What Is a Video Book? Video books, one of the newest learning tools, are simple to explain: they are Instructor-Led classes, recorded on video, and split into 5-20 minute chunks so that people can digest the content and watch the videos on a particular task quickly and easily. Video Books Are a Cross Between a "Live" Class and a "How to" Book This online training option allow an individual or business to receive the same type of expert instruction they would receive from an in-person training. The difference is that they can view the video whenever it is most convenient for them, as well as watch the video as many times as they like without having to reschedule an expensive in-house training session a second or third time. Video books also offer users the ability to view the video at their leisure, either on the computer or on portable electronic devices like the Blackberry, iPod, or other smart phones and video mp3 players.

Video Book Websites

These how-to videos tend to be between 5 to 15 minutes in length, and can cover almost every topic that a subscriber is interested at the click of a button. Video book websites continue to update their videos regularly, so more and more video training guides are available on a monthly basis.

Businesses look to video books as a way to train their employees on important topics like software without having to pay the cost of an in-house training, which can be thousands of dollars or more. Individuals look to video books to learn things that they need to know right away, and to receive greater instruction than they do from how-to books and DVDs.

Costs The difference in cost between online video training and expert led classes is huge. Classes with a paid instructor can cost a few thousand dollars per training, and can only be viewed once. But online video libraries provide several more hours of video, unlimited viewing, and cost less than a tenth of a "live" class and about half the cost of an instructional DVD. On LearnItFirst.com, the average video book is about 10 minutes long, and the average video book contains 40 videos or more. A single subscription to a video book website in the LearnItFirst.com network provides users with unlimited viewing of their video manuals, for the cost of a single technical book.

The Video Book Experience

Video books are designed to allow people to receive the video training they need from an unbiased expert that knows how to teach the lesson. While many people may have their doubts about the quality of instruction or how easily they can learn from a video training, rest assured that expert instruction is far more informative than vendor instruction (which is often filled with plugs and self promotion) and online learning has the same learning rates as in-person learning, except that with online learning if you forget something, you can watch the video again and again.