Making YouTube Relevant with EdPuzzle

Technology in the classroom when I was in school was usually a powerpoint or a video that connected to the topic we were learning about and most of the time it was BORING. I truly believe that the availability of technology today is making more students visual-based learners and a those old powerpoints or videos as primary methods of visual instruction just won't engage them as much anymore. But what if you could use videos in your classroom and be able to insert questions, comments, and sources as they watch it to make it a more interactive experience?

Earlier this year I went to a PD workshop about screencasting in the classroom and the instructor showed me EdPuzzle real quick just because she thought I could use it based on our conversations that morning. It has since become the single-most valuable tool I have picked up this school year. EdPuzzle is an online tool that allows teachers to assign videos to students in a digital classroom, check on their progress, and sometimes it even grades itself.

How it Works

One of the reasons EdPuzzle is extra special is that you can add videos from a variety of sources; including YouTube, TED Ed, Nat Geo, Crash Course, Khan Academy, and more. After you choose the videos you want, you can choose to crop parts out and then you can begin adding annotations with comments, multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, images, links, etc. This means you can add talking points and/or questions that will help students understand or think about the part they had just watched. You can add text or audio notes to the video to clarify certain points or add links/images of primary sources/documents which as a history teacher, we live off of.

You can also find other teacher's EdPuzzle videos and use/modify them to fit your needs( gotta love that education Creative Commons license). OH and did I mention you can set-up multiple choice questions and EdPuzzle will grade them for you? Don't believe me? Check this out. EdPuzzle allows teachers to add comments for any questions the students answer as well so you can add feedback for open-ended questions.

EdPuzzle also provides stats on each student during and after their viewing of the video. You can see how many questions they answered, when they finished it, and their answers. Another cool option is you can see how many times a student re-watched a section of the video in case they needed to double check their answers.

One of the greatest things that students hate but us teachers love is the option to prevent students from skipping ahead and just answering the questions. They can't skip around the video without watching that section first. This works well in making sure students are paying attention to the main points of the video without skipping around and not watching the whole thing like originally planned.

Setting It Up

Creating an account is simple. Just sign in with your BCIT Google account and then you can start creating your classroom and having the students sign up in a similar fashion to Google Classroom. I highly recommend having Google Clasroom set up for this because you can just add a link to join on your Classroom page and make it easier for yourself and your students. There is also a "Share to Google Classroom" button which helps you share the links to your classes that will be completing the assignment.

UPDATE: They just integrated Google Classroom with EdPuzzle this week. Check out how to do it in the video .

I have posted some pictures of EdPuzzle in action below. Fortunately for us teachers but unfortunately for this blog post, EdPuzzle has so many options that it is hard to cover all the details on here. In that case, please feel free to e-mail me at apurcell@bcit.cc or stop by room E513 if you need help in setting anything up (bring Chipotle).