The worst thing about online learning is that everything has become a video.

[peacegiverman@mastodon.social]

@sophiarose @Daojoan I’ve found that Firefox’s picture-in-picture mode works really well in cases like this. Usually, it tricks the page that it still has focus, so the video keeps playing, but even if stops, you can resume it with PiP controls.

[mavu@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan but on the plus side: you can use the YouTube "ai" to turn the video into a longer-winded text full of errors!

[jimkennedy@mas.to]

@Daojoan and the first two minutes telling you how "we're gonna jump right into it."

[mark_f_lynch@mastodon.ie]

@Daojoan all compounded by the fact that the vast majority of people uploading instructional videos are *monumentally fucking shit* at instructing. Teaching is a skill, and most people who try to do it just leave you wanting to punch them repeatedly for being so obliviously bad at it

[haverholm@radikal.social]

@Daojoan Very much agree. I'm a visual person, but in the sense that I scan a well organised text much, much faster than a rando with a webcam can explain it.

[sophiarose@hachyderm.io]

@peacegiverman @Daojoan I tried that. The javascript on the site must have been polling focus because a few seconds after restarting playback, it would pause again! At which point it was "right, this is war. I will not be beaten!" Thankfully, it was an unprotected mp4 file, so trivial to feed into vlc

[photo55@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan I like the use of #video as very short clips embedded in a text narrative or instructions, along with still #photographs.
As used by the @bbc in the early days of the Web.
Stills are often best for showing which part is where, video is a good way to see how someone skilled does a particular tricky move, words convey #structuredinformation, and best printed.

[elricofmelnibone@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan I blame the platforms (Coursera, Udemy, etc). They all enable mediocre quality video peddlers to make a fair amount of money.

A course-creation/monetization platform that didn't rely on video would probably be beneficial.

[bubblegumyeti@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan true. I wouldn't mind so much if they didn't pad it out so much with useless ramblings just to stretch the useful bit.

[csstrowbridge@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan

Or if you do find a written tutorial, it's written by AI, so you can't trust it.

[xs4me2@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan

True…

[aoe@berlin.social]

@Daojoan @sashabilton True. But there are exceptions.

[klausman@mas.to]

@Daojoan
Heartily agreed! While _some_ things benefit from video (like "How do you take apart this thing?", though well made photos do the same), most things really don't need a video and bad voice over.

FWIW, there is this script:

https://github.com/obra/Youtube2Webpage

which converts YT videos to a series of screenshots along with the subtitled text. I have not tried it, so I don't know how well it works.

[post_reader@wehavecookies.social]

@Daojoan
Just right, I hate videos personally: it is heavy, breaks keyword search and version control.
What's even worse, I assume we talk about youtube and tiktok/reels videos.

[hc@mastodon.africa]

@Daojoan and you listen to the annoying video that ultimately doesn't deliver

or, if it does, you have try to rewind to relisten to the relevant bit and always rewind too far,

or you try to take a screenshot of the critical part but are not allowed to.

[femore@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan Really annoying
But luckily I have found an exception for coding:
Codecademy

No video, just text and coding exercises. Directly on their platform. You code following the exercise, it corrects you and you can test yourself directly on their platform

I have a love/hate relationship with them: I love the fact that it is practical, no 30 minute video course, but the pace is really slow.
But if you want to tackle a new topic in coding, it's just great

[mjsberna@infosec.exchange]

@Daojoan
But every information is repeated 5 times, to get the 10 minutes video filled up.
With garbage.

[fenixmaster@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan We should just return to minimal text pages. No beautiful design, just straight to the point information.

[tydalforce@mastodon.world]

@Daojoan A guy I now work with documents internal procedures by linking to YT vids. I'm about ready to rewrite all our wiki pages

[nuko147@mastodon.social]

@Daojoan I dont know if is this or that Discord replaced so many forums, that many problem solving answers and learning material is not searchable or will get lost forever.