[ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video

2011 got started at .eduGuru by conducting a now, and the results are prepared in multiple formats.

Here’s a look at some of our favorite stuff. For what it’s worth, the full data has WAY more info than we’re covering here, and the summary PDF in the zip file has it presented nicely. We had a nice balance of results, nearly a 50/50 split between private and public schools, and a pretty even split of schools above and below 5,000 students.

enrollment size [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Videoschool type [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed VideoOn the video front, 97% of schools are making video (not surprising). If you aren’t you better get on it, because your competitors absolutely are. On top of it, 80% are doing at least some HD video. Quality matters, and it’s cheap to get in to HD video now. Don’t skimp on it.

using video [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Videousing hd [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video

“Two greatest things about using video are the ability provide rich experiences that can be shared and enjoyed widely and that we have talent — mainly student — who can produce it. Unfortunately, while everyone sees video as a significant tool, we’re not seeing any additional staffing or other resources to adequately meet demand.”

~ Survey Comment

Budgets showed an interesting trend, with over half the respondents either spending nothing, or over $5,000 a year to create video. But, I think it’s important to know that even with now committed dollars, it’s still a world that is open with the right connections. Borrow equipment, use existing student workers to film and edit. It can be done. Though having money certainly helps.

budget [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video

“We are way behind in video production for the web and are currently looking to expand our staff - but for the time being only with a half-time position. Everyone wants more video, but financial support to make it happen has been minimal at best.”

~ Survey Comment

Everyone on your campus should be considered a candidate to be a video producer, not just you. You should help. Be a voice of experience, but be willing to help them and even lean on them to supply you with the goods. It can really help spread out the workload, and might result in some happy, unexpected results. That said, marketing/PR/communications offices account for nearly a full 3/4 of the “control” of the video kingdom keys. In a way that’s good, because they are likely the best equipped to help others. At the same time, a fifth indicated no control, which is a bit scary since it means quality and consistency could be a huge issue.

video producers [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video

“Our social media specialist has been the one who has introduced video across the university. Many faculty and staff are now taking advantage of our HD Flip cams.”

~ Survey Comment

Video doesn’t have to be strictly on demand though. More than a third of schools are also involved in some live streaming. This is popular for timely events, such as graduation.

kinds of video [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed VideoSad, sad sad. We have to do better than this. 65% are not captioning their videos. We gave some options as to the reasons, but ultimately there are no excuses that would mitigate potential lawsuits. We should all be doing at least something to caption some videos. It’s unrealistic for most people to try and do all of it (as indicated by only 10% managing that), but it’s simple to at least do some. Hopefully this improves.

captions [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed VideoThis was just an interesting chance to get a snapshot of iTunesU penetration. Personally, I’m not sure this would hold up over a larger sampling, as anecdotally, I definitely don’t think half of schools I know are on it. But this will also be one to watch, as well as watch how it grows over time.

itunesu [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed VideoHere was a pleasant surprise. Almost a third of schools say they are at least trying out HTML5 video, despite the flux still happening in the spec. This is another one to watch, to see what the growth rate is.

html5 [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed VideoNo surprise, in the world of 3rd party hosts, YouTube wins big. Vimeo, despite accessibility issues, comes in second. Facebook is a fair third, and provides a good tool for injecting video directly into an audience. Livestream services are all pretty small still though.

3rd parties [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video

“Almost all our video goes onto Youtube. Since pretty much every device out there supports Youtube playback, we find it bypasses the HTML5 video challenges at the moment.”

~ Survey Comment

This is just a small sampling of what the full results reveal. In them, we also look at people hosting their own video vs. handing it off to 3rd parties and why. There are additional stats about how much video is made and for what purpose. Plus, tons of great comments that we couldn’t squeeze in here. Some of these stats are also included in my presentation on video strategy given during the.eduGuru Summit, the slides for which are included below. As always, all of , and is licensed under Creative Commons for you to use and build on, if desired.

Head First Video Strategy

Photo credit: cc icon attribution small [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video Some rights reserved by John Pannell

This post was written by:

Director of Web Marketing - who has written 78 posts on .eduGuru

Director of Web Marketingjoined Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS (NOT Pennsylvania, they spell it wrong anyway) inand is currently the Director of Web Marketing.  He is also CTO for the interactive map provider nuCloud. Web development's role in interpersonal communication is a principle focus of his efforts to improve and enhance higher ed web commodities.  He is an active supporter of the dotCMS community, accessibility advocate, freelance consultant, frequent speaker at web events, and general purpose geek who wears many hats.  Read his complete bio.


  • https://innovatehighered.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/links-for-2011-03-23/ links for 2011-03-23 « innovations in higher education -->

    [...] [Results] The State of Higher Ed Video | .eduGuru Guru Post: [ Results ] The State of Higher Ed Video -got started at .eduGuru by conducting a survey on the sta… https://ow.ly/1bTP0h – .eduGuru (eduguru) https://twitter.com/eduguru/status/50596499243016192 (tags: via:packrati.us) [...]

  • https://highered.prblogs.org/2011/03/25/friday-five-random-access-2/ Friday Five: Random access | higher ed marketing -->

    [...] The state of higher ed video. Results from the latest .eduGuru [...]

  • https://www.richerornot.com Fazal Mayar -->

    those are greats stats michael. I like the comparisons with education.

  • Katie -->

    Thank you for the post. Did the survey include any information about the quality of video that is expected by prospective students? It’s interesting that colleges have such small budgets for video. People often want very professional, edited videos, but when it comes to the budget, it’s more cost effective, to do non-edited videos. Is this the right approach? Also, do you have recommendations for cost effective video edting software?

  • https://doteduguru.com/ Director of Web Marketing -->

    We did not look directly at what quality students are after, however the Noel-Levitz E-Expectations data has shown that students want both video we make, and videos students make. Ultimately, it’s about authenticity. It’s okay to have a well produced video, as long as it doesn’t feel like a commercial. Likewise, it’s okay if the quality isn’t great, as long as the content is. There is, of course, a minimum standard that you want to make it relatively watchable and have noise-free audio. Luckily for us, the threshold for “watchable” video has been brought down in the world of YouTube. We are accustomed to amateur video now.

    As for software, stick to Premiere or Final Cut. If you’re only doing short stuff, you can even make After Effects work (it’s much better for just small sections of larger videos though, and isn’t meant to be a full blown editor). There have been some open source editors come and go, but they aren’t nearly as good, and people aren’t normally familiar with them.

  • https://www.youtube.com/isuengineering Travis Ballstadt -->

    I’ve done some basic research here, and it seems that the middle ground for quality is the do not enter zone.

    They’re looking for high quality, HD production. Or they’ll watch video shot on a crummy cel phone, if it is authentic and content they’re interested in.

  • https://csufsatechnologyservices.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/the-state-of-higher-ed-social-media-2011/ The State of Higher Ed Social Media« Student Affairs Technology Services -->

    [...] YouTube data here aligns pretty consistently with recent data we gathered from our State of Higher Ed Video survey. [...]

  • https://www.onside.in/ Rohith -->

    I was just wasting the time by not knowing what I was doing. But your blog helped me a lot. Thank you very much and all the best in future!!