This post is about a learning tool I created for the note-taking application Obsidian. I decided to publish it to the community library and it will be available for others to use soon.
I created this plugin because I wanted a seamless workflow for note-taking and learning from audio and video media.
I’m an avid podcast listener and consumer of video content. I think YouTube is one of the best sources of educational material we have available to us today. Seriously - you can learn any skill or concept on YouTube.
Video as a learning medium is both engaging and high-bandwidth, combining visuals, sounds, and voices that impress information into us in ways that text alone can’t. Podcasts also give us access to the minds and thinking of modern experts who often aren’t writing or publishing articles.
There are some challenges to learning from this medium though, such as it being harder to skim and review/revisit excerpts. Highlighting is a common knowledge capture practice for books and articles, but there’s no equivalent for video. It’s also harder to control the pace while you’re absorbing information - a video keeps rolling by default and “turns the page” on you, even if you need to stop to digest the point you just heard.
For these reasons, I wanted a dedicated experience for learning from videos and audio.
The core UX needed was to fix the continuous toggling back and forth between a rolling video and your notes. I experimented with bringing the note-taking interface to YouTube, but eventually realized the best experience was to embed the media directly into your notes. This gave the added benefits of a focused learning environment (the comments section and recommended feed aren’t exactly conducive to that), and the ability to browse your knowledge base to make connections to the new thing you’re learning.
It also enabled some cool UX patterns because of the integrated environment, such as being able to seamlessly control the video while note-taking with hotkeys, and inserting timestamps to record and replay key moments.
To try the tool out, you can check out the Github repository for details and instructions.
I hope that it provides you value on your learning journey!