Is your video too long? Maybe. But maybe not. 

How to pull off longer-form videos without losing learners—or your point.

The eye-roll is real

You’ve got a great video. It’s honest. It’s powerful. It’s 12 minutes long.

And suddenly, you're hearing the ghost of every instructional designer whisper: “Anything over 7 minutes is basically a sleep aid.”

But here’s some real talk: sometimes longer videos work.
You just need to earn the watch—and design with the brain in mind.

What you’ll walk away with

• When long-form video makes sense (and when it doesn’t)
  
  

• How to structure videos over 7 minutes without losing attention
  
  

• Design strategies that keep adult Learners engaged—even when the runtime ticks up
  
  

• Tips for using storytelling, reflection, and control to make long feel manageable
  

Have you seen The Last of Us? (Keep reading, it all connects, we promise)

Let’s say you’re watching The Last of Us. You’re locked in—Pedro Pascal's face is doing most of the acting, the tension is real, the music swells—and then your phone buzzes. A text. A doom-scroll. The dog barks. You glance away for just a minute.

When you look back? Joel’s crying, someone’s dead, and suddenly they’re in a different city.

That’s how our learners feel when they lose focus, except they’re not on a couch. They’re in a noisy dayroom with people shouting, with COs calling names, someone tapping their foot behind them, and headphones that are janky at best.

So no, zoning out isn’t laziness, it’s survival. And if we want learning to stick, our pacing has to account for it.

What the science says

Cognitive load is real. Even the most motivated brain can tap out fast when emotional bandwidth is thin or distractions spike, which, let’s be honest, are pretty common in a carceral setting (well, in any setting really). Longer videos can work, but only if they’re broken into chunks, emotionally resonant, and leave space to pause, reflect, and breathe (Mayer, 2009; Sweller, 1988).

Here’s what the science says: our brains hold onto information best when it’s delivered in small, meaningful bites, especially if there’s an emotional hook and a moment to process. 

Dump too much at once with no breaks? Working memory overloads. The brain zones out not because it’s lazy, but because it’s overwhelmed. That “I’m done” feeling at the end of a video? It’s a built-in safety switch, not a flaw.

To keep learning active, your video should respect the learner’s focus, feelings, and need to catch their breath—just like a good teacher would.

Longer videos work if they do this

1. Tell a story

Narrative lights up the brain. A 15-20 minute video can work if it’s emotional, personal, and real.

Why it works:
Stories activate the brain’s social and emotional centers (Zak, 2013). They’re sticky. Even better—they're human.

Edovo Edge: If you're featuring someone with lived experience, build in visual breaks, captions, and simple titles to guide the viewer through the story arc.

2. Build in breathing room

A 12-minute video can feel like five… if you chunk the content.

Add:

• Mini recaps: “Let’s pause. Here’s what we’ve covered.”
  
  

• Visual title cards: Signal transitions like “Next: Finding Support After Release”
  
  

• Mid-video reflection prompts: “What would you do in that situation?”
  
  

Why it works:
Chunking and pause points help with working memory, especially for Learners navigating trauma, stress, or low executive function (Bransford et al., 2000).

3. Label it and let them decide

If your video runs long, be honest. Tell the Learner:

“This is one of our longer videos. You can break it into two sittings or watch it straight through.”

Also:

• Show time estimates in the title: “Part 2: What Reentry Really Feels Like (11 mins)”
  
  

• Suggest brain breaks: “Take a stretch break and come back when you’re ready.”
  
  

Why it works:
According to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985), autonomy fuels motivation. Giving Learners the choice to opt in builds trust and reduces overwhelm.

4. Keep the ratio right

While the exact numerical ratio can vary based on context, the guidance suggests something like this:

• 80/20 Rule: Roughly 80% short-form content, 20% long-form—or even more skewed toward short-form, like 90/10.
  
  

This keeps learners engaged and allows flexibility, especially in settings like mobile learning or prison education platforms where attention span, time, or bandwidth may be limited.

TED gets it. So should we.

The magic of a TED Talk isn’t just the message, it’s the rhythm. Great talks don’t rush. They don’t pile on ideas and hope the audience keeps up. They build in natural pauses, preview what’s coming, circle back to key points, and land each idea before moving on. The audience is guided, not tested.

There’s a reason you walk away thinking, “I actually understood that.”  It’s not luck. It’s design.

TED talks cap out around 18 minutes for a reason. Research suggests that this is near the upper limit of sustained attention for a continuous, well-structured narrative. But even within that window, the best speakers don’t treat 18 minutes as one long stretch of uninterrupted explanation. They break it into mental chapters, each with a purpose, a transition, and a clear takeaway.

That’s the part we often miss in educational video.

If professional speakers build in pacing, previews, and memorable takeaways, why would we pack something like conflict resolution into a single clip with no structure, no recap, and no space to process, and hope learners just keep up?

Longer videos can work. But only when they’re designed to support how the brain learns.

When you’re working with a topic that truly needs more time, the goal isn’t to stretch attention; it’s to structure it. That means:

• Signposting what’s coming next so learners know where they are

• Breaking content into clear segments, even within a single video

• Revisiting key ideas instead of introducing them once and moving on
  Building in brief pauses that allow working memory to reset

Think of it less like a lecture and more like a guided walk. Each section should answer one question before opening the next. Each transition should help learners orient themselves again.

This matters even more for adult incarcerated learners, who are often navigating stress, interruptions, and limited cognitive bandwidth. Structure isn’t about dumbing content down, it’s about making it possible to stay with it.

So let’s take a page from the pros.

• Design videos that guide, not overwhelm.

• Build in natural checkpoints.

• Loop back to what matters most.

• Give learners room to process before piling on more.

That’s how longer videos stop feeling heavy and start feeling doable.

TL;DR: Long isn’t bad. Boring is.

• Use long-form video for emotional connection, story, or depth
  
  

• Add recap moments and mid-video pauses for reflection
  
  

• Always chunk, label, and preview when splitting a long-form video into smaller chunks
  
  

• Use longer content when it adds meaning, not just minutes
  
  

And if you wouldn’t sit through it? Learners won’t either.

References

• Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9853
  
  

• Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.
  
  

• Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
  
  

• Zak, P. J. (2013). Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good-storytelling
  
  

• Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.