Creating IT literacy educational videos from scratch for a DX society. Supporting knowledge enhancement for a wide range of learners.

Jikei Gakuen Group Co., Ltd. International Education Center VISTA ARTS

(From left to right)<br/>Network Technology Services Department, Technology Services Section
Mr. Hisashi Honma
Mr. Yuki Takada

Improvements

Material Creation

Customer Requests

Dear Honma: At the Jikei Gakuen Group, we have been working on IT literacy education to cultivate basic skills for students and faculty in handling IT and data. Until now, we have primarily organized educational content in booklets, and we have also introduced video materials to complement these booklets.
However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ways of learning and working have changed. In such an environment, we believe that a learning method centered on video materials, which can provide a flexible learning environment, may be more effective than traditional educational methods. By utilizing videos, we believe that learning can be made visually clearer and more effective for a larger audience.

Dear Takada: I learned about your company at the exhibition. I was aware of several companies that could handle content creation, but we had no experience in content production and our concept was not clearly defined. In that context, your ability to flexibly respond while understanding our intentions was very appealing. With other companies, while they excel in system development, it was difficult to get their cooperation for content creation.
Additionally, this project had the theme of "DX (Digital Transformation)," but the perception of DX varies from company to company, and honestly, it was a bit challenging to find a company that has a system in place to accept this new approach.
Mr. Honma: Looking at previous cases, it became clear that initiatives related to DX literacy are being carried out across various industries and sectors. In particular, there are many seminars aimed at general companies. However, since the content we provide is for students and faculty of the Jikei Gakuen Group, the target audience ranges from students who are not well-versed in IT to instructors and staff who already have knowledge. Therefore, if the content is too simple, it feels unsatisfactory, and conversely, if it is too difficult, it can cause confusion. Thus, I was hoping to work with a company that could respond flexibly.

Dear Takada: Initially, we started with content aimed at students, but now it has evolved to target everyone involved with the Jikei Gakuen Group. Jikei Gakuen operates higher education institutions, including vocational schools and professional universities. It covers a wide range of educational fields, providing specialized education in areas such as healthcare, entertainment for aspiring dancers, and animal-related fields.
This includes not only the students of the Jikei Gakuen Group but also the staff working there and the instructors who come to teach.

Dear Takada: Our department is the Network Technology Services Department. Our main tasks involve the management, operation, and construction of ICT solutions and equipment for schools, and we are not a specialized content production department. We started from scratch regarding video production. What we were responsible for was clarifying the difference between IT literacy and DX, and how to proceed with that content.

Mr. Takada: The most challenging part was that the term DX was still not widely understood at that time. We started by understanding "What is DX?" and then thinking about how to create educational content based on that.
Mr. Honma: That's right. The term DX is abstract, and I was unsure about what educational content we should provide. Nevertheless, with your company's support, we were ultimately able to distill it into concrete content.
Mr. Takada: Thanks to your support, we were able to shape the optimal content we were seeking.
--HS: I'm glad we could help.
Mr. Takada: Yes, thank you very much.

Video Production Process

Mr. Takada: In reality, we mainly had one or two video conferences at the beginning, and the rest was done through email exchanges. The team really understood what we wanted to achieve, which was a great help.
When we expressed, "We want to create something like this," we started from scratch. They understood that we were not familiar with video production and that we were trying to create very challenging DX-related content as beginners.
Still, they were able to draw out the optimal content we were looking for, paying attention to the details.
At first, we didn't have a clear number or direction, so we read books on DX and started to identify what we wanted to convey to the students.
After that, we organized the chapters and listed what to teach, which ultimately led to the decision of 30 pieces of content.
Mr. Honma: It wasn't about the number of pieces; rather, while considering the content that should be conveyed to the students, we ended up needing 30 pieces.

Mr. Honma: Yes, for example, by addressing each point of content that says, "If you don't know this, you'll have trouble later," it naturally came together into 30 items.
Mr. Takada: That's right. I remember that there were a few more items at first, but it was finalized after cutting some and adding new ones.

Mr. Honma: We reviewed the storyboard received from your company within the project team and made several revisions based on the supervisor's feedback.
Mr. Takada: I provided a reference video on IT literacy, and after that, I basically left it to your company.
Mr. Honma: I had faith in your company's capabilities, and you actually delivered excellent results. In fact, our team was mainly composed of three people, so it was really helpful that you could respond quickly to our requests.
It was truly appreciated that what we asked for was returned just as we said.
Mr. Takada: Thank you very much for your support.

Customer Feedback from Clients

Mr. Honma: In fact, we received feedback from students and staff regarding "watching at double speed". Initially, we considered shortening the videos, but recently, we realized that there is an increasing trend of watching at double speed with an awareness of time efficiency.
Listening to the feedback we received, I felt a sense of understanding. At first, I thought we should keep the videos short to avoid boredom, but I realized that there is a perspective that aligns with the current times. Discussions about the time-efficient generation and Generation Z often come up on television, and I learned that making videos too short can have the opposite effect. Next time, I feel we need to come up with content that is engaging even if it is short. Additionally, we had staff and instructors review the content, and while some were well-informed, others were less familiar with the material, so I aimed to create content that resonates with everyone. Each person may resonate differently, but overall, I believe we achieved good results.

Dear Takada: One of the reasons we created this video is to avoid increasing the burden on teachers. Teachers working in schools are very busy, so we decided to provide it in the form of a video to avoid putting pressure on their workload.
This video can be viewed by students on their own, and it can also be watched as a class using a projector during homeroom, for example. Jikei Gakuen is a group with a large number of schools, covering a wide range of industries. Therefore, it is difficult to give uniform instructions like "please do this" for specific classes. For this reason, we chose video to allow for flexible responses tailored to each school.

Dear Takada: It is difficult to talk about challenges, but there was one part that confused me.
Regarding the "storyboard," I have encountered the animation industry and video production industry in my work, and I have also seen student projects. However, when I first saw it, it was different from what I had imagined. I had envisioned a format similar to a four-panel comic, but in reality, it was set up with animation timing in PowerPoint. I have also been involved in video production at events, but it took me some time to get used to it at first.