15 Creative Video Project Ideas for the Classroom

Keeping students engaged and interested during class has become progressively harder in recent times. So, in order to help you get their attention and make learning a fun affair, we’ve come up with these video project ideas you can take advantage of.

Are you still not convinced about the usefulness of incorporating videos in the classroom? Well, educational video production has huge potential, as the resulting pieces are creative and compelling enough to keep viewers engaged while supplementing what students are learning. 

I know it’s not always easy to come up with video ideas for school, though, so here are some of my favorite suggestions for your classroom!

15 Best Video Project Ideas for the classroom

Here are the best video project ideas to implement in your classroom:

• Table of Contents

  1. Make an Instructional Video

• 2. Film a Behind-The-Scenes Video

• 3. Recreate a Moment in History or Impersonate a Historical Figure

• 4. Record Interviews – Video Project Ideas

• 5. Create a Whiteboard Animation

• 6. Record a Meaningful Location or a Special Moment

• 7. Share Practice Records

• 8. Create a News Show – Video Project Ideas

• 9. Create a Video Portfolio

• 10. Promote Your Future University or a Dream Job

• 11. Implement Lessons in Real Life

• 12. Record Your Science Projects

• 13. Make a Video Time Capsule

• 14. Film a Book Report

• 15. Encourage Video Essays

Make an Instructional Video

Making an instructional video isn’t rocket science, but you need to properly understand a topic in order to explain it to others.  Your students will need to find new ways to present the topic, search for the right words to tackle it, and think of any questions the audience may have. That’s why instructional videos are a great way to put to the test how much a student actually understands about a subject.

You can have students record the steps they take in performing a science experiment, completing a task, or even ask them to make an explainer video about a certain topic. This opens up the possibility for them to also share their experiences and reflections about it.

Besides reinforcing the student’s knowledge acquired during class, this video  project idea allows you to assess their level of understanding of the subject. 

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Film a Behind-The-Scenes Video

Group projects are a great way to teach kids something while fostering teamwork and collaboration. As a teacher, you grade the finished work, but how about being able to also see what happens behind the scenes?

Behind-the-scenes is one of teenagers’ most watched types of videos because they’re entertaining and engaging. That’s why this creative video idea can be a great way to make students interested in group projects.

Meanwhile, you get to see who does what, how they decided to divide the workflow, and how they reacted when things worked out—or didn’t. Not only do you get to grade their project, but kids can also reflect on teamwork and how communal efforts look from a distance at the same time.

I bet you didn’t know video project ideas could do so much!

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Recreate a Moment in History or Impersonate a Historical Figure

If you’ve been looking for video project ideas to use in your History classes, this one is perfect for you.

For students, learning about history can be difficult because some of the events that shaped our societies seem too far in the past to relate to them. Recreating key moments in history and transforming them into video storytelling can be a particularly fun way for students to connect more with historical figures and events. 

By experiencing the past, topics are a lot easier to learn! 

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Record Interviews – Video Project Ideas

One of the difficulties kids face nowadays is bonding with others in meaningful ways. 

While it’s true that social media allows us to connect with people from all around the globe, it can also make it harder to see the bonds that tie us to those around us. In order to fix that, having students conduct interviews could be great to strengthen their relationships with their communities.

Among all the video project ideas here, interviews are one of the easiest to produce. You can instruct them to have interviews in person, with both parties sitting next to each other in front of a camera. They can also conduct a virtual one, using a video call program to record a long-distance meeting.

The benefit of this project video is that it teaches students to reach out to people around them and to listen to what they have to say— instead of just reading it online!

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Create a Whiteboard Animation

Whiteboard animations, also known as doodle videos, are a creative and engaging way to tackle a highly complex topic while making it entertaining and easy to understand.

Making this type of drawn animation is quite straightforward. Students just have to set up their camera on a tripod or something that’ll keep it stable. Then, they have to aim the focus at a whiteboard, hit “record,” and start drawing. Once they’ve finished, they’ll need to use video editing tools to speed it up and add a voice-over. It’s not an issue if they don’t know how to make an animation because the style is pretty simple and doesn’t need to be perfect.

What makes this a great video idea for school is that it teaches students about patience and attention to detail, as you only see the result of your hard work at the end of it when you review your video. Whiteboard animation is also a great way to bring out the kids’ creative skills!

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(Example created by the explainer video company Yum Yum Videos.)

Record a Meaningful Location or a Special Moment

When students visit a particular location, whether on a field trip or on vacation, you can ask them to share their experiences with others by filming and narrating them as they go. Their project videos can also be themed around festivals, cultural concepts, and special activities too. It’d be as if they were making a promo video about them to invite people to join!

You can have the kids give a tour of their schools, for example. They can highlight their favorite classes, film where they eat lunch, and explain the best part of their days. With a video editor app, it’s easy to put all of these scenes together to make a compelling and entertaining video.

What makes this one of the best video project ideas is that it encourages students to share their favorite places and moments in video. They’re probably already making social media content about them, so why not do it for school too?  Some years ahead, they can review all this footage and remember the good times they had!

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Share Practice Records

Learning a language, cooking, playing an instrument, or doing sports requires constant practice. If you’re looking for a way to encourage kids to learn new skills, this project video could be ideal.

You can ask them to record themselves learning to play an instrument or speaking a new language. It’s important for kids nowadays to have hobbies and activities that help them grow and connect with other people. And a great way to encourage them to continue developing their skills is for them to actually see their progress and learn from their own training videos.

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Create a News Show – Video Project Ideas

Having kids create a news show can be a way to motivate them to stay up-to-date with what’s happening in the world or their communities while also teaching them about the importance of checking your sources of information before sharing a message.

You don’t need to be a video marketing agency to create a news show with your students. If you do want to up your game, you can use a green screen— but even without it, you’ll probably get great results from your students.

You can give them a list of sites to check the data before recording their project videos, or you can tell them to look for that information in at least five different places. Whatever you choose, you’ll definitely have fun seeing the results of their investigation!

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Create a Video Portfolio

Students can begin to plan for their future by creating a portfolio that showcases their unique skills and interests. In the project video, they can highlight their key skills while sharing their personalities.

Nowadays, many job-hunting sites encourage people to film themselves. The ability to stay in front of a camera and be confident in your skills is a really valuable asset for the future.

Video project ideas like these, where you encourage students to talk about themselves in front of a camera, allow you to teach kids the importance of knowing their strengths and being confident enough in themselves to share them.

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Promote Your Future University or a Dream Job

Choosing a university and a future job are critical life-changing decisions that teenagers make at a young age. To best guide their decisions, proper research is essential.

So, have your students make a promotion video for their future university or dream job. Encourage them to properly investigate the topic and write a script. On it, they’ll have to describe the benefits, strong aspects, and how it aligns with their life goals.

This video project idea can be a creative way to make planning your future more fun and interesting. Moreover, your students will be able to make a solid decision after properly assessing all their options.

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Implement Lessons in Real Life

If you’re a math or science teacher, you’ve probably heard this more than once: “When will we use this in real life?” Students can have a hard time coming up with scenarios where the abstract concepts they learn in school are useful in concrete situations, so making them apply what they learn to real life can be an awesome video idea for school.

Give them a list of experiments to try out at home —or have them think of relevant situations on their own— and ask them to record the process, explaining why and how the concepts and theories they went over during class can be applied in the experiment.

If your students don’t have the proper place or materials to showcase the applications, stock footage they can edit and analyze on their own will work just as well.

Record Your Science Projects

As you teach your students the scientific method through different experiments and lectures, there’s no better video project idea than having them film a video detailing every step of a science assignment. This would complement—or even replace—the traditional written report they should hand in.

You can do this with the projects you tackle during class or even with the ones you send as homework. However, I suggest you choose this video idea for group projects, as someone will need to hold the phone while another student carries out the experiment!

Make a Video Time Capsule

An awesome video project idea for freshmen students is to ask them to make a time capsule —but with a twist! Instead of collecting physical objects and mementos, have them record a video as a time capsule.

In addition to the traditional elements found in a time capsule, making a video gives them the opportunity to include interviews with loved ones, funny moments with their friends, scenes from their favorite movies, and any other audiovisual piece of media they want to keep for posterity.

After several years have passed, this creative video idea serves as a keepsake of where they started their journey, a visual memory they can look back upon after they go off to college and into adulthood!

Film a Book Report

A great way to innovate how students carry out the most traditional classroom tasks is to ask them to transform these assignments into a video project idea.

In the case of book reports, the benefit is twofold: not only will your students get to complete their homework in a more fun and engaging way, but you also ensure they actually read the assigned book. After all, a written report can easily be copied and pasted, but having to talk about the book in question is a much more difficult challenge when you’ve only looked up the plot online.

If you want to take it up a notch, or your students are too shy to speak in front of the camera, you can ask them to film this creative video idea in the form of an animated piece.

Encourage Video Essays

The final video project idea for today may be the most versatile since it works for virtually any subject: instead of asking students to hand in written essays, let them record a video essay instead.

This idea works even better if you let students choose the topic themselves, resulting in a wide variety of pieces about their favorite interests and hobbies. Additionally, they’ll enjoy completing the assignment even more than if the topic was established beforehand.

Adding text, images, and other elements to their essay can make the final result an authentic reflection of their personality, and not just another school task they (and you) will forget about in a few months.

How Long Should a Video Project Be?

The length of any video project is determined by the type of video your students will make, so there’s no single answer to this question.

A news show or practice record might be around 5 minutes long, and it’ll be plenty of time for your students to achieve their goals. On the other hand, projects like interviews or video essays might require at least 10 minutes since the subject matter is meant to be explored in depth.

Of course, in addition to how long it’ll take for kids to make the video, you have to consider how much time you will need to watch and grade every single one.

I recommend you give them a minimum and maximum time frame instead of a set number of minutes, so they can work on their video with a bit of freedom —while you ensure you’ll have enough time to go through them after all is done.

About Yum Yum Videos’ Background in the Education Industry

As an educational video production company, we here at Yum Yum Videos have been lucky enough to participate in several different video projects for universities, schools, and businesses in the educational industry over the years.

With over a decade of experience to back us up, our passionate team is prepared to tackle any challenge you might be facing! Moreover, our content is tailored to meet all your needs, ensuring the final result captures your viewers’ attention and achieves the desired results.

If this sounds interesting, here’s an example of our work in the education industry:

But that’s not all, there are several aspects we belive makes us stand out from other companies:

• We involve our clients in every step of the production journey. We want you and your input to be a part of the whole process, so you can tell us exactly what you want, how you want it, and whether or not we’re achieving your end goal.

• There are no hidden fees. You’ll always know upfront how much your video will cost and why, because we’re committed to being 100% transparent and honest with your budget.

• We have well-defined phases. Our process has been refined to be as smooth as possible, so you’ll always know which stage our work is at! We’ll never miss a deadline, even with our numerous quality control checks along the way.

• We’re professionals. We’re not just a video production company; we know exactly why educational videos work, and also how they should be done to achieve all learning goals. This is true for all industries we specialize in: we know their idiosyncrasies and special features, so we’re able to tackle production with all the necessary information to make an amazing final product that works.

If you want a similar video, don’t hesitate to contact us with any doubts or specific questions you might have! We’ll be happy to hear from you.

Wrapping up

As generations change, the way they access education and the methods they use to learn change with them. New forms of studying are constantly appearing, like e-learning videos.

Videos have proven to be an effective means for students because they are more attractive to them, which makes them effective in keeping their attention. In these video project ideas, you can find new strategies to entertain your students and connect with them while also teaching them valuable life lessons.

Plus, grading will definitely be more fun!