1.3: Learning Objectives, Audience and Video Length

WHAT ARE YOUR LEARNING OBJECTIVES?

As you prepare to shoot a video, the first thing you need to do is define your learning objectives.

What is it you want the viewer to do or be able to do as the result of watching your video? What is it you want them to think, understand, be able to do or act on? Describe and refine your learning objectives clearly.

When videotaping, there is a temptation to spend time chasing after everything that moves. You may find yourself wondering who to interview, so you interview everyone. You may be unsure what questions to ask, so you ask everything you can think of. Without clearly defined objectives, you will be distracted by everything. If you submit a lot of disorganized content to eOrganic, eOrganic will not edit your video. Have a plan (and stick to it), so that you collect what you need and nothing more.

Your objective can be as simple as, “To show farmers when and how to harvest lettuce seed”. Or as complex as, “To make people understand how important crop rotation is so they will make a good rotation plan for their farm.”

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

• Always consider your audience throughout the entire planning process.
• Consider audience demographics: age, socioeconomic status, education level, etc.
• Describe up to three 'personas' for your audience. Personas are decriptions of specific individuals who exemplify your target audience. Give the persona a real name and develop a detailed description of him or her so you feel like they are real people and you can better understand what they need from your video.

Example: Betty, 35, grows mixed vegetables on 5 acres in northern Washington State. She is fairly experienced as she has been farming on her farm for 10 years and spent a few years traveling the US and Australia as a WWOOF intern. Her questions about farming generally deal with soil fertility management and weed control as she has a nasty problem with lambsquarters. Betty likes to get her information from other farmers and the Internet. She particularly likes to search YouTube for help with common problems (and for fun). She is also very active on Facebook where she has many other farmer friends from all over the country. She likes to share videos from YouTube on Facebook. etc., etc.

SEE Betty in your mind's eye, and make your video for HER (and your two other, different, personas). What do these farmers NEED from your video? What do you want them to do differently after watching your video? Will your video help them improve their practices? What language would be best to use in the video so that you communicate with these people effectively? Are you using jargon they will not understand?

HOW LONG WILL YOUR VIDEO BE?

• Make your video short and to the point. You want to achieve your learning objectives as efficiently as possible.
• Your first video should be 1-4 minutes
• Avoid the trap of providing too much information