Cloud Video Editing Service Adds Free and Discounted Education Pricing Plans

• By Leila Meyer
• 09/13/12

Online video editing platform WeVideo has created a range of special pricing plans and discounts for the education market, including a free service for teachers and students that allows them to create and export up to 15 minutes of video per month and includes 5 GB of storage space.

Users can upload videos from their video cameras or video-enabled cell phones to the WeVideo cloud service and then edit and share them online through any Web browser, without installing any software. WeVideo supports all common digital file formats and does not have any particular codec or extension requirements.

The online editing software provides a drag-and-drop interface for organizing video clips into a timeline and includes a real-time preview to test the results before publishing. Uses can also add animations, transitions between video clips, music, and other effects (such as color correction and filters) to enhance their videos. The software is collaborative, so multiple users can upload video clips to a single project and create multiple versions using the same clips.

Once the video editing is complete, WeVideo can export directly to social media networks, including YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter at a variety of resolutions, including 360p, 480p, 720p, and 1080p.

The WeVideo mobile uploading application enables users to upload videos to their WeVideo account directly from their handheld devices, without going through a computer.

Students have been using WeVideo to create their own video trailers to share book summaries, stage interviews with historical figures, and create a video orientation to the school library. Teachers have been using it to create short videos to complement their lessons, so students can watch them at home and then discuss them in class the next day.

"For a long time, we've understood that producing video is a highly engaging activity that helps students to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills," said Michael J. Curtin, director of curriculum and instructional technology at Edgemont School District, in New York, in a prepared statement. "In recent years, the availability of inexpensive video cameras and video-enabled cell phones has helped to make it easier for students to capture video at the front end of the process. Unfortunately, the cost and complexity of desktop video editing software have prevented many schools, including ours, from rolling it out to teachers and students on a wide scale. Additionally, storing and sharing the large files associated with video editing has made it difficult to implement and manage traditional video editing solutions on school networks. An inexpensive, Web-based solution that can be accessed from school or home, supports collaborative editing, and relegates file storage to the cloud is exactly what we have been looking for."

WeVideo offers a variety of pricing plans for education:

• The free version allows up to 15 minutes of video exports per month, with 5 GB of storage;
• The Plus version offers 60 minutes of video exports per month, with 10 GB of storage for $19.99 per year;
• The Ultra version offers 120 minutes of video exports per month, 1,280 by 720 resolution, and 20 GB of storage for $29.99; and
• Additional discounts are available for volume licenses by school or district.

Further information about WeVideo is available on the company's site.