Andrew Carlos is one of the STEM/Web Services Librarian at California State University, East Bay. He is currently working on a Masters in Instructional Science and Technology at California State University, Monterey Bay.

How many of you use video in your classes? I’m betting most of you raised your hands because of youtube, TED talks, etc.

What if I asked how many of you use INTERACTIVE videos in your classes? I bet most hands have come down.

Interactive videos allow you to create quizzes, check for understandings, engagement with almost any video out there. In my Masters in Instructional Science and Technology program at CSU, Monterey Bay, we recently learned about different ways to add interactivity to your videos. This blog post serves as part one of a two part series on interactive videos. The next post will feature tools you can use in addition to Youtube to create interactive videos.

Perhaps the easiest to use is the built in annotations in Youtube. What this does is create hotspots on YouTube videos that can act as links to other videos, links for additional information, or just contextual text. You don’t need additional software or any other tools to do this – everything works within Youtube itself. When viewing a video that you have uploaded to Youtube, click on the Annotations button underneath the video.

This takes you to a menu in which you can watch your video and add annotations at appropriate moments. You have five options for annotations: Speech Bubble, Note, Title, Spotlight, Label. Each of these performs a different function that is explained pretty well by their name, except for Spotlight – this annotation highlights a specific section of your video and has pop-up text when a viewer hovers over it. To find out more about these annotations, check out Youtube Help: Create and Edit Annotations

Let’s look at an example of using Youtube annotations for instruction: Knewton GMAT Choose Your Own Adventure. In this video, viewers are given the choice of three different types of questions to prepare for. As you work your way through the questions, you are given feedback and explanation. Very well done and simple.

This is a popular method for flipping the classroom – the instruction creates a series of videos with feedback and links them together into a cohesive lecture. However, there is another use that encourages creativity from students.

Students can create their own series of Youtube videos and string them together to create an interactive video that shares their knowledge of a topic. For example, Greg Kulowiec had his students create videos that compared and contrasted the revolutions in France in the 1700s and those in Egypt today. Groups of students planned, scripted, filmed and edited their videos and shared what they have learned with the rest of their classmates. Greg also create a handy little how-to post, should you find yourself interested in making/teaching some of these video techniques.

Author: Brooke Ahrens

Brooke Carey Ahrens is a Google Certified Teacher and Instructional Technology Coordinator at a bay area high school. Brooke is currently serving as a rep Northern California Region rep for the California School Library Association.

Categories: Blog Topics, Technology