4 Behaviors That Help College Students Consume Video Content

James Cross says that content consumption has become “like running water.”

He says video plays a big part in that content consumption, especially when it comes to college students’ learning experiences.

“Today things move quickly, content is available everywhere on demand,” says Cross, the director of education for MediaCore. “We’re in a landscape where students have infinite access to content. This is the environment our students have and grew up in. They expect access to content on demand.”

Cross says new behaviors among colleges students are emerging because of their heavy video consumption. He says educators should be mindful of how and why students consume video content, and how video enhances their learning experiences.

“Educators need to be watching students [consume] content,” Cross says. “Students love it and are doing it more and more with key behaviors.”

Cross says today’s college students will typically consume video content through one or more of these four main behaviors:

1) Binge-watching

Cross says 64 percent of people identify themselves as binge-watchers, which means they consume video after video consecutively until they’ve had enough. He says binge-watching can occur among students once they have instant access to content.

“They’re not just binging Netflix, but also learning content,” Cross says. “Once you make learning content available and they have control of it, you’ll see these behaviors [follow with] learning content as well…You want to provide these binge-worthy learning experience, and you want students to want to do this.”

2) Content “snacking”

Cross says this behavior is most preferred by college students because it provides them with “easy to find, bite-sized pieces of content.” He says students can especially “snack” on their mobile devices inside and outside the classroom.
He also says that students are more likely to “snack” on short, to-the-point videos, and tend to lose focus during longer videos.

“The shorter a video is, the more likely students will watch,” Cross says. “Think about the length of content – produce content that is “snackable.” For some colleges, that might mean more moving away from hours-long lectures. Hour-long videos are no longer a good way to present content to students.”