8 Ways To Create Educational Content On TikTok

Educational content is not typically the first thing social media users search for when they open TikTok. However, it is one of the most compelling TikTok concepts in 2023. If you’re an educator or just like sharing incredible facts, you’ll be happy to know that educational content is consistently gaining traction on TikTok. From debating scientific theories to dishing out bite-sized history lessons, you can use TikTok’s viral potential to educate and entertain.

The following tips will help you get started:

1. Establish Your Audience

TikTok mainly caters to a younger audience, namely Gen Z, but that doesn’t mean you won’t find followers interested in learning something new. If you aim to promote educational videos to Gen Z, you need to create visuals to attract this demographic to your profile.

And, while you’re at it, your videos should never be preachy or condescending. Instead, they should be fun and easily accessible, even if you’re trying to ignite a debate about a heated topic like the Flat Earth theory or the reasons for World War I. The goal is to have fun discussing different theories and encourage healthy discourse, not to make people fight online.

You can use humor, memes, and other relatable scenarios to keep the mood light and prevent conversations from heating up.

2. Embrace TikTok’s Video Format

Videos recorded on the TikTok app typically last between 15 to 60 seconds long. So, the topics you discuss in them should be brief but interesting enough to keep your audience engaged. If you settle on a historical debate or a question about the Holocaust, for instance, the video should be lengthy and relevant enough to spark a conversation.

On the flip side, if you’re trying to make educational fact-based videos, you should try and find lesser-known facts and stories. Use the crux of these stories as the basis for your videos. For example, you could start with one startling sentence: “Napoleon was once attacked by bunnies.” Or “The shortest war lasted only 38 minutes.” That would be enough to get your followers interested in the rest of the story.

For this part, you can upload externally recorded videos up to 10 minutes long.

3. Use Trends to Make Educational Videos More Interesting

If you’re an educator who wants to simplify complex subjects, you can do it using trends or challenges. Say you want to illustrate a scientific principle or experiment. You can find a simplified version and challenge your followers to try it out for themselves (think potato-powered clock and the like). You can even use trending songs and sounds as the backdrop for a historical event explanation. Doing this makes the information easier to listen to or read and may even make it easier to remember.

Challenges also tie in with interactive tutorials, another way to make educational topics more interesting. If you’re teaching a skill or method, you can create a step-by-step guide or real-time tutorial that viewers can follow. This type of educational video works exceptionally well for teaching skills like painting or drawing. Some of the best-performing tutorial art videos on TikTok allow followers to paint along with the creator by demonstrating one technique per video.

If you’re an artist who wants to share your craft on TikTok, you can also alternate between tutorials and art hack videos.

4. Collaborate With Other Creators

As you can see, there is just about nothing you can’t teach people on TikTok. And if you want to expand your reach on the platform to educate even more followers about your chosen topic, other creators can help you do it.

Partnering with other creators on TikTok will allow your audience to see your information from another perspective. For instance, if you make videos about scientific principles, you could collaborate with a science Tiktoker to help explain the chemistry behind everyday phenomena.

5. Mix In a Few Hashtags

The #LearnOnTikTok hashtag is becoming more popular as educational content creators use it to promote their videos. You can use this hashtag for any content video, whether scientific, historical, or nature- or society-related. The hashtag has more than 7 billion views on TikTok, which means the algorithm elevates content that contains it.

You can use the hashtag alone or add a handful of trending hashtags to reach new audiences.

6. Get With the Times

To ensure your videos are always relevant, you must keep up with trending formats on TikTok. For instance, if the latest trend is hip-hop sounds while someone sings historical facts, you should create your own version. If your audience prefers videos with a funny narrator, go with that.

Success on TikTok depends on trends and preferences, so experiment with different styles and presentations until you find one or two that work best.

7. Collaborate with Colleges and Universities

If you don’t only want to make fun fact videos but also create valuable educational content, you should consider partnering with a higher education institution. Together, you can create courses that promote an engaged online learning environment.

8. TikTok in the Classroom

If you are a schoolteacher, you can ask your students to complete assignments using the TikTok app. You can limit access to the content so that only you and the students can view it online. And you can work with your students to create content to help them learn.

English, math, science, and history are the most popular subjects on TikTok. Educational videos on these subjects help students complete their homework and often spark an interest in further learning.

In the classroom, condensed videos from an intriguing angle can help inspire an entire lesson. Therefore, you can highlight something in a 60-second video that draws your students’ attention before spending half an hour discussing the details.

Conclusion

There is no limit to using the TikTok platform to educate and inspire. You can teach online audiences about history or provide them with the tools to learn a new skill. And you can use TikTok at school to keep students engaged and interested in learning.

By embracing the short-form video format and using the correct hashtags and trends, your educational TikTok videos can impact a global audience and a local classroom.