This is a review video: Is it a good how-to training video or not?
This past weekend I had the complex task of replacing the seal on a front-loading washing machine. I consider myself pretty handy, so I did what many people do and turned to YouTube for a how-to video. Now, I’ve written a blog post (Is it a Good How-to Training Video?) about this experience with a review using my VFL rubric. If you want to learn more about the rubric, visit How to Evaluate Learning Videos with a Rubric
Here’s my video review where I breakdown the video:
If you’d like to see Matt’s video over at AppliancePartsPros.com, here’s a link to their YouTube page.
Let’s get to it!
Introduction: Is it a Good How-to Training Video?
So this past weekend I was changing the boots seal on a front-loading washing machine. Essentially, the rubber seal gets really gross inside and you have to replace it or hire somebody to replace it. And so I’m not a repairman by any measure. Pretty handy. And I decided I would do it myself. And I thought this is a perfect opportunity for me to look up a good how-to video and break it down.
So let’s take a look. In this video, we’re gonna show you how to change out the Samsung washer door boot seal. It’s going to be a very easy repair and only takes a few minutes to show you how to do it.
Purpose
This video right out of the gate is gets a ten out of ten on the purpose scale in my rubric.
Why does it get a ten out of ten? It has an easy-to-read title. It was easy to find. It does exactly what it needs to do from an understanding standpoint, meaning I could clearly understand what this video was for, and what it related to, and it was clearly labeled. And in the first 39 seconds, the purpose was laid out, clearly providing a step by step instructions for anyone looking to replace the specific boot seal that I was looking to replace. Well done.
Type of Video
This video gets a ten out of ten on my rubric for the type of video. The name of the video is How to Samsung Door Boot SEAL, followed by the code for the seal. The reason, why I give it a ten out of ten, is because I was able to Google and find it and it has the type of video in the title How to well-done.
Content
This video was awesome at handling the content. I gave this video such a high ranking on accuracy, objectives and value is because Matt from appliance parts pros dot com knows exactly what he’s talking about. Someone put effort into putting a script together and working through in the studio how to make this work. This is incredibly professional. Well done video and I’m impressed. Thumbs up.
Bias
I gave it a four out of five for bias, largely because Matt obviously looks like a white guy and everybody else that I could find on his website in a quick search, not a thorough search, but a quick search seemed to also be white-passing. So, therefore, there’s a little inherent bias and it’s not something to be completely overlooked. It’s important that we find ways to depict people from different backgrounds of different cultures in our videos.
Call to Action
Looking at the call to action in this video. I thought they did a great job of suggesting what to do next. If you need the part. However, a call to action for what needs to be learned next wasn’t present. Now, that’s a tricky tech meeting for me. I realized that because my rubrics are designed to help people make learning videos so that they build upon the skills that they have. So it’s a little bit unfair for me to take a point from Matt and the people at Appliance Pros. AECOM here. However, my rubric is designed for people who are creating instructions for them to go to one place in X in Matt’s case and an appliance pros dot com. I don’t see any reason why this is ineffective. It gets people to go to their website. It gets people to learn how to do the installation on their own and offers them a call to action on where they can go and buy these parts if they want it. So from that standpoint, I’d say they take off a point. But from their business perspective, I’m sure it’s a five out of five.
Story
Let’s take a look at the story part of this video. I would say that there is clearly a beginning, a middle, and an end. Matt sets up what’s going to take place in the video. He lays out what’s going to happen and what things you should do before you get started. And then he lays it out step by step all the way through. However, I would say something that’s missing from the story is clear indicators as to where certain things are being done. Some type of text overlays or things like that, which I’ll get to in a second in the technical. So I took one point off for the story because I felt like there could have been some inherent markers along the way to help us learn a little bit better as we pause and restart the video.
Technical
How to. Samsung Boot does an excellent job from a technical standpoint, the quality in terms of the composition being pleasing to the eye and how they varied their shots. Excellent. Five out of five. The audio is clear, crisp, and flawless. No sounds are made that aren’t required for the actual video. Five out of five the lighting is outstanding. Everything is nicely illuminated.
There are no hot hits on anything, no reflections that make it annoying and distracting and everything is clear and easy to see and in focus. Five out of five for the quality, audio, and lighting of the edit. I took a point or two off because I really would have liked to see some markers throughout that allowed me to pause, maybe even a screen at the beginning that tells me what kind of screwdriver to get, what kind of ratchet I might need, or what kind of tools or wear gloves for goodness sake. Look at all those little cuts. But overall, an excellent video. Technically, they got five out of five on four of the five categories. Well-done.
Looking at this video from AppliancePartsPro.com, I will have to say that it is an effective learning video (and a good how-to video), even though it sort of blurs the line between marketing and learning. It is definitely an effective learning video.
Total Score
Summary
I gave it 85 out of 90 possible points. The total score, remember, is not a pass fail grade. It’s meant to be a tool to help people improve. So the things that I’m giving here in feedback are not a criticism of Matt and the folks over at AppliancePartsPros.com because I want to mark them down but give them things that I think could help make this video an even stronger video for people to learn from in the future.
Well done, guys. Excellent learning video and a Good How-to video!
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