Learning doesn’t only happen with students sitting at desks in traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms. Online learning, or eLearning, occurs in virtual environments when students engage with videos, activities, and other students in "digital" classrooms. For teachers, this means using new eLearning tools to develop content and lessons for students that they can access anytime, anywhere.
The good news? Video lessons are highly accessible for today's students and play a central role in eLearning. Engaging video content draws students into lessons faster and captivates them in ways that other media can’t. After all, we live in a multimedia-driven world!
While video creation can seem intimidating for some, it doesn’t have to be. Here are eight video-driven eLearning tools and features from our interactive video design studio, PlayPosit, that you can use to bring your content to life!
eLearning tools for video development have turned traditional video creation upside down. Teachers can develop interactive videos that allow students to answer questions, participate in polls, and even interact with each other in discussion forums. All of these "interactions" are embedded within the video itself, prompting a student's response before they can continue watching.
Research on interactive videos shows that they're not only more engaging, but also more effective at improving student learning outcomes. And with PlayPosit, educators have everything they need to layer interactions into new or pre-existing video content, choosing from a variety of question types including multiple-choice, matching, true-false, short answer, and more.
Student answers are recorded and stored so that teachers can look at class-level holistic data to make decisions about whether their students understand the content or not.
LEARN MORE: What Is Video Interactivity? (And How It's Used for the Future of Learning)
Interactive video doesn’t have to be an asynchronous or individual endeavor. During a live broadcast, teachers can use an audience response system to engage learners and collect data at the same time.
With PlayPosit, audience members respond to questions and prompts from tablets, phones, or laptops. Instructors control authentication and choose when and where to illicit audience participation!
The real deal behind interactive video eLearning tools? They aren't just for educators. Flip the script and turn learners into educators when they're prompted to create their own interactive video content.
Have students develop videos in response to learning or instruction, or give them a topic to educate their peers on; any way you slice it, learner-made content puts the ball in the student’s court.
Not only does this allow students to learn more effectively, but it also provides the support and skills they need to become 21st-Century learners. When students create their own content, they practice planning, collaboration, technology, and creativity skills. Over time, as a teacher collects high-quality examples, student-created content can become a “generational” type of learning with current classes learning from previous classes (whether that's in a primary, secondary, or higher ed classroom setting!).
LEARN MORE: Three Ways to Use Interactive Video for Exam Review
An example of how peer review works in PlayPosit.
Feedback is an essential part of the learning process, and peer feedback is a highly effective way to let students know areas of strength and areas of growth while also reducing educators' workloads. Peer review can be done in a variety of ways, and it falls on educators to organize it in ways that are productive and not judgmental. A peer review process is also great for educator-to-educator reviews, plus sharing content between colleagues helps them improve their practices and catch any potential errors or mistakes.
Now...how does peer review work when using video-based eLearning tools?
Using forums, video responses, and surveys all provide ways for learners to give and receive meaningful peer feedback. Not only does this add a level of quality control when finalizing projects, but it also helps reviewers think critically about what their peers and colleagues are trying to achieve. It's a win-win!
For educators teaching an online course or trying out a flipped classroom, using course creation eLearning tools can be super helpful. PlayPosit’s interactive playlists allow educators to take content that they create as well as general content from other sources and turn it into a curated learning experience. This means that students can access this learning at their own pace in any location with internet access — not just during the school day.
Creating a curated playlist is about more than smashing together a few videos and calling it a day. A high-quality playlist will take the objectives and standards into account and use content that helps students meet them. A playlist can include any combination of multimedia available including, audio, video, and images. Educators can also integrate other eLearning tools into the playlists to gather and provide feedback throughout the process.
When choosing what eLearning tools to use, consider the level of data they supply. PlayPosit's Admin dashboard allows educators to track engagement and assessment data for each assigned video, and on a learner-by-learner basis!
When learners complete an interactive video, educators know in real-time where they're succeeding or struggling. Not only does automatic grading save time in the classroom, but it also empowers educators with the data they need to foster effective remediation and differentiate the learning experience.
A key feature of effective eLearning tools is seamless integration with learning management systems. PlayPosit is compatible with a variety of learning management systems and video hosts, including:
An interactive video platform like PlayPosit enables educators and learners to use a variety of powerful, video-centric eLearning tools in a single, streamlined learning experience. Greater efficiency for educators, and improved outcomes for learners. What more could you ask for?