Videos in higher education: making the most of a good thing

There has been a noticeable rise in the use of, and research into, educational videos in tertiary education in the past decade. This is due in no small part to the reduction of expensive barriers to their production and storage, and an increase in access to streaming services that make videos playable anywhere, anytime. Research into educational videos broadly falls into three categories, namely improving video design; investigating platforms and technologies that increase student engagement with videos for a diverse range of learners; and developing pedagogical approaches that take full advantage of the affordances of videos. This article outlines the valuable contributions authors in this and other publications have made to each of these lines of enquiry, and highlights areas in need of further inquiry. Research into the improvement of theory and practice these three focus areas is needed to guide the development educational videos