All images courtesy of FIU
The challenge
Returning to school in a post-pandemic world, Florida International University (FIU) noticed students struggling with engagement, extracurricular involvement, and overall life direction. Instructional design team, Maikel Right, Aaron Robles, and Jeni Lopez embraced gamified mixed reality and asynchronous approaches to revive student engagement, retention, and performance.
The solution
PlayPosit by WeVideo gave Florida International University an interactive video platform seamlessly paired with Canvas to enhance course understanding and engagement. FIU used PlayPosit to:
- Create interactive video questions: Students take a syllabus quiz that requires them to virtually frequent locations on campus using interactive touch points. They cannot proceed until answering questions correctly and acquiring pieces of a passcode.
- Implement structured playlists: Maikel, Aaron, and Jeni combine 360-videos, H5P, AvatarCam, YouTube, and WeVideo to create a dynamic and sequenced learning experience.
- Track learner engagement: To avoid learners sharing the passcode with their peers, the instructional design team sets limitations and required stop points to prohibit fast-forwarding and uses analytics to monitor progress, time spent on the activity, and other completion metrics.
The results
After running the gamified syllabus quiz three times for three different courses, the instructional design team found that of the students who completed their survey:
- 100% of students either strongly agreed or agreed that they felt prepared for the class
- Most students either strongly agreed or agreed that they enjoyed completing the syllabus quiz
- PlayPosit's interactive video tools impacted 8,000 students in just one year alone
Key takeaways
Maikel describes PlayPosit as an intuitive tool that helps educators and instructional designers take their creative ideas and turn them into “something incredible, brilliant, and affable.” Pairing PlayPosit with other gamification tools has shown:
- Seamless Integration: Easily compatible with existing learning management systems and video hosts.
- Enhanced Learning: Proves effective curricula for synchronous and asynchronous learning environments.
- Effective Assessment: Highlights PlayPosit as an adaptive learning solution.
Instructional designers and educators use PlayPosit by WeVideo to combat passive learning methods and expensive equipment setups. Regardless of class size, budget, or available media tools, PlayPosit creates a streamlined and cost-effective solution to reviving student engagement with interactive video.
Hear their story
Watch Maikel Right, Aaron Robles, and Jeni Lopez share their asynchronous approaches to using PlayPosit in Florida International University’s online courses, recorded during the PlayPosit Exchange summer event. Access the full session below.
Benefits of interactive video
- Triple engagement: Interactive video helps educators prove engagement, identify learner gaps, and make data-backed decisions.
- Flexible, self-paced learning: Clickable elements like multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, web embeds, and Bulbs (interactive videos) activate learning in any environment.
- Target instruction: Personalize learning with branched pathways, required questions, jumps, and interactive touch points to guide understanding and retention.
Practical strategies for educators
- Establish learning objectives: Maikel discusses building courses around goals like nurturing student confidence, enhancing understanding, and boosting retention. Jeni suggests storyboarding to create a cohesive narrative or theme that’s engaging and relatable to students.
- Prioritize accessibility: Jeni discusses the importance of shooting 360 content with a consistent focal point to help students safely navigate moving components.
- Save time with scalable content: Include the most critical information in the course, use data to prove its impact, then remediate and iterate to scale.