I think video tutorials can be immensely useful when you are completely new to something. It's very reassuring to see a tool in action used by someone who has at least a basic understanding how to use it.

I'm reminded of some YouTube chemist who explained his frustration that for many chemicals and processes not a single photo exists even though that would be quite useful for people who are trying to repeat a synthesis. Going by whether something looks right is actually quite useful.

[–] Orcocracy@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree that photos can be very useful for visual things, but there is seldom any need for full video for absolutely everything. Video by necessity runs at its own pace, not the pace of the viewer. A reader can speed up, slow down, pause, and repeat merely by thought alone. A viewer needs to fiddle with tiny digital controls to usually quite random time stamps that feel like stabbing in the dark.

[–] chgxvjh@hexbear.net 2 points 1 week ago

Good chance the instructor doesn't know ahead of time what the person learning wants/needs to see

[–] Speaker@hexbear.net 4 points 1 week ago

I only have 70 hours of web access, I'm not wasting them watching an ad for business management software before learning some person's top 10 favorite HTML tags.