3 Benefits to Using YouTube in your E-Learning

YouTube is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Well, maybe that's not a good description of YouTube. It's more like the wild west of video. You have to be careful where you go and sometimes you find something completely unexpected.

However, with the right set of instructions and proper organization, YouTube can be a great environment for learning. Content authors can take advantage of many of YouTube's features to easily upload video content, organize it, and distribute it. Of course, not all content may be suitable for public display so you will want to consider the privacy needs of your content before doing so.

Let's look at three benefits to using YouTube as an e-learning distribution tool.

1) YouTube takes your training to the Web

Of course when you post a video to YouTube it is on the web. But it doesn't have to be found only at YouTube's web site. You can integrate it into your own web site or into your web based training. You do this by using YouTube's embed feature and basically cut and paste the video into your HTML code. For example, if you are using the authoring tool Lectora, you can grab the embedding code from YouTube and paste it into an external HTML object.


Learn more at http://www.youtube.com/youtubeonyoursite.

2) YouTube takes your training Mobile

When you upload content to YouTube it becomes available on the YouTube network. This means that mobile apps can play it. Smart phones are more common place than ever and if your learners have access to iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberries they will be able to play your content on the go.


Learn more at http://www.youtube.com/mobile.

3) YouTube takes your training to the Living Room

Wasn't there an Internet TV coming a few years ago. Whatever happened to that? Well, it is finally starting to emerge now. There are many services you can use to stream YouTube directly to your TV using a DVD player, video game system, or other home entertainment device. For example you can use the Nintendo Wii's web browser to bring YouTube to your TV. Also, there is a service called PlayOn you can easily install on a PC to wirelessly stream YouTube (among many other Internet video providers) to a variety of devices including the Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Streaming Internet videos to the home television will be common place within the next year or so as more and more devices are shipping with Internet streaming services pre-installed.


Learn more at http://www.youtube.com/youtubeonyourtv.