Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) and the Virginia Household Water Quality Program have a charge to educate the public about septic systems and their maintenance, as this is important for health and environmental preservation in Virginia. But they know it’s also important to present the information in a way that is engaging and doesn’t overwhelm their audience.
“Chunking” the information in digestible portions is a strategy you’ve likely heard of in educational contexts. People have a greater capacity to process–and retain–information that is provided in short, well-defined chunks. For this reason, we divided the septic system content into three, approximately 90-second animated videos. Topics were How Do Septic Systems Work?, Septic System Management Tips, and the above video on Septic System Failure. In this way, viewers can understand what a septic system is, how to manage their septic system if they have one, and signs their system might be failing and what to do about it.
Chunking works for various types of content. So, if you have important information to convey but it seems like too much for one video, consider this approach. Chunking your content has the added benefit of enabling people who are looking for one part of the information to get exactly what they need. This specificity will also make your educational videos more searchable.
Please reach out to MiniMatters for your educational video needs. Depending on your content, animated videos may be a great solution, or filmed videos, or even a combination. And MiniMatters can also help you sort through what would be a good “chunks” of content.
