Web based video making tutorial platform | Mandate Swiss Red Cross | Concept Babette Pfander SRC, dubbed perceptions | Realization dubbed perceptions | Course material dubbed perceptions | Videos Stefan Kohler, Hynek Bures | Year 2014

Our pocket camera, our mobile phone (and soon our glasses) are able to record high definition video material. And we do use these tools to share moments with friends and family. A change is taking place: We don't just watch films and videos - more and more of us are making videos as well.

"Why not use video at work?" argues the international cooperation branch of the Swiss Red Cross. Why not have SRC cooperation offices around the world exchange their experience through video. For example on: How to integrate disaster risk reduction strategies into public health projects? How best to monitor project progress? *

Instead of providing continuous video workshops for its employees, the organisation let create the webpage FilmTheField where SRC employees and partners can learn basic video skills in no time! But anyone interested in making videos can use these tutorials.

FilmTheField gives you the necessary tools to start experimenting with video yourself: with your smart phone or your pocket camera! No need for fancy equipment! The focus is on the visitor to feel like picking up his/her smartphone or pocket camera and start experimenting with video and story telling. To achieve this, the tutorial has been designed to be approachable.

The tutorial is published on Wordpress.com, a free blogging service and the video tutorials are shot and edited on an iPad. The underlying message to the audience is: Everything you see here you can do too! Shoot a video with your iPhone, publish it on Youtube, embed it into a Wordpress blog!

Another way to facilitate learning, is to let people chose their way to learn. You don't have to follow the tutorial step by step. You can explore on your own. This is key: It is about exploring - not working off - the course modules!

You want the institution you work with to learn something? Empower your counterpart! Hosting the video course on Wordpress.com makes it easy for the people responsible for the maintenance of the page within the institution to adapt the course when new needs arise. It is like working on a MS Word document. No external graphic designer needs to be hired! This is attractive for knowledge management and institutional learning departments that traditionally do not have IT professionals in their teams.

* If done well, these videos can be used beyond the exchange among experts. They can be used on social media showing the public what challenges development practitioners face in their work. Taking a step beyond the usual "all is perfect"-results videos, towards a dialogue focused interaction with the public. But more on that in another blog post.

Visit the webpage FilmTheField !