Educational & Bingeworthy: Streaming Videos on AVON

Would you believe it if we told you that you could find:

(a) Academically relevant video materials,

(b) A self-help series for students in higher education experience, and;

(c) Award-wining, thought-provoking documentaries

all in one platform?

Yes, it is true!

NIE Library has upgraded its streaming video collections with ProQuest’s Alexander Street Press to bring you the Academic Video Online collection (AVON) giving you the options to use video content to support teaching, learning, student success and even stress relief through entertainment and education.

How Has The Content Changed?

Home to the Education in Video and Counselling & Therapy in Video collections, AVON is Alexander Street Press’ most comprehensive streaming video collection where you can now access over 67,000 streaming videos in over 132 sub-collections (including Education in Video). You can now find and watch multi-disciplinary videos spanning a wide range of subject areas including art, environmental studies, history, music, theatre, and many more.

If you are familiar with our Education in Video and Counselling & Therapy in Video sub-collections, then you will know that Alexander Street Press offers a variety of streaming video materials such as documentaries, interviews, news programs and newsreels, demonstrations, and raw footage to support teaching. The same applies to a majority of the sub-collections found in AVON, where you can browse through a diverse selection of video material ideal for classroom instruction in higher learning.

Aside from the curricular-focused video material, you can find films and videos that may be of interest to you beyond the classroom. AVON’s Student Success Series and Film Platform are two such examples:

The Student Success Series is a collection of videos offering practical, research-based advice to help students with the transition into university life by developing the necessary skills to support a happy, healthy and productive higher education experience. The series includes 20-minute videos that provide guides on topics such as stress management, meaningful career, communication and self-presentation, building positive habits, plagiarism, exercising to improve health, and more.

Do you enjoy watching thought-provoking and award-winning documentaries in your own time? If so, then you are in luck as one of AVON’s newest sub-collection is the Film Platform collection. Responding to COVID-impacted libraries and assisting in the transition to online-only learning environments, Alexander Street Press collaborated with renowned provider Film Platform to curate almost 300 documentaries for AVON’s academic audiences, which you can now stream from the comfort of your own home.

*Please note that certain documentary films will not be available due to country restrictions.

Shopping for Videos

In addition to expanded content, users can browse for videos a la Amazon Video or Netflix. Recommendations of other videos that you might like based on what you are viewing are also provided.

The entire 67,000+ videos available in the AVON collection are organised into various categories called "channels" which include: American Film, Drama, Language, Literature, How-To, Psychology, Sports Medicine & Exercise Science, Theatre, and Travel. All channels can be filtered using sub-categories such as Subjects, Series, Events and Fields of interest, to name a few.

Browsing videos based on fields of interest

If you have a specific video(s) in mind, you can easily perform a search using the search bar. Enclosing a specific search phrase in quotation marks will yield a more specific search.

Searching for videos with keywords

To help you decide on which video to watch, you can view the rich information about each video such as production notes, video length, a brief synopsis, associated channels and even explore the video.

Previewing a video

Search Transcript Function

When you are pressed for time, and you are simply looking to locate specific parts of a video, you can perform a search using the video’s transcript (if available).

Using transcript to search through the video

Sharing is Caring

Did you find something that you would like to share with your students or with your classmates at NIE? Alexander Street Press allows you to share its videos via social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin & Pinterest) or by using its generated permalink or embed code. Your students or friends at NIE can easily access the videos when they follow the link and authenticate themselves. You can even share channels and series.

Various ways of sharing AVON's content

Alternatively, you may wish to show snippets of a video in class or during presentations. You can do so by creating clips and sharing them (either through hyperlinks or by embedding the clips).

Creating and sharing short clips

Explore the new AVON collection and discover an alternative resource that provides learning and entertainment in one place.

To view other online video databases, click on Resources and then Online Videos on the Library Portal.