<p>Explanatory videos are popular both in the private environment and at school. As the use of explanatory videos is highly complex in terms of media education, the full potential of these videos can remain untapped if students are not able to actively control their learning process. In this study, a strategy, focusing on notetaking, summarizing, and self-testing, was explicitly designed for learning with explanatory videos and evaluated regarding its influence on the ability for self-regulated learning as well as on the increase in knowledge when learning with explanatory videos. To this end, strategy training was carried out in a pre-post control group design <i>N</i> = 94 students in lower secondary level. The experimental groups underwent two lessons of strategy training in which the designed strategy was directly instructed and applied, while the students in the control groups received no strategy training. The data revealed that the application of the designed strategy had a positive influence on both the perceived ability for self-regulated learning and the increase in knowledge when learning with explanatory videos. In addition, 80% of the students agreed with the statement that they would continue to use the trained strategy when learning with videos in the future. The results suggest that teaching and using learning strategies is necessary for effectively engaging with explanatory videos.</p>