on One Page or Each on Their Own?

[caroline_foley]

Hi IDs!

My fellow ID,  @jenny_hopf ‌, and I have been going back and forth on design principles regarding videos. On the one side, you can put multiple videos on one page, and, on the other side, each video could get their own page. We see downsides and advantages to each.

From a UX/learning design standpoint, what do you prefer? If you have any articles about this that you like, feel free to mention in your response.

I want to hear your unbiased thoughts so, for the moment, I won't say what we have discussed or what side I'm leaning towards.

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say!

[ericwhitmer]

I would say depending on the topics being discussed, sometimes all the related videos on one page, but then you run into the problem of excessive scrolling on one page. Having the videos on their own page keeps it from excessive scrolling, but then you have the problem of excessive click through. I personally say to mix the two together by and large.

[caroline_foley]

Thanks for your response,  @ericwhitmer ! I definitely agree that it depends and that a mix of the two can be the best course of action. I wonder if you could be more specific about when you choose one over the other.

Looking forward to hearing more!

[ericwhitmer]

It also depends on the size of the embedded videos, the visual size that the end user sees. If it's a small one, then you can put more videos on one page, if it's larger as in the case of using 3rd party hosting video services embedded within Canvas such as Canvas Studio or Kaltura, you can't adjust the display size so you will need to space it out over multiple pages.

[isobel_williams · Accepted solution]

Hi  @caroline_foley ‌

I use the following 

• if only 1 video on a topic  and not much text - use the large option and 1 video on a page
• if more than 1 video on a topic or lots of text/other use the smaller setting but go to a second page if you need to add more than 4 videos.  This is to prevent too much scrolling. 

I think if you need more than 4 videos its probably a couple of topics anyway an should be on a new page anyway!

I recently came across a teacher who had added  5 1/2 hrs of YouTube videos (21 in all) on 1 page  - tooooo much even when they were small format.

Isobel

[caroline_foley]

Thanks,  @isobel_williams ! Love your breakdown of how you determine when to use each option. And 21 videos all on one page?! Yikes!!!

[Shar]

Greetings Caroline,

Great Topic! I know I am biased and never like more than 1 embedded video on a page for a couple of the same reasons folks have already talked about:

• Multiple videos loading on a mobile page can slow down the experience.
  See Best Design for Mobile Users? 
• Bad implementations of multiple videos on the page that is just a long scrolling page of video after video after video without any context or lead in text. Ick!

List(Table) of Videos

If I have to put multiple videos on a page, it ends up being a list so that the videos load in a separate tab full-screen and indicating how long each video is. Sometimes I compile the list in a table because it really is tabular data of Topic - Video - Length (- Transcript) like when we've broken down a hour's lecture into smaller distinct pieces.

Video Collection

Recently though, we had a need to put the English and Spanish subtitle version of the same video on the page. So technically it's the same 1 video, just 2 versions of it. There are a couple of approaches to this scenario that can easily be expanded to have multiple videos:

• Video Carousel
• Video Slideshow

Chunking Content

We have some video heavy courses and IDs in the past have just put each video on it's own page (and very little context  text); too many pages! And then they didn't use module requirements so that users would know where they left off in the module.

I'm in higher ed by the way. I didn't want to recreate that kind of experience for students--especially busy adults who may have certain nights to work on HW and don't need to spend time remembering where they left of in their watching. So I chunk content into topic pages and then have 1 embedded video or activity on the page and the rest of the videos are links with a short sentence blurb. I also find that having too many video pages the work the students have to do gets lost in the list of the module.

We do not have a search feature in our Canvas implementation so trying to remember where you saw what video gets tricky if every video is on it's own page. And keeping all the content related to a topic together makes it easier to go back to just 1 page and look rather than hitting multiple pages again.

External Videos

I should also say that we have a video hosting platform that we use. We like the external URL so that when we need to update the video, we can do it on our end; usually it's to replace with the caption version when our captions come through. We generally do not use the Canvas Insert Media; if instructors end up creating their own video and uploading it, that's on them when they are running their course.

It's been fun thinking about my design choices when it comes to videos on a page, thank-you for the opportunity to put my thoughts on paper.
Cheers - Shar

[caroline_foley]

Thanks, ishar-uw! Sorry for my delayed response. I was off for the holidays (I hope you had a nice holiday season!).

You outlined a lot of the points that I have thought about that have led me to prefer the one video per page (generally) myself. 

[SandraRogers]

Hello Caroline,

I agree with having separate pages for videos, as hosting several on the same page causes loading issues, especially for students with low Internet speeds. However, our institution uses Cidilabs DesignPlus with Canvas, which has an accordion feature to provide all videos on one page. The student selects the title of the video on the accordion and it reveals the embedded video choice without any loading issues since you can only show one at a time. Some of my colleagues prefer to place each video on a separate page. I found your question on this forum because I'm trying to ascertain the best practice. As for UX, the student would see the video in 2 clicks for the accordion vs. 3 clicks for a different page. The accordion feature also allows students to stay on the module page. Whenever we build separate pages, we include a 'back' link for students to return. However, students might get distracted and not return to the module. I'd love the community input on accordion format vs. separate pages.

Sandra

[ddessauer]

The boring answer of “one page, one video” is the safer option.

But I don’t think this has been so strongly demonstrated to make the accordions something you need to avoid at all cost. There’s not a strong enough case for either design pattern to be a clear unquestioned ‘winner’ here.

What is fair to say however, is that whichever you choose, it needs to be applied absolutely consistently. Not just within your unit, but at a course level, so that the LX is ‘level’. 

That said, and having reflected on the above, I do use both - but I use them for different conceptual levels of content:

• the baseline essential content is inline, page by page, one video to the page
• the optional further ‘deep dives’ are hidden in accordions

Because this logic is applied consistently, learners quickly adapt their consumption behaviour to what suits their preferred learning style, and as educator, I don’t need to worry that essential content might be getting missed. Because of the lazy loading of videos inside the accordion I can also see in my student analytics who does and doesn’t open those. 

[vanmatre71]

Hi Caroline,

Similar to Isobel, if it's 1-2 videos and no other resources, large option. If it's 3 or more videos and / or any other resources, I'd use links with an annotated summary of the source, time, and format. Learners can open the items they want, when and how.

We design for their experience, not ours.

Best, 

Matthew