Online Video In Education: The Benefits of Streaming Video for eLearning

Online video is becoming more prevalent in education.

In a report from Covideo, research confirmed that students are increasingly more motivated when teachers incorporated video and live streaming into their classrooms at least once per week. Research conducted by Cisco shows that about two-thirds of teachers agree that video education helps students learn.

At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, online video became essential to keep classes going even when it was unsafe for students to meet in person. Even though COVID-19 restrictions have eased up and in-person classes have resumed, online video in education seems to be here to stay.

In this article, we will explain the connection between video and education. It will also examine why various schools, universities, and eLearning businesses are using video and how they’re using it effectively.

Table of Contents

• The eLearning Explosion: Online Video in Education
• Benefits of Using Online Video in Education
• How to Use Video in Education
• Monetizing Video in Education
• The 10 Best Platforms for Hosting Online Video for Education
• Video and Education Case Study: Gresham College
• Conclusion

The eLearning Explosion: Online Video in Education

Online video can be a highly effective tool for education. It helps students to learn, supports different learning styles, and allows for innovative teaching methods. In one survey, 88% of universities said that they’ve seen evidence that video increases student achievement levels.

Both live and on-demand video play a significant role in both physical and digital classrooms. The use of these types of media creates different experiences and enhances the learning experience.

Benefits of Using Online Video in Education

It’s easy to say that “video is effective,” but it’s more interesting to dive into the specifics. According to one review of the scientific research, some of the main benefits of using online video for education include the following:

• Enhanced “comprehension and retention of information”
• Support for “multi-modal” learning
• Appeals to multiple learning preferences
• Helps students to understand complex information
• Develops digital literacies

Another major benefit of using online video in education is that it can provide a more cost-effective learning solution. Video content can also be repurposed in many ways which are great for a few reasons. Let’s dive a little more into these perks.

Save Money and Boost ROI

Using video can also save money and boost your return on investment (ROI). This is true for governments, non-profits, and businesses, as well.

Since videos can be expensive to produce, this might be a hard one to believe. Between equipment, services, and software, costs add up fast.

This is a misconception that is important to clear up. Video can be used to replace expensive classroom time. Improving student outcomes will result in more grants and federal funding, more sales, more grants. Video training can expand your audience to new markets, even internationally.

Using video for educational purposes can allow you to cut staff time in other areas. Microsoft, for example, cut annual costs of $13.9 million by investing in video eLearning for employees. That’s an ROI of 569% on their initial investment.

Video can also save on simple costs like paper. Yale spent $680,000 in one year on copier paper, and over $1 million on toner. Replace your paper syllabuses with homemade video ads, student vlogs, and lesson tasters.

You’ll save money on printing and you’ll meet your future students where they are: online. They’re more likely to watch a three-minute ad or micro-lesson than to find and flip through a big old prospectus.

We recommend taking a look at Pepperdine’s vlogs and videos for inspiration. They give a behind-the-scenes peek into the lives of their students, including social events, tutorials, and pre-exam cramming.

You can also film your classes and pop them on your Learning Management System with a transcript to eliminate the need for any notes or worksheets.

Content Repurposing

You can use video and live broadcasts to make your courses and modules available for a longer or even permanent time frame. You can choose to film lectures, class discussions, and even tutorials so that staff and students can refer back to the classes later for revision, promotion, or assessment purposes.

Also if you choose to introduce modules taught entirely through video, you can make those modules available to study at any time of the year. This means you can make revenue over the summer holidays with students taking classes from home.

Remote and Virtual Learning is Possible

Another major perk of video streaming for education is that it makes remote and virtual learning possible. Not only is this valuable for emergencies, like pandemics and natural disasters, but it makes education accessible to students no matter where they live. 

For example, a student might want to attend a program in a school in Los Angeles but can’t afford to move from Kansas. Thanks to online video streaming, these students have the opportunity to enroll in online programs that have a lifelike feel.

Video streaming and conferencing make it possible for students to attend remote lectures, participate in classes, and interact with other students, all in real-time.

Virtual learning via online video makes education accessible to more people.

How to Use Video in Education

So how exactly can video be used in education? There are a wide variety of uses, but it all ties into sharing information and connecting with students in a way that is efficient and sustainable.

Here are some of the most common ways to use online video in education:

• eLearning business model: record and sell access to your online-only course.
• Supplementary videos: make additional material available to students online.
• The flipped classroom: swap lectures and classroom time. More details are in the next section.
• Training model: use online video for training & educating employees, customers, partners, etc.

Each of these approaches is being used by thousands of organizations, schools, universities, and businesses right now, and each can be highly effective.

Let’s look in a little more detail at one of these approaches: the flipped classroom.

The Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom is an approach that was pioneered nearly a decade ago. It’s a simple idea: take classroom lectures and record them. Give students access to these videos to watch and study as homework. Then, use classroom time for questions, discussion, group activities, and practice.

The benefits of the flipped classroom can be significant. It allows students to watch lectures at their own pace. Then, they can use class time to benefit from group learning and teacher interactions. 

The fantastic thing about videos is that they appeal to every type of learner. They include images for the visual types, sound for the auditory, and can easily include text and interactivity as well as chapter markers and Q&As.

The best part? There is data t0 back this up. San Jose State University found that when students learned via video lectures at home prior to classroom discussion (in “the flipped classroom”), average scores rose by 10 to 11 points. Studies from the ASEE Society show that video lectures lead to better performance than in-person lectures. That performance becomes even higher when online videos are interactive.

In this way, the flipped classroom is an effective and increasingly popular student-centric approach to learning. To learn more about flipped classrooms, download our dedicated Ebook. 

Monetizing Video in Education

Another innovative approach to eLearning video is the monetization approach. There are countless organizations, businesses, teachers, groups, and individuals using online video eLearning to make money.

With the right video platform, it’s easy to monetize online video to make money on your independent curriculum.

Typically, people use one of three models:

1. Subscriptions: pay a regular fee for access to an updated library of content (think Netflix)
2. Transactions: also known as pay-per-view, viewers pay for access to each piece (or bundle) of content they want to watch.
3. Advertising: using in-video or website ads to monetize the video.

Each of these approaches has pluses and minuses, but to use any of them, you need an online video platform that provides good monetization tools.

The 10 Best Platforms for Hosting Online Video for Education

Now that you understand the benefits of using online video in education and how you can use video content to facilitate your lessons, it is time to review some online video platforms.

We’ve compiled a list of video hosting platforms that provides the tools you need for creating high-quality videos for education.

1. Dacast

Platform Overview:

Dacast offers a dedicated education video solution that supports both live and on-demand video streaming. Our wide range of pricing makes Dacast a great option for both independent educators and large institutions.

Our platform has a Zoom live streaming integration that makes it possible to stream Zoom conference calls to a live audience. This is a valuable tool for teachers that want to stream collaborative lectures.

Dacast also supports multiple monetization methods, including pay-per-view, subscriptions, and ad-based monetization. In addition to video monetization, Dacast supports white-label streaming, batch video uploading, and China video hosting. 

Key Features:

• Multi-user access for team collaboration
• Zoom live streaming integration for real-time conference streaming
• User-facing Expo video galleries 
• Secure streaming (password protected streaming, IP restrictions, geo-restrictions, tokenized access control)
• Unlimited viewers and live channels
• Customizable HTML5 video player
• M3U8 media links for smart TV app building
• SDK for mobile player integration
• Live stream recording
• Multi-bitrate streaming
• Powerful video streaming analytics
• Ad-free streaming
• Secure video paywall

Technical Specs:

• Minimum dimension: none (but 240p is the recommended minimum)
• Maximum dimension: 1080p or 4K (depends on the user’s hardware and internet)
• Video aspect ratio: no restrictions (but 16:9 is the default)
• Max file size: none
• Max video length: none
• Total file storage: 10-1000GB (depends on plan)
• Compatible video formats: MP4 (preferred), MOV, M4V, M2V, AVI, MPG, FLV, WMV, MKV, WEBM, OGV, MXF, ASF, VOB, MT

Pricing:

Pricing for Dacast’s live streaming for education solutions starts at $39/month. Pricing plans include:

• Starter Plan: $39/month; ideal for small schools with 1,000 TB of bandwidth and 50 GB of storage per month
• Event Plan: $63 per month (or $750/year); for educational organizations that would rather not sign a contract and want to purchase bandwidth separately to live stream an event. It offers 6 TB of bandwidth upfront, 50 GB of storage; additional data and storage can be added as needed
• Scale Plan: $188/month (billed annually); includes 24 TB of bandwidth per year, with 1 TB of storage; Scale pricing adds phone support, monetization paywall, an M3U8 online player for live channels, ad insertion, white-label video player, and video API access.

Dacast also offers custom pricing for higher volume streaming.

2. Panopto

Platform Overview:

Panopto is an education video platform that was designed specifically for universities and other large institutions. This platform’s solution includes dedicated software for lecture capture. It also offers integrations for Learning Management Systems (LMSs) which are very valuable for educators.

Overall, Panopto is focused on online video hosting and management. It has powerful tools for video organization, and it is great for creating internal video libraries.

Key Features:

• Integrates with LMSs
• Lecture-capture tools
• Secure streaming
• White-label video player
• API access for customization
• Video and audio content hosting
• Insightful analytics
• Customizable branding for distraction-free streaming
• Asset categorization

Technical Specs:

• Compatible video formats: AVI, MP4, MPG, WMV, MOV, QT, ASF, 3GP, WMA, MP3, M4V
• All other upload guidelines and specs are only available to paying customers.

Pricing:

Panopto recently simplified its pricing packages and includes the following three options:

• Basic: Free
• Pro: $14.99/month
• Enterprise: Please contact Panopto for custom pricing.

For educators, pricing depends on full-time equivalent student pricing. Plans are available starting at 500 users.

3. Kaltura

Platform Overview:

Kaltura is an open-source streaming platform that supports live and on-demand learning. Although Kaltura serves all broadcasters with advanced streaming needs, it is particularly popular among large education institutions.

Since this platform uses an open-source structure, users can integrate different apps and programs to customize the education streaming experience.

Aside from its extensive customizability, Kaltura is known for its powerful video player, secure streaming, and reliable content delivery.

Key Features:

• Totally customizable
• API access for customization 
• Multi-bitrate and adaptive streaming
• Global content delivery 
• Combined CDN approach 
• Bring your own CDN option
• Ticket-based tech support
• Video API access
• Security features, including a range of authentication and encryption options
• Monetization, including all major models (subscription, advertising, PPV streaming)

Technical Specs:

• Recommended dimensions: 180p (320×180) to 1080p (1920×1080)
• Supported aspect ratios: 16:9, 4:3
• Maximum file size: 2 GB
• Maximum video length: Unknown (No limits are published)
• Total file storage: 10 GB to unlimited, depending on the plan
• Accepted video formats: MOV, MP4

Pricing:

Kaltura does not publish pricing on its website. Users can purchase credits to spend on access to features and usage.

4. Brightcove

Platform Overview:

Brightcove is an online video platform that supports cloud encoding, live streaming, and VOD hosting. This platform is known for its highly professional tools that are designed for streaming at an advanced level.

Brightcove typically targets an enterprise audience, but its feature offering is suitable for educational institutions.

Key Features:

• User-facing video portals
• API access for customization 
• Multi-bitrate and adaptive streaming
• Global content delivery
• Different levels of tech support
• Secure streaming
• Monetization options
• Good analytics
• CRM integration

Technical Specs:

• Minimum dimension: Determined by user
• Maximum dimension: Determined by user
• Aspect ratio: No restrictions (since Brightcove uses a responsive player)
• Max file size: No limits on files size
• Max video length: No published limits
• Total file storage: Varies by plan
• Compatible video formats: MP4, MOV, FLV, AVI, WMV, MKV, 3GPP

Pricing:

Brightcove offers several streaming plans but it does not provide specific pricing.

That said, the plans are broken down as follows:

• Starter: includes 50 to 200 videos, up to 100,000 plays, and 2-5 users
• Professional: unlimited videos, 100,000+ plays, and no overages plays, with +10 users
• Enterprise: unlimited videos, 100,000+ plays, and no overages plays, with 10+ users, unlimited upload, and analytics-only users

Interested broadcasters can contact their sales department to receive a quote or sign up for a 30-day free trial.

5. Muvi

Platform Overview:

Muvi is a video streaming platform that offers a dedicated eLearning video solution. Muvi specializes in OTT streaming and offers a wide range of tools for hosting education content.

These tools include video monetization (subscriptions, pay-per-view, and advertisements), API access, white-label streaming, audio hosting, and more. The best part is that it is managed and controlled by a single CMS.

Key Features:

• Live and on-demand video streaming
• White-label streaming
• Brand control and customization
• HTML5 video player
• Video analytics
• Monetization tools 
• Secure video streaming
• Reliable video delivery
• Video CMS
• Cloud transcoding
• Tools for building streaming apps

Technical Specs:

• Minimum dimension: 144p (256 x 144)
• Maximum dimension: 4K (3840  x2160)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9, 4:3
• Max file size: not available
• Max video length: not available
• Total file storage: 1TB, 2TB, 5TB (depending on plan)
• Compatible video formats: MP4, MOV, MKV, FLV, VOB, M4V, AVI, 3GP, MPG

Pricing:

Muvi offers five different pricing plans, including:

• Standard: $399/month (+ $299/month per app + infra fees), allows 2000 concurrent viewers, 1TB each of bandwidth and storage, and API support.
• Professional: at $1,499 per month (+ $499/month per app + infra fees) increases limits further and adds premium support.
• Enterprise: $3,900 per month (+ $499/month per app + infra fees) adds a dedicated server with auto-scaling.
• Ultimate: $8,900/month (+ $499/month per app + infra fees) doubles the bandwidth and storage of the enterprise plan and adds your own CDN and unlimited API calls.
• Black: this is a custom solution and includes everything in the Ultimate plan plus premium services and project management

6. IBM Cloud Video

Platform Overview:

IBM Cloud Video is an online video platform that offers a wide range of tools for education live streaming. This platform offers plans for a wide range of budgets, starting at $99/month.

Some of IBM Cloud Video’s top features for education streaming include content management, global content delivery, automated closed captioning, live polling, and video analytics.

Key Features:

• Powerful video player
• Speech-to-text
• Live polling
• Automatic closed captioning
• Reliable customer support
• Global content delivery
• Tools for enhancing engagement 
• Suited for larger streaming operations

Technical Specs:

• Recommended dimensions: 4K (3840×2160)
• Supported aspect ratios: Unknown (Not published)
• Maximum file size: 4 GB
• Maximum video length: Unknown (No limits are published)
• Total file storage: 1 TB – 5 TB, depending on the plan
• Accepted video formats: MKV, MP4, MOV, FLV, AVI, WMV, MPEG2, H264, H263, MPEG4, VP6, VP8, THEORA, WMV, MP3, AAC-LC, NELLYMOSER, PCM, SPEEX, VORBIS, WMA

Pricing:

IBM pricing plans range from $99 to $999 per month and include the following:

• Silver: $99/month
• Gold: $499/month
• Platinum: $999/month
• Custom: Please contact IBM Cloud video for custom plan pricing

7. Zype

Platform Overview:

Zype is a high-ticket video streaming solution for educational institutions. It is quite expensive, with plans ranging from $500 to $5000 per month, so it is best suited for educational institutions and organizations with significant needs and equally significant budgets.

According to Zype’s website, the platform is capable of “simplified content management,” “seamless subscription management,” and support for launching “your own apps for limitless learning.” These characteristics are all great for streaming for educational purposes.

Key Features:

• Scalable streaming
• Streamlined workflows with CRM integrations
• Video monetization support
• Encoding tools
• App building support
• Bulk video importing 

Technical Specs:

• Dimensions: 1920x1080p (suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Max file size: 100 GB
• Max video length: unavailable
• Total file storage: unavailable
• Compatible video formats: 3GP, AVI, FLV, MP4, MPEG-2, ProRes, M4V, WMV

Pricing:

Zype offers four pricing plans, including:

• Zype X: $500/month
• Network: $2500/month
• Premium: $3500/month
• Enterprise: $5000/month

Zype X offers a free trial. For more information on what sets these plans apart, please refer to the Zype pricing page.

8. VPlayed

Platform Overview:

VPlayed is a streaming platform that is well-suited for education streaming. It supports both live and on-demand video hosting and a slew of professional streaming features.

VPlayed offers a dedicated solution for educators that includes support for some specialized tools. These include lecture capture, flipped classrooms, scheduled live lectures, one-on-one tutoring, and more.

Key Features:

• Live streaming and VOD hosting
• HTML5 video player
• All-device streaming
• Secure streaming
• Encoding and transcoding tools
• Video monetization
• Audio streaming

Technical Specs:

• Minimum dimension: unavailable
• Maximum dimension: no larger than source dimension
• Aspect ratio: 4:3, 16:9 (suggested)
• Max file size: No limits
• Max video length: unavailable
• Total file storage: unavailable
• Compatible video formats: not specified

Pricing:

VPlayed does not publish pricing on its site. Contact the VPlayed sales team for more information.

9. Cincopa

Platform Overview:

If you are looking to host multiple types of media files for your remote education setup, Cinopa may be an option for you. Cincopa is a multimedia hosting platform that is designed for storing and managing video, photo, and audio content.

Cincopa has a dedicated video and media solution for education. Since Cincopa offers pricing plans starting at only $9/month, it is a great option for educational institutions of all sizes.

Key Features:

• Live and on-demand video streaming
• Multimedia hosting
• Lecture recording
• Integrations with LMS and CMS software
• Accessibility tools for closed captioning 
• In-video search
• Adaptive bitrate streaming 
• Powerful content deliver

Technical Specs:

• Minimum dimension: 144p
• Maximum dimension: 4K
• Aspect ratio: 4:3, 16:9
• Max file size: 1, 2, 20GB (depending on the plan)
• Max video length: not available
• Total file storage: 5 videos, 40 videos, unlimited videos (depending on the plan)
• Compatible video formats: AVI, MOV, WMV, MP4, M4A, F4A,  F4B, F4V, F4P, M2TS, MTS, VOB, MKV, RMVB, M1V, QT, DIV, DIVX, DV, 3GP, 3GPP, 3G2, MPG, MPEG, MPE, FLV

Pricing:

Cincopa offers four different pricing plans:

• Startup: $9/month; designed for a team of 1; limited hosting tools
• Plus: $25/month; includes marketing tools (CTAs, email integrations, etc.)
• Corporate: $99/month; advanced broadcasting tools
• Agency/Enterprise: $350/month; advanced broadcasting tools with more flexibility

Please check out Cincopa’s pricing page for a further breakdown of storage and capabilities that come with each plan.

10. Livestream

Platform Overview:

Livestream is a high-end video hosting service that is owned by Vimeo. It supports both live and on-demand video streaming.

This platform offers a dedicated education video solution that includes powerful content management. This solution is equipped with all the tools that educators need, including secure streaming, advanced privacy controls, password protection, white-label streaming, and video monetization.

Livestream also includes access to Vimeo Live API which helps educators customize their streaming experience. 

Key Features:

• Secure video streaming
• Privacy tools
• White-label streaming
• Tools for stimulating engagement
• Insightful video analytics
• Video monetization
• API access for customization
• Easy-to-use video CMS

Technical Specs:

• Recommended dimensions: 720p (1280×720)
• Supported aspect ratios: 16:9, 4:3
• Maximum file size: 3 GB
• Maximum video length: Unknown
• Total file storage: Unknown
• Accepted video formats: MP4 (recommended)

Pricing:

Livestream offers three main pricing plans. These include Vimeo Premium, Vimeo Enterprise, and Vimeo OTT. 

Let’s break them down.

1) Vimeo Premium:

• Premium pricing: $75/month
• Their Premium plan includes both live streaming and VOD support. This plan is the best option for professional broadcasting on this platform.

2) Vimeo Enterprise:

• Enterprise Pricing: Please contact Vimeo for custom pricing information
• The Enterprise plan includes white-label service, monetization, and video API access. It also includes branding control and added security features.

3) Vimeo OTT:

• Starter Pricing: $1/subscriber per month
• Growth Pricing: starting at $500/month
• This OTT-specific pricing package comes with the Vimeo.com relationship. These plans include all the basics for starting your web-based OTT channel, as well as growing your OTT business online.

Video and Education Case Study: Gresham College

Let’s make things a little more concrete and look at a real-world example of how one educational institution is using video.

Gresham College has provided free public talks within the City of London for over 400 years. Founded in 1597, it is London’s oldest Higher Education Institution. Today, the college uses video as a way to extend its reach.

James Franklin, the Communications Manager for Gresham College, says that video is a key part of Gresham’s approach to education in the 21st century.

Franklin says, “Although we are reaching thousands of people in London in our lecture halls each year, we are reaching millions online through our videos. We film our lectures and then release them online for free viewing on our website. For us, our videos are another method of achieving the central aim of the college – the provision of free education.”

The use of online video in education is certainly not limited to Gresham College. According to Jonathon Kelley, Senior Digital Media Specialist for the University of Wisconsin Whitewater, video is effective for their school as well.

Kelley says, “We host thousands of online educational lectures for the UW-Whitewater College of Business and Economics, enabling students from around the world to have access to the same courses they would in person on campus.”

These are just two examples of how universities are using online video to reach a larger audience.

Conclusion

As you can see, a variety of educational institutions and businesses are already using video to effectively reach a larger audience. However, this is fully dependent on the right tools.

Using a powerful video streaming solution is the key element in adding video to your education business. These services host, organize and deliver your content to students. Plus, they may provide tools for video monetization, analytics data, security precautions, and more.

Dacast is a popular video platform in the educational market. We offer an online video education platform with all of the professional features that you need to make your educational video streaming a success.

If you’re interested in giving Dacast a try, we offer a 14-day, risk-free trial. Create an account today to get started, No credit card is required.

GET STARTED FREE

In addition, for regular live streaming tips and exclusive offers, we invite you to join our LinkedIn group.