Here’s an interesting presentation by the OU. They’ve borrowed the style from the RSA Animate series with a voice-over provided by Ian Anderson to produce a 10-minute mini-lecture on the history of the English language.

This is becoming something of a sub-genre of online talks/lectures. There’s no doubt it’s engaging. Just like good accompanying music it adds something. However, it would be interesting to see if the information is:
a. understood in the same way with/without the animation
b. if the information is retained more effectively with/without the animation