These partners were chosen by the State Department Of Education. I'll let the state department speak for itself, but I think that it's fair to say that Arkansas has created one of the leading professional development programs in the nation as a result of these partnerships. Everything was in the manual. Some people learn better by reading the manual, but many others are more visual learners. My experience is that with adults, as with our students, we need to convey information in a variety of formats.
Video is a medium to which many teachers, parents, and community members respond well.
It's also important to note that there are a great many videos in the NSCI series on standards, assessments, teaching strategies, and learning effectiveness. In many of those cases, there is information on the video that is not in any of the accompanying printed material. I'm not sure what this question means. The Stanford 9 is an example of the latter. As a result, it is important that teachers use instruction and assessment practices that help students prepare for a variety of different assessments, including multiple choice, short answer, and extended response items.