Edpuzzle

Edpuzzle is a free video editing tool that lets you upload a video from Youtube or Vimeo, clip it to your liking, then add questions at any point along the way. These questions can be true or false, multiple choice, or extended response. You are also able to see student responses, what percentage of the video they watched, and their final grade on the assignment. 

For teachers, Edpuzzle is a great way to break down an informative video and make sure students are understanding the main points. Being able to add comments will help with clarity and asking students questions along the way will make sure they understand the material. For students, Edpuzzle is a helpful way to review material from class. Since students are able to go back and watch the video as many times as they want, they will be able to make sure they truly know the material before answering any questions.

Getting Started

Getting started with Edpuzzle is easy. Simply go to the site and click “Sign up.” When you click “I’m a Teacher,” Edpuzzle will take you to a short tutorial on how to use their tool. This tutorial will show you how to clip a video they have provided for you, add a question to a designated time on that video, and then view what a grading page looks like for a teacher.

After the tutorial, you will be asked to create an account before making your own lesson. Once your account is created, you will find yourself at Edpuzzle’s homepage. Here you can browse videos that Edpuzzle provides for you on a multitude of different topics. Choices of videos come from Youtube, Khan Academy, National Geographic, and TED Talks to name a few. In the search bar at the top, try searching for terms related to the lesson you would like to create an Edpuzzle for. “Social Studies,” “World History,” and “US History” bring up hundreds of results for possible videos you could use. You can also paste a URL to search the videos available on Edpuzzle or upload your own video from your computer. Note that searching with a URL on Edpuzzle is limited to their partner websites such as Youtube or TED Talks.

Once you have selected a video, you will begin the editing part of the process. To begin:

1. Clip the video to your desired length: There will be red tabs at the bottom of the video that you will be able to drag and drop to get the appropriate length for your video. Once you have your desired length, click the microphone button above your video titled “Audio Track” to move on.
2. Add audio to your video: If you like, you can choose to add audio to your Edpuzzle. While this step is not necessary, you may want to explain the lesson in your own words. Edpuzzle allows you to record your own audio over the video to provide clearer explanations to students if necessary. (Note: If you record your own audio for a video, ALL background audio and narration of the original video will be lost. Edpuzzle requires you to record the whole audio track for a video, so make sure you are positive you would like to narrate the video.) Once you are satisfied with the audio, click the speaker button at the top of the page titled “Audio Notes” to move on.
3. Audio Notes: Rather than record a full audio track over the video, Edpuzzle also gives you the option of adding audio remarks instead. Simply drag the slider below your video to a point you want to add an audio remark and click it. You will be able to record a short statement at the point in the video for students to listen to. (Note: Unlike Step 2, background audio will not be lost if you choose to record audio notes.) After you are finishing adding your remarks, click the question mark button above your video titled “Quizzes” to move on to the final section of editing.
4. Quizzes: One great feature of Edpuzzle is being able to add quizzes along the length of your video. Simply move the slider below the video to your desired spot to add a quiz and click it. You will be able to add an open ended response question, a multiple choice, or comment section to any part of the video. Edpuzzle allows you to add more than one question on a video, so be sure to take advantage of multiple questions throughout your video.

Once you are satisfied with your edited video, click the blue “Finish” button in the right hand corner. A popup box will come up with several options for your finished video. You will need to add the video to a class, which you will need to create. This should most likely be named for whichever class you are using the video for since this will be the name students will see when they view the video. You also have the option of preventing students from skipping around the video, however if you do not check this option, you will still be able to view how much of the video students actually watched. The second box allows for you to set a due date for the assignment, which locks students out if they try to access it past the date.

Once you are finished editing the options for your video, click “Assign” and it will take you to your personalized page to view your classes and assignments. Clicking on “Share” allows your to share a code for students to access your Edpuzzle or to embed it in a site. You are also able to view which students have taken your Edpuzzle, the percentage of the video they watched, what their responses were to your questions, and how many times they had to watch sections of the video before answering your questions. This feedback is helpful if you find multiple students needed to watch a certain section to understand it so that you can further explain a concept better.

Examples

Ms. Cummens keeps a detailed blog of how she’s using technology to “flip” her classroom and the benefits doing so has on students. On her blog, she has posted her entire lesson plan on teaching her 8th grade social studies class. In the lesson plan, she makes use of Edpuzzle extensively along with a few other digital tools. In looking over her lesson plan, hopefully you can come up with ways to incorporate Edpuzzle into your own lesson plan. For Ms. Cummens, she uses an Edpuzzle each night as homework. In a "flipped" classroom, instructional content is moved to outside the classroom while activities that may have traditionally been considered homework are moved into the classroom. That way, students are learning the material at home from digital resources and completing activities they may have questions on inside the classroom. For example, a couple nights of homework from her lesson are about colonising America, the Articles of Confederationl, and the Constitution. In a "flipped" environment, the students learn the material at home and come to class the next day prepared to discuss the new topics.

Edpuzzle also features a section on the page dedicated to showing teachers how to “flip” their classroom and use their tool more effectively. By searching on the Edpuzzle site, they also provide teachers with premade curriculums divided into sections based on education level. These curriculums can be a good way to ease your class into a “flipped” classroom before actually creating your own.