7 Best Practices for Making E-learning Videos

Whether you are in the e-learning space or in charge of producing instructional videos for your workplace, you have likely found it challenging to assess engagement levels in your students.

A teacher can visually see who is falling asleep and who is paying attention. E-learning engagement is entirely dependent on the course itself. The moment a student loses interest, it is hard to pull them back. The answer? Keep e-learners hooked from the very first slide.

Video is one of the most effective formats for retention and recall. Social video reportedly generates more than 10x the shares of image or text content combined. The same principle applies inside an enterprise learning course: video pulls attention better than static slides.

That said, you cannot just drop videos into your e-courses and expect results. You need to record, edit, and structure them in a way that genuinely resonates with your audience. For more on how video fits into the modern learning function, see how videos in learning and development work in practice.

These 7 best practices will make your e-learning videos more effective and engaging.

1. Know your e-learning audience

You may know a lot about the subject you are teaching, but how well do you know your audience? Before you create your video, research your audience demographic, their prior knowledge, experience, skill gaps, and the specific challenges they face while learning.

Gather this through surveys, FAQ forums, and social media. Once the course is live, use built-in analytics to track engagement and refine.

This knowledge helps you set clear objectives for the course and stay concise with your messaging. You can also adjust language, visuals, audio, editing style, and curriculum based on user data, which makes the videos more accessible to your audience.

In the workplace: Pay attention to everyone's learning style

When applying e-learning videos to the workplace, knowing the audience's learning style is just as important. Not every learner will grasp information the same way or stay consistent in their study habits.

The VARK model is the most widely used framework for learning styles. VARK stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading & Writing, and Kinaesthetic. Ask employees how they learn best, or test different formats if you are not sure.

How to apply VARK in e-learning

Visual

Visual learners thrive on graphic descriptions and visual hierarchies. Use diagrams, arrows, charts, or symbols in your slides. Auto-generated subtitles also help this group follow along, since they reinforce the spoken content visually.

Auditory

Auditory learners prefer hearing the information. Video is already a strong fit, but it helps to complement it with group work and presentations. Encourage learners to read sections aloud or discuss them with a team.

Reading & Writing

These learners like worksheets and text-heavy resources. They take notes. Build in active elements like quizzes, assessments, and downloadable summaries to keep them engaged and to confirm their progress.

Kinaesthetic

Kinaesthetic learners want hands-on practice. Assessments work well, but only when paired with examples that show how the skills apply in real workplace scenarios.

Catering content to the right audience and switching it up by learning style is the hardest part of building a course. The rest of the process is easier.

2. Keep e-learning videos short

Research on instructional video engagement consistently finds that viewers spend roughly 4 minutes on average watching an e-learning video. Attention drops off significantly after 6 minutes. If you have a lengthy topic, break the content into multiple shorter videos. Aim for 2 to 4 minutes per video.

Shorter videos also create the feeling of progress. Ten 3-minute videos feel like more accomplishment than one 30-minute video, even though the total content is similar. Finishing the first video sooner keeps learners motivated.

If you have existing long-form recordings, use Vmaker's long-to-short AI to chop them into bite-sized microlearning clips. The AI identifies the strongest segments automatically, so you do not have to re-record from scratch.

In the workplace: Keep training sessions short

A whole day of training is exhausting, even when the content is essential. Start with the basics, then have learners apply the concept in real time. Variety during a training session prevents fatigue.

As a rule, do not schedule more than an hour a day of pure video-based training. A full training day works only if you vary the format. The strongest results come from spreading training across weeks or months rather than cramming it into one block.

3. Offer long-term value

Effective e-learning videos hold their value long after they are created. Some topics will not stay relevant forever, but the content should still serve learners for years. Long-lasting videos build loyal viewership.

Many creators add to the curriculum as new information surfaces. The tactics that beat the Pinterest algorithm this year will not be the same next year. Adding sections or trimming outdated parts maintains credibility.

In the workplace: Focus on programme learning objectives

Employers need to keep the end in mind when planning videos and course structure. If you want a team to change a specific behaviour, state the result you expect to see. Do not assume this is obvious, even when everyone around you says it is.

A common failure mode in workplace training is when the objective gets reduced to ticking a compliance box rather than producing real behaviour change. If a training programme exists only to reduce legal liability, with one annual session and minimal follow-up, it rarely shifts behaviour. The fix is to design training that supports specific outcomes and back it up with reinforcement, peer accountability, and clear escalation paths.

If a programme is not reaching its desired outcome, the issue is usually with the course design or enforcement, not with the employees. Re-recording videos and adjusting the curriculum is usually a more effective response than blaming the audience.

4. Include active elements and cues

The section above on knowing your audience covered visual, auditory, text-based, and hands-on learning elements. The final piece is active elements: anything that keeps the viewer engaged during the video itself.

Keeping a solo learner engaged with video is hard, since there is no real-time interaction. Active elements like polls, quizzes, assignments, and surveys make videos interactive.

Ways to grab the learner's attention:

• Add sharp cutaways, subtitles, GIFs, and animation to keep the video in motion
• Use music and sound effects to reinforce knowledge retention and evoke a response
• Gamify the course by adding rewards or achievements at video completion
• Break up information-heavy sections with interactivity (one element every 2-3 minutes)
• Hire a professional voice actor to inject emotion into narration and dialogue
• Use a quality camera or improve the look of your screen and webcam recordings

Shorter videos prevent boredom, but only if the core content is interesting. Review your videos before publishing and ask honestly: is this entertaining enough to hold attention?

In the workplace: Be clear on the benefits of the course

Casual learners need to know why a video matters. Employees need their learning objectives to align with their jobs. They need to know why they are taking the course, what they will gain, and how it will improve their performance.

Keep the information relevant. If alignment is hard, bring in an industry professional or training specialist to build the rubric for your organisation.

Pairing video creation with a strong corporate learning management system (LMS) helps with the narrative side of course design. The LMS handles assignments, progress tracking, and certifications, while a tool like Vmaker handles the video recording and editing the LMS does not cover. Use the AI video editor to add intros, subtitles, B-rolls, and animations to your raw recordings in one pass.

5. Ask questions to encourage discussion

It may feel pointless to ask your audience a question. You cannot hear them, and you do not know if they will respond. So why bother? Children's show Dora the Explorer uses this tactic constantly because it forces the audience to think about the information they just absorbed.

Questions also encourage viewers to speak out loud, which boosts retention. The shift in tone when asking a question naturally pulls listeners back. Think of a moment when you tuned out during a long meeting. The sudden tonal switch when someone asked a question probably snapped you back in.

In the workplace: Tell a story to establish connection

Dora did something else right: it taught through stories. When Dora asked the audience how to say "backpack" in Spanish, it was because the backpack had a narrative reason to be there. That builds a connection between information and use.

Storytelling in e-learning often follows Freytag's Pyramid: an inciting moment, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. A general narrative running through the course lets the same characters appear in different scenarios, building familiarity and continuity.

Ideally, keep your characters in their workplace or focus on workplace scenarios.

6. Support your video with other materials

Engagement matters most, but accuracy matters too. All fact-based knowledge should be supported by facts. Do not lean on "common sense" alone. Common sense ages poorly and varies wildly across regions and generations.

Approach each topic assuming the learner may not know the answer, but without talking down to them. The middle ground is to state the fact and show the source on screen briefly, then link to your sources in the video description.

Not all sources are credible. Always ask:

• Who is the author? Credible sources are written by people respected in their field.
• How recent is the source? Some content (history) is fine when decades old. Other content (technology, nutrition, regulatory standards) ages out fast.
• What is the author's purpose? Are they biased? Who funds the publication?

The most credible information lives in academic journals and peer-reviewed papers, but not always. Review the authenticity of evidence before you spread it. What you say will shape how people act, feel, and respond.

In the workplace: Be transparent and build trust

Citing sources correctly is one way to build trust with employees. Another is paying attention to hierarchy and team politics when creating courses. Trust is essential if you want a learning environment that promotes collaboration over competition.

Some employees may feel pushed into or out of the learning environment by workplace politics. Employers should build trust through regular communication, by offering feedback on training modules, and by being clear about how the videos will be used.

7. Loosen up and have fun

The e-learning process is serious work, but that does not mean you cannot add personality. Videos are more memorable when unconventional methods, visual styles, or humorous narration are used. Do not skip the fun side.

Add appropriate jokes for your audience. Draw a few visual gags. Give your characters funny names. Puns work, even when people groan. When all else fails, a lively soundtrack lifts the mood.

In the workplace: Get the team involved

If you are making videos for your workplace, ask employees for their input. Some will gladly offer pointers. Others may want to be in the videos themselves. Either way, the content should reflect the actual workplace.

Do not be discouraged if employees prefer not to be on camera. Many people feel awkward about being in a training video (these end up online more often than expected) or do not feel comfortable acting. Hiring professional voice actors or using AI voiceovers is a cleaner path in that case.

Wrapping up

Your e-learning course will benefit from short, concise, well-edited videos.

Video pulls attention faster than text-based courses and adds variety to what you are teaching. That improves the overall learning experience.

With these 7 best practices, you can boost retention and reduce boredom at the same time.

If you want to start recording high-quality video content for your e-learning course, use Vmaker. Record at 4K with no watermark on the free plan. The all-in-one instructional video toolkit covers recording, AI editing, subtitles in 35+ languages, and translation into 100+ languages from a single dashboard.