Bringing Interaction to Instructional Videos with PlayPosit

Now more than ever, instructional videos play an important role in education. PlayPosit helps instructors make the most of them. With PlayPosit, instructional videos become interactive learning tools that encourage students to engage with course material as they learn. 

“PlayPosit has allowed my students to reflect and critically think as they are engaged in learning content related to our course,” says Jill Jones, associate teaching professor in the College of Education. 

NC State has acquired an enterprise-level license for PlayPosit effective Aug. 1, 2020. All faculty members will have complete and free access to use PlayPosit in their fall 2020 courses. The rollout seeks to increase student engagement with their course materials, improving student success in the process. 

PlayPosit is an interactive video editing tool that allows instructors to embed questions, checkpoints and learning objectives in instructional videos. Each video is called a bulb; the instructor or editor can upload new and existing content and add multiple clips to a single bulb for a seamless video progression. From there, the editor adds interactions such as discussion prompts, multiple-choice questions, polls, surveys, third-party media and more. Video captioning, cropping and trimming help to refine finished products and make them accessible to all learners. Find a complete list of PlayPosit’s features on their website. 

Once students start interacting with videos, PlayPosit can log their responses for course credit in the Moodle gradebook. Moodle integration allows instructors to create and assign PlayPosit videos directly from a module or homepage. Additionally, recordings from Mediasite, YouTube and Vimeo can easily enter PlayPosit for editing. These factors combine for a streamlined experience that enhances learning and eases an instructor’s workload.

“[PlayPosit] is easy to integrate into Moodle and I was able to easily load videos into the platform. I appreciate being able to examine data that shares how the students engaged with the platform and performed overall,” Jones says. 

With PlayPosit, instructors can tailor any video or presentation to their students’ understanding while gently assessing their progress and presenting them with new material to build on. Students not only engage and interact with course material but also receive feedback on their responses, increasing long-term retention. For those teaching online and blended courses, PlayPosit adds a level of engagement to lecture and study materials similar to that of in-person instruction. As students use PlayPosit to engage with their peers and instructors, they experience the same learning benefits that a traditional classroom provides. 

Quizzing and assessment are only a couple of the approaches instructors can take when using PlayPosit. Assistant Professor Paula McAvoy prefers to use it as a reflective tool in her graduate course. 

“I find it most useful as a way for me to get a quick glimpse into what they are thinking/feeling. I use it as a way to make them think,” she says. 

Associate Teaching Professor Cyndi Edginton found PlayPosit especially helpful in teaching remotely and connecting with her students during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“[PlayPosit] has allowed me to share experiences with my students that we normally would have face to face. Rather than just asking my students to watch a video, I can embed reflective questions to ensure students’ understanding and replicate some of the conversations we would have around key ideas in class.”

Faculty members already accustomed to using PlayPosit in their courses consistently report positive student feedback. Students tend to enjoy the tool’s interactivity, especially during remote instruction, and appreciate that their responses contribute to the overall course. 

Associate Teaching Professor Annette Moore enlists undergraduate students to help her teach courses in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management. These students can speak to PlayPosit’s before-and-after effect. 

“They have experienced my online lessons with traditional videos and Moodle quizzes and then with Playposit. Overwhelmingly, they agree PlayPosit is much more interactive and engaging for them,” Moore says. 

Want to learn more?

PlayPosit is a great tool for anyone who uses instructional videos in their teaching or is just getting started. DELTA has developed resources to help instructors start using PlayPosit in their courses. 

Look out for DELTA Workshops on PlayPosit to start learning the basics and walk through the tool’s most effective features. Visit PlayPosit’s instructor resources for step-by-step instructions on how to build interactive videos, check out an overview of PlayPosit in the DELTA Knowledge Base and contact DELTA LearnTech at learntech@ncsu.edu with specific questions. 

For more information and updates regarding PlayPosit, head to go.ncsu.edu/delta-playposit.