Interactive design makes for educational videos
The flashMOOCs explain scientific topics in a concise and clear way. Thanks to the consistent interactive nature of the videos, not only are they educational, they are also interesting and inspiring.
Format
The name flashMOOCs stands for concise, quick, and «in a flash» explanatory videos, in which interactive elements are the key design feature. Just like the traditional «Massive Open Online Courses» («MOOCs» for short), they are made available to the general public. But unlike MOOCs, they are shorter, and the navigation features, self-assessments, and further information are integrated into the video itself as interactive elements. This allows viewers to go straight to the content they want and be stimulated directly in the video to engage more deeply with the topic.
Goal
With this series of videos, the University of Bern is providing interesting educational content on socially relevant and current scientific topics. The aim of this is to encourage exchange between university teaching and research on the one hand, and society, business, the economy, and politics on the other. The videos have been deliberately published under the Creative Commons open license to enable interested individuals and institutions to use them further. You are welcome to use this learning material as part of your courses or classes – in an Inverted Classroom, for example.
Software
The interactive elements of flashMOOCs are put into effect using the open source software «H5P – Interactive Video». This involves an interactive video player being added on top of an existing video. Thanks to this open source technology, you too are already in the position to produce something similar. The ILIAS tool "Interactive Video" works similarly, allowing you to make existing or new videos interactive.
Production
The videos are made by the University’s own production team in close collaboration with the experts in the various fields. Right from the start, an effort is made to present the videos so that the teaching element is clear. This ensures that they are not just interesting and factually correct, but are also prepared in a way that promotes learning.