Creating an educational video is relatively easy today. You can record yourself speaking, add text to the screen, include images or screenshots, and publish the video.
But once you start creating more videos, another question arises:
How do you create visuals that help people understand what you are saying?
For some subjects, a talking head and supporting text are all you need. For others, you may want to illustrate an idea, highlight a particular part of an image, show how something works, or use movement to guide the viewer through an explanation.
There are several ways to create these kinds of visuals. You can use AI, professional video software, or PowerPoint.
We have found PowerPoint to be a surprisingly useful option. In this post we'll share how we use PowerPoint and why we recommend it to other educators.
How Educators Create Visuals for Their Videos Today
Most educators start with what they already have available.
They record themselves explaining the subject, add supporting text, and use images, screenshots, scanned material, diagrams, or other resources when necessary.
This is a perfectly practical way to get started.
The difficulty comes when the content itself needs more visual explanation.
A photograph may show what something looks like, but not how it works.
A screenshot can show where something is located, but not necessarily what happens next.
Text can explain a concept, but sometimes seeing the idea develop on screen makes it much easier to understand.
At that point, educators need a way to create their own visual content.
Naturally, the next question is...
Could AI Create the Graphics and Animations?
AI has made creating visual content much easier.
You can now generate illustrations, diagrams, photographs, and other images from a description. Instead of searching for an image that happens to fit your lesson, you can create something specifically for the concept you are teaching.
But generating an image is only part of the process.
What if you want that image to be revealed step by step as you explain the components?
What if you want to highlight different parts of it as you explain them?
What if you want to combine several images into a sequence?
AI tools can help with some of these tasks, but they don't always give you the precise control you need over the final visual.
For educational content, that control matters. The purpose of the visual isn't simply to look impressive. It needs to communicate something specific to the learner.
You may then wonder...
What About Using Video Editing Software?
Another option is to create your graphics and animations directly in video editing software.
Tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Camtasia provide powerful ways to combine images, text, video, and animation.
If you already have experience with video editing, this can be an excellent approach.
We use Camtasia ourselves, and have shared a number of videos with Tips on our YouTube channel. You can access the Camtasia playlist here.
However, there can be a learning curve. Creating a relatively simple animated graphic may involve layers, timelines, keyframes, effects, and other editing tools.
For someone who primarily considers themselves an educator rather than a video editor, this can make the process feel more complicated than necessary.
This led us to explore another option...
Why We Started Using PowerPoint for Educational Video Visuals
Most educators already know PowerPoint.
You may have used it to create presentations, classroom materials, training sessions, or lectures.
However, we realized that PowerPoint can also be used as a visual creation and animation tool.
Instead of thinking of a PowerPoint slide as something you show to an audience during a presentation, think of it as a canvas for creating the visual itself.
You can add images, shapes, text, icons, charts, diagrams, and other elements. You can then animate those elements and control when they appear, move, change, or disappear.
Once you look at PowerPoint this way, it becomes a useful tool for creating the visual parts of an educational video.
What Makes PowerPoint a Useful Alternative?
There are several reasons PowerPoint works well for this purpose.
✅It is familiar
Many educators already know the basics of PowerPoint. You don't necessarily have to learn an entirely new application just to create a visual.
✅The elements remain editable
Unlike a finished video or flattened image, a PowerPoint visual can remain fully editable.
You can change the wording, replace an image, move an element, adjust the layout, or modify the animation without starting again.
✅Animation is built in
PowerPoint includes a wide range of animation options, allowing you to control how individual elements enter, move, change, and leave the screen.
Transitions such as Morph can also create smooth movement between slides. We have shared the full process of creating animation with Morph to use as visuals in a video. You can find the tutorial here >>
✅It gives you precise control
You can decide exactly what appears on screen and when it appears.
That can be particularly useful when you are creating visuals to accompany a narration. The visual can develop alongside what you are saying rather than showing everything at once.
✅ It fits into a video workflow
PowerPoint doesn't have to replace your video recording or editing software.
You can create the visual in PowerPoint and then incorporate it into your finished video using the software you already use.
The One Challenge: You Still Need to Create the Visuals
There is one important limitation to understand.
❌PowerPoint doesn't automatically create the right visual for your lesson.
You still need to decide what you want to show and build it.
For some educators, that's not a problem. They enjoy creating their own visuals and want complete control over the result.
For others, creating every graphic and animation from scratch takes too much time.
There are two ways to address this.
Option 1: Create Your Own Visuals in PowerPoint
If you enjoy creating your own content, you can build your visuals directly in PowerPoint.
For example, you could create an image specifically for your lesson using an AI image-generation tool and then bring that image into PowerPoint.
From there, you can crop it, add other elements, highlight specific areas, and animate it to match your narration.
We have created videos showing how to take AI-generated images and turn them into animated visuals using PowerPoint.
This combination can be particularly useful:
AI creates the starting image → PowerPoint gives you control over the visual and animation.
Option 2: Start With Ready-to-Use PowerPoint Templates
If you don't want to create everything from scratch, you can start with a ready-made PowerPoint template.
A well-designed template can provide the basic visual structure, graphics, and animation already created.
You can replace the text and images with your own content and adapt the visual to your lesson.
This can save considerable time, particularly if you are creating videos regularly.
Instead of asking:
“How do I create this animation?”
you can start with an existing animation and ask:
“How can I adapt this to explain my idea?”
That is a much faster starting point.
How Educators Are Using PowerPoint Templates for Training Content
We have seen educators use PowerPoint templates in a variety of ways.
Some have used them to create YouTube educational videos. Others have created training courses for platforms such as Udemy.
We also have customers who use our templates for classroom and medical training content.
The subjects are different, but the underlying need is similar: they need a practical way to create engaging visual content without having to build every graphic and animation themselves.
This can be particularly useful for subject matter experts who already have deep knowledge of their topic but don't necessarily have the time or expertise to become graphic designers or professional animators.
Is PowerPoint the Right Choice for Your Educational Videos?
PowerPoint won't be the right tool for everyone.
If you are already highly skilled with professional animation or video-editing software, you may prefer working in those applications.
If your videos require highly sophisticated visual effects, specialized animation software may also be more appropriate.
But if you are an educator, trainer, or subject matter expert who wants to create more engaging visual content without learning an entirely new production workflow, PowerPoint is worth considering.
It gives you a familiar environment for creating editable graphics and animations, while still allowing you to combine those visuals with your existing video workflow.
You also don't have to choose between PowerPoint, AI, and video editing software. They can each serve a different purpose.
- Use AI when you need to create an image.
- Use PowerPoint when you need to build and animate a visual.
- Use your video software when you need to record and edit the final video.
The important thing is not the software itself. It is having a practical way to turn your ideas into visuals that help your audience understand what you are teaching.
Related Resource
If you are setting up your first educational or training video workflow, take a look at our guide:
How to Create Training Videos: The Essential Equipment and Software
It covers the equipment and software you need to record your videos, including how PowerPoint and Camtasia can fit into the overall process.