Differences between the written word and online videos for learning

As video has become more popular (as of August 2018, Youtube is a more popular site in the US than Facebook!), some training businesses have pivoted to offer video training courses online to help people learn how to use all sorts of software, including Xero.

While this is helpful if you’re trying to quickly locate a forgotten setting on your computer — this writer constantly googles how to markup a PDF on a Mac, for example — it’s not the best way to explore complex material.

Having said that most people prefer to watch educational videos about how to use complicated software like Xero because they can then replicate what they see on the software and it can be a much faster way to get up to speed.

Written coursework is also important

For as long as there has been formal education, it’s combined both in-person classes and written coursework, in the form of homework or assignments or additional reading. Written coursework ensures students have grasped the key concepts and themes discussed in class, and can show how to use them in real-world (or sometimes academic) settings.

The problem with written course work is that training workbooks are time consuming to write, edit and publish and requires an educator to “design” a course which progresses through a series of tasks starting from beginners and progressing to advanced skills.

Testing requires written material

The more widely a student reads on a subject and completes written homework or assignments, the more they will understand the concepts they’re being taught. This is critical a student to pass written — or even online — examinations and tests. National Bookkeeping’s BAS Agents and bookkeepers have designed courses which use all of the training resources available but to satisfy the needs of students or small businesses on a budget, the video tutorials are available in an online training course format called Learn Express for a much cheaper rate, which includes support by expert tutors.

National Bookkeeping’s online Xero training courses now come with the option of either just video (Learn Express) or video and written coursework (Premium Courses) to ensure students thoroughly grasp the course content. At the end of each module, students are complete an online exam to test their knowledge.

Video Tutorials or Premium Course?

At the top of this post, I wrote that video is a simple way to quickly explain concepts (or jog a person’s memory) so for people who already have a basic knowledge of cloud accounting programs, like Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB, but need a refresher, online training videos will suit their purpose. It’s also good if you want as many skills as possible but don’t want to pay for a premium course. 

If you require more in-depth training — why you perform a particular function in Xero, not just how — you may require both online training videos and written coursework which contains step-by-step exercises which you need to perform to complete.

National Bookkeeping has developed a new “Learn Express” online video training program for people who want to be able to quickly get up to speed using Xero and prefer to learn by watching. Xero Learn Express It’s a subscription based service which you can continue to use as a resource or cancel when you no longer need it. 

If you’d prefer online video training, written workbooks, assessments and certificates, they’re available as Premium Online Training Courses and you can enrol into these for Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB.

Or want to watch some FREE Xero Training Course videos? Then click here.