8 minutes for video and audio output?

Chatting at December's social media for learning in higher education conference - I posited the notion that a video session (such as a periscope). Due to the nature of the medium and the typical attention span of most casual observers - has an optimal duration of 10 minutes.

In a separate conversation with a colleague who is working on their own set of screencast videos and may be commissioned by a well known publishing house to create similar content. From experience, they have ascertained two interesting facts:
  • The publishing house do not want the videos to be longer than 8-10 minutes
  • Looking at their site data (below), the evidence concurs, most viewers switch off by 8 minutes
Separately I am working on some micro-podcasts - intentionally keeping the output below 10 minutes. By similar reasoning to the Periscope ideal.

As educationalists, I think we are often stuck with the broadcast model when creating audio and video content for social media. Going for long - programme length content, When it has to be precise, stick to one concept/skill and have a sensible pace.

If we are to create dynamic curated content - it has to be created in a format that is digestible in smaller portions. These can easily be collated into a longer playlist, yet consumed by an on the go learner on any platform they choose to use.

Video Site Data

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