Embedding YouTube videos on your blog

If you know how to copy and paste...
You can embed videos on your blog!

In this post, I am going to explain how to embed a video into your blog post. I mentioned in my post Building Online Training & Kolb's Learning Styles that I like tutorials that have visuals in them to go along with the words, so I will be using the application "Preview" (Mac) to grab screen shots which will serve as the visual component for this post.

Audio Podcast Tutorial Available

To listen to the tutorial right click on the audio icon to open a separate window or tab.

Click To Play

1)

• Go to your Blog's admin area
• Create a new post on your blog

2)

• Add a Title
• Add some text in the main body
• Use Bold on a paragraph title (This will generate some observable HTML code)
  

3)

• Let's take a look at the HTML code that was automatically generated by your blog platform

• To do this click on "Edit HTML" or "Code View" depending on the blog platform you are using

• Notice the HTML code that appears. This may appear strange to you if you have never seen it before
• In order to embed a video on your blog, you will be copying and pasting the video HTML code from YouTube into the code view area of your blog

4)

• Click on this link to go to the CommonCraft video "Blogs in Plain English" posted on YouTube
• You should see a screen that looks something like this

5)

• Scroll down a little until you see the information box about CommonCraft (logo, company website address) on the right side of your screen
• Notice the word "Embed:" at the bottom of the gray box

6)

• Click on the box below the word "Embed:" so that the entire contents are highlighted
• This is the HTML code you are going to embed in your blog
• Make sure the entire box is highlighted and then
• Copy the the code

7)

• Go back to the Code or Edit HTML view on your blog post
• Select an insertion point where you want the YouTube video to appear in your post
• Paste the video HTML code into you blog post
• Warning: Unless you are familiar with HTML, do not delete or alter the code in any way! This would be a bad thing.

• The YouTube video code is highlighted in blue
• Click save
  

8)

• Click on preview
  
• Your screen should look something like this

9)

• In this example, I placed the video below all of the text, but you can place it anywhere you like
• If you want to change the position of the video
• Select the video HTML code
• Use Command X (Mac) or Control X (PC) to Cut the code from the post
• Place an insertion point where you want the video to appear
• Paste the code in the new location

• If you are unsure of which code applies to the video do this
• Go back to the YouTube page where you copied the video code
• Copy the code
• Go to the code view of your post
• Place an insertion point where you want the video to appear
• Paste the code in the new location
• Highlight the code you just pasted
  
• You should now have two sets of video code in your post

• Use the selected code you just added to the post to identify the original video code you want to delete
• When you find the original code you pasted into your post, highlight it and then delete
• Be careful not to delete any code that is not associated with the video HTML code
• Click save

Comments

In constructing this tutorial, I made an assumption that

• The learner has some knowledge about computers and
• The learner has at least some knowledge of their blog platform

This is a basic form of online training. For my style of learning, the combination of words and visuals helps me to follow the instructions and gain proficiency.

The difficult part in creating a tutorial like this is to be able to put myself in the position of a learner who has no idea how to do whatever is being instructed. The tendency for people who either have a basic understanding of the subject matter or an SME is to skip steps that the learner needs to know, because it is easy to assume that they already know them or because we are so immersed in what we are teaching that we don't realize we are leaving out necessary information.

It is highly recommended to have other people go through the training to check for inaccuracies and to make sure that crucial steps haven't been left out. I would also argue that once a review by an SME is conducted that one or more people who have little or no expertise in the subject matter be included in the review to insure that the steps make sense.

Speaking of which, what did you notice about this tutorial?

• Is it clear?
• Easy to follow?
• What recommendations do you have?

Building Online Training & Kolb's Learning Styles

There's a lot of online training being developed these days, but I find most of it is not very engaging. So how do we design online training that stimulates us and holds our attention?

Keeping the basics in mind

To me, one of the basic building blocks of a well designed training program is Kolb's Learning Wheel. Training programs that engage all of the learning styles reach the broadest audience and give learners the best chance of success, because people don't just have one clear-cut learning style. There is usually a close correlation with a second style as well. For example, I am an Active Experimenter (AE) with a close correlation to the Concrete Experience (CE) style.

So, how do the learning styles play out in an online environment?

Disclosure

I am new to Kolb's work and am still trying to get the basic concepts to register in my cranium concretus. Because I am both an AE and CE, I have an innate understanding of these styles. The Reflective Observer (RO) and Abstract Conceptual (AC) styles are a stretch for me to know how to engage. If you, my colleagues, can help me understand how to engage these learners online and off, I would appreciate it.

Based on your technical backgrounds, I would suspect that Michael and Aaron are Abstract Conceptual learners, although Aaron is attending law school and lawyers, in general, tend towards the Reflective Observer style. Do you guys know what your styles are?

Bev, I don't recall from our Principles of Training & Development class what your style is either.

What is effective for learning styles in an online environment?

For me, as an AE to be engaged online, I need to be doing something. For example, if I were to be learning about a new kind of software, it would be beneficial to have either a separate screen for me to actually do the step by step instructions myself or to be able to do the exercises on the same screen as the tutorial. I need to physically do whatever is being taught or I'm not going to learn it very well.

The other thing that keeps me engaged online is a video or screencast that has constantly changing imagery. Michael mentioned his post, Blogging in Plain English, a video done by CommonCraft which is a good example of an engaging video.

A small disclosure here: I'm not sure if this point has to do with learning styles or whether it can be attributed to something else like ADD. In any case this might be good for you to keep in mind as a way to engage the AE's and/or the ADD's. Kind of related to my way of thinking.



Notice how the images are never still for very long.

The online environment is not ideally suited for CE learners. The ability to interact with people is important to these learners. One useful method would be to do the online learning in a classroom setting where the learning could be discussed. This option is not always available when the learning is being done individually in separate locations. This teaching method could be helped by setting up discussion forums where people could interact in real time.

Probably the best solution in situations where a live classroom is not possible would be to have video conferencing set up for Concrete Experience learners. The technology as well as availability, in terms of being economically viable, is not quite there yet, but we're not far off from this possibility.

The Reflective Observers might be served by the fact that they can take the time they need to read and re-read the subject matter as well as write about it. Not sure if this is exactly what these learners need from an online environment.

The Abstract Conceptual learners would definitely have to have the course work set up in a way that is logical and systematic. There is greater flexibility in an online environment to lay out the theoretical framework so that these learners can make sense of what they are doing.

Other thoughts

One thing that is very effective for me as an online learner is when there are visuals that go along with the words. For example, when I need to do something on my shopping cart that I am not familiar with, the tutorials that have screen shots along with the words are the most effective. I need to see the visual aid and the words. Words alone are confusing.

Any thoughts about this post? Let me know in the comments box.

Link to MP3 file

Link to test podcast

Building Online Training course

This is an overview course on using various technologies for creating online training, also known as e-learning.

We will be covering:

• Blogs
• Audio Podcasts
• Video
• Flash
• HTML
• CSS

A good course for understanding the basics of these different technologies.