Engaging Students in STEM: Interactive Videos with PlayPosit

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The Pinch Point: Student Engagement with Video

Instructors put a lot of effort into the video content they create for their students. Whether it’s a short introduction to the week’s module, a must-watch for a flipped classroom, or a micro lecture, the video content faculty put out requires planning, thought, and effort. 

Unfortunately, no matter the amount of care put into a video by the instructor, once the content is posted to Canvas students watching are left on their own. As they hit play, important information easily slips past the most well-intentioned student trying to learn from a lecture created by the most well-prepared instructor. This is not surprising given that watching videos is an inherently passive activity. Additionally, even actively engaged students who are being exposed to new content in a video likely don’t know what to focus on, contributing to the lack of retention. It’s by no fault of the student or instructor, novices by definition don’t know what constitutes meaningful patterns and information (Persky, 2019). These are challenges that need to be met by instructors. How can faculty create video experiences that promote active learning? How can instructors guide students through video content to help them see information with the eyes of an expert?

The Solution: PlayPosit

Enter: PlayPosit. With PlayPosit, you can add questions and pauses to your existing videos. When students reach a certain point in the video, playback stops and they are required to complete an interaction by answering a question, participating in a discussion board, filling in the blank, or another type of engagement.

PlayPosit tracks whether students watch the video or not, the answers they submit, and where they get stuck. This not only guarantees that students are watching your videos, but it has the potential to transform a previously cognitively passive activity into an engaging active learning experience for your students. With the right questions inserted at the right points, you can model how students should be thinking through a topic.

STEM Specific: Calculation Heavy Courses

This is especially relevant to calculation-heavy classes. If you teach these courses, you likely already know which question types your students struggle with the most and why. You might even be familiar with the all-too-common “plug and chug” mindset that tricks students into thinking they understand how to do a calculation when they really don’t. A few embedded PlayPosit questions in a video can help get students to think about *why* they’re doing what they’re doing and grow away from the “plug and chug” mindset. Often, the role of an instructor is to show an intimidated student that the big scary question they’re looking at is actually a series of smaller, more manageable sets of calculations. Adding well-placed pauses and questions to your videos can help model how an expert chunks these more complex question types. The next time a student tries that question on their own, they may think back on the steps they were guided through in PlayPosit.

Example: Give it a Try

Check out this example of the possibilities as a way to get your gears turning. Because it’s an example, we allowed you to skip past the interactions. In your class, you’d have the option to require students to complete an interaction before moving forward.

To Sum it Up

Intentionally placed questions have the potential to help students identify problem types (what am I solving?), think about problem-solving strategies (how will I solve this?), and understand how to break larger questions into their more manageable pieces (what are the steps?). The goal is to model how students should be thinking through complex calculation-based questions. Adding PlayPosit interactions to your existing content can help your students become independent problem solvers and get more out of your videos.

Feeling Inspired?

Here are a few other ways to consider using PlayPosit to increase engagement and transparency in your videos:

  • Before introducing a concept, include a question that prompts students to make a prediction. Making predictions before learning new material increases retention by 10%, regardless if the guess was right or wrong (Kornell 2009). Learn more about the benefits of predicting with this 20-minute OneHE course*.
  • If you have any videos that are required before a class activity (pre-lab videos, flipped classrooms), consider adding a few lower-level “remember” and “understand” interactions. This not only creates accountability for watching the video, but the questions also help students know the information required to participate in the lab or class.

*Requires a OneHe account to access.
*CI Faculty who do not have an account should complete the OneHE interest form to request the OneHE registration form to activate their account. Once you’ve activated your account, you’ll be able to sign in and access the content.

Let’s Connect!

Thinking about incorporating PlayPosit into your existing teaching practice? We have resources to support you getting started so you can spend less time on the “how-to” and more on teaching.

What ideas do you have for using PlayPosit to add interactions to your videos? We want to hear from you! Comment below to share your thoughts. 

Citations

Hogan K, Sathy V (2022). Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom.

Kornell N, Hays MJ, Bjork RA. Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2009 Jul;35(4):989-98. doi: 10.1037/a0015729. PMID: 19586265.

Lang, J. M. (2016). Small teaching: Everyday lessons from the science of learning. 

Persky AM, Robinson JD. Moving from Novice to Expertise and Its Implications for Instruction. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017 Nov;81(9):6065. doi: 10.5688/ajpe6065. PMID: 29302087; PMCID: PMC5738945.

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