Have you ever found a really great instructional video and think “This is PERFECT!” only to be shot down by your own sense of worry. Will it be engaging? Will my students actually pay attention? Will they learn anything from it? Or will it be more like…..

My students have some favorite “YouTubers” that ignite gasps when they pop on the screen. They love watching them, but how can I be confident that they are taking away the important content embedded in the video?

For Math We LOVE Math Antics!

For Science We LOVE Crash Course Kids!

Sometimes we watch these videos together in Whole Group and other times students are expected to watch them as part of their Playlist for the week. The problem with this was, “How do I know they are actually watching the video and learning from what they’re watching?” That’s when I discovered EDpuzzle! The perfect tool to “make any video your lesson”!

With EDpuzzle there are so many features that help hold students accountable while allowing teachers an easy way to assess students’ understanding.

Here are some highlights of Edpuzzle’s key features. There are so many possibilities. However, these are just a few (okay…many) of my favorites. I highly recommend taking their certification courses to learn about all of the bells and whistles!

1. Cropping
With Edpuzzle’s crop tool you have the ability to cut the video shorter on both the beginning and the end. This can be beneficial with videos that add all that fluff!
2. Prevent Skipping
Let’s be real. If you’ve ever been assigned a video to watch you more than likely fast forwarded to the end and winged the quiz. I mean, who actually needs to watch the video right? Wrong. We don’t want our students just skipping ahead. We picked this video for a reason and it’s essential that each student watches it. With the Prevent Skipping feature every student is required to watch the video all the way through without the ability to fast forward. They will however be able to rewind before answering a question if they need to watch the latest clip again. The video will also stop if they click on a different tab. Edpuzzle didn’t tell me this. I learned it from experience when I was taking the certification classes and thought I knew it all. Boy was I wrong. There are some great tips in those videos if you’re new to Edpuzzle!
3. Voice Over 
Maybe you’ve found a great video (visually) but the person explaining it…well…it’s just not what you need for your student’s. Worry no more! With Voice Over you can record yourself talking throughout the whole duration of the video. The key here though is that it must be over the entire video.
4. Voice Notes 
With Voice Notes, you can record yourself leaving a message during part of the video. Maybe you want to clarify or comment on something shared in the video. When student’s reach your Voice Note, the video will pause and play your recording before continuing with the video.
5. Quizzes
The possibilities for quizzing your students while they watch their video on Edpuzzle are endless! You have the ability to embed multiple Choice options as well as Open Ended questions at any point in the video. You can also leave written comments that will display at certain points in the video! “I remember that Obtuse angles are larger than Right angles by saying Obtuse Moose. A Moose is HUGE!” (This could also be recorded as a Voice Note!)
6. Gradebook 
With Multiple Choice questions, EDpuzzle automatically grades each students’ responses and records them in your EDpuzzle Gradebook. For Open Ended Questions you are able to go in and assign points. Within the Gradebook you are also able to see how many times each Student re-watched a section of the video before answering their question. Edpuzzle also provides you the ability to leave comments on your students responses. Yes!! Love Feedback!
7. School 
We all have the team member whose going to hop on this Edpuzzle business with extreme excitement and start knocking out videos for our upcoming units. With the school tab labeled with your school’s name any teacher who is part of your school can find videos made by other teachers at your school! The videos you make will automatically be available for others to find. Don’t worry. They CAN’T edit your video without first making their own copy so that it doesn’t mess with yours. Once they make a copy they are able to make any edits they wish before assigning it to their students.
8. My Content Folders
Within your content you will begin to compile a pretty long list of videos to scroll through. You can easily create folders titled with your different units and sort your videos accordingly. How easy for the next year!
9. Google Classroom Syncing
Ugh. Another website to enter all of my students names in and ANOTHER password for them to remember?! Nope! If you have a Google Classroom already set up for your students then setting up Edpuzzle is as easy as gaining 15 pounds every time you walk into the teachers’ lounge and there’s food abounding. Under the My Classes tab click Import from Google Classroom. Choose your class and bam! *If a student joins your class at a later time, make sure to sync your class on Edpuzzle.

Another great aspect that I’ve yet to explore are Student Projects. I actually learned about this feature through the certification classes. When you create a Student Project students are given the ability to create their own videos and have access to the same tools you do! Can you imagine the possibilities? This tool would be so powerful for my students. I’m excited to kick this off!

Want to know more? Check out Edpuzzle’s Certification Classes. There are so many possibilities!