Video is a hot topic in the eLearning industry. Not because it’s an effective learning medium, because most will tell it isn’t. And not because user generated videos are so popular, because most will tell they aren’t instructionally sound. And not because video cheaper and easier to use than ever before, because many will tell you it isn’t. Video is hot because it’s disrupting everything we thought we knew about using video as a tool for learning. It’s disrupting everything because it’s everywhere!

It’s hard to find any social media site or app that doesn’t allow for simple video publishing. YouTube made self publishing video popular 10 years ago, and now, true to form, the elearning industry is finally coming around to embrace it. But what is it about video now that makes it more popular than before? There probably isn’t one single element, but more of a perfect storm of technologies combining to improve the video production, publishing, and viewing experience.

Mobile Devices for eLearning

Cameras on smartphones quickly became popular. Many image sharing apps like Flickr.com began to pop up supporting the sharing of mobile photography. But the original resolutions were low by today’s standards. And that meant video did not look good at all. But it didn’t take long for resolutions to increase and people began using their mobile devices as their primary picture taking device.

Social Media Learning Apps

Social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, and so many others have quickly taken advantage of video publishing. And the newest social media sensation, Snapchat, is even making it cool to shoot vertical video. I never thought I’d see that day.

Cloud Services Driving eLearning Change

Cloud technologies have come together to connect the final pieces of this tech ecosystem. It’s sort of the glue that holds together and connects Social media platforms with devices. The cloud has disrupted many industries already and it is still in it’s infancy. We are only just beginning to use the cloud to connect everyone and everything.

Online Streaming Disrupting Everything

It’s one thing to record a video and upload it to the cloud via your mobile phone. But live streaming video within an app has taken video to a completely new level. Apps like Periscope, YouNow, Facebook Live, and blab.im make streaming live video quick and easy. They even include chat capabilities or even collaborative streaming.

The eLearning industry has never had these technologies in the hands of users before. It should be completely disrupting our strategies and plans for the future of our training solutions. But somehow we ignore them or discount their importance to learning. We are so busy building SCORM packages that we forget how a simple modular structure to course creation and delivery can utilize video in so many simple ways. Litmos customers are already taking advantage of video and a modular design structure. But soon training departments will have no choice but to change.

I’d like to help make that change less painful. Our industry needs a wake up call. Join me on Fridays 8am PT on blab.im for L&D Talk: Video Friday. Me and my cohost Sam Rogers (@snapsynapse) will be guiding the conversations on how video is being used in Training, Learning and Development. Here’s a sample from today’s session: