Top 10 Technology Tips & Time-Savers

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In an effort to help instructors in their work, CATL brainstormed some of the best technology time-savers and tips we have to share with you. Here’s our “Top 10” list. We encourage you to save it for future reference and use.

  1. Have end-of-semester questions about Canvas, such as how to send grades to SIS or give a student extended access to a course for an Incomplete? Consult our End-of-Semester Canvas Survival Guide for answers to these and other frequently asked questions.
  2. Work smarter and not harder by copying over your Canvas materials the next time you teach a course. Besides doing a full course import, did you know that you can also quickly copy a single module or module item to another course or share one with another instructor? You can even reuse imported course announcements by using the delay posting option to schedule them to post at a future date and time.
  3. Speed up your grading and boost transparency by setting up rubrics in Canvas. Once you’ve added a rubric to an assignment or a graded discussion and checked the box to use it for grading, Canvas will calculate the point total automatically when you use it to grade. Plus, rubrics can also be directly tied to your course’s outcomes in Canvas.
  4. Encourage or re-engage specific groups of students using the analytics and inbox features. Check out the weekly student activity trend data available in New Analytics to see which students may need a little prodding or use the “message students who” feature in the Canvas gradebook to give reminders and/or praise for an assignment.
  5. Want to fine tune the pacing of your course? You can add requirements to a module to force students to work through its contents in order. Once you have requirements set up, prerequisites can also be added which require a student to meet the requirements of a previous module before accessing the next.
  6. Consider using Kaltura (My Media) for the most streamlined audio/video experience in Canvas. You can upload and store your audio and video files in Kaltura, which has much greater storage capacity than many other options, and then easily embed your media in Canvas or provide a share link.
  7. Even if you’ve used Kaltura Capture before, you may not be familiar with all the different options for recording, such as the ability to choose a source for each output and toggle your webcam, screen recording, and audio on/off. In Windows, you can even enable system audio to capture audio from videos playing on your computer.
  8. With PlayPosit, you can enhance course videos in minutes by adding interactions for learners to engage with, such as polls or free-response questions. If you create a graded bulb, students’ grades also sync with Canvas automatically.
  9. If you are using Zoom for synchronous online classes or office hours, remember that you can schedule meetings through the Canvas Zoom integration. If you record your meetings, you can also publish these recordings for students to access in Canvas through the Zoom integration.
  10. If you’re looking for ways to add more engagement to your synchronous online lectures, try preparing in-class quizzes or polls for your Zoom meetings. Polls and quizzes can be added to Zoom meetings through the Zoom web portal and then pushed out to students during the meeting. Want to try something similar in an in-person class? Consider exploring PlayPosit’s Broadcast feature.

Enhance Course Videos with PlayPosit in Mere Minutes

If you’ve been tuned in to the CATL blog or Teach Tuesday newsletter at all over the past year, you’ve likely gained at least a passing understanding of what PlayPosit is. CATL staff have been eager to share our excitement about what this interactive video platform can do to boost learner engagement in courses at UW-Green Bay! PlayPosit is a very powerful and flexible tool, and that can make it seem intimidating to many instructors. While you can spend hours in the PlayPosit designer crafting your masterpiece video experience, in truth, some of the most impactful uses of PlayPosit can be implemented by instructors in 10 minutes or less! In this post, you will find a few examples of how you can leverage PlayPosit in simple ways that will give you immediate feedback from students, reinforce key concepts, and provide opportunities for your students to interact with you and collaborate with each other, all by using your pre-existing course videos.

Get Instant Feedback from Your Students

Screenshot of a PlayPosit bulb with an interaction which asks students for immediate feedback on the video

One of the most simple and effective uses of PlayPosit is adding a prompt at the end of a video where students can submit any questions or feedback on the content. Adding one “free response” interaction at the end of each course video can help you continuously monitor the “pulse” of the course and get immediate feedback from students on their understanding of the content. You can ask students to identify the muddiest point of the video for them and the resources and actions they need to better understand it. This type of metacognitive question can help students better identify the concepts which will require the most study to master. If you teach a large lecture class where the labor of parsing student responses would not be sustainable, you can instead add one or more “Poll” interactions to gain a quantitative insight of your students’ perception of their understanding of the content in each video. This poll data can help direct your planning of class time and additional resources for review.

Reinforce Key Concepts with Quiz Breaks

Another simple use of PlayPosit is to insert a “quiz” question at an important checkpoint of a video to help reinforce a key concept that has just been covered. Adding quiz breaks to your video can help students solidify their comprehension of the material and keep their active attention throughout the video (Szpunar et al., 2013). PlayPosit offers several interaction types suitable for this purpose: Multiple Choice, Check All, Free Response, and Fill in the Blank. Consider adding a question at the end, at a logical break near the midpoint of the video, or anytime the video shifts gears from one topic to another. You can give students multiple (or unlimited) attempts to answer correctly and (optionally) add a small point value to the assigned PlayPosit video to give your students extra incentive to engage with the content on-schedule.

Collaboratively Annotate a Video

Screenshot of the “Template Gallery” in the PlayPosit designer

PlayPosit’s “discussion” interaction type can be used to facilitate an exercise that asks students watch a video and post to a class-wide discussion board that is built-in to the video player. In addition to videos in your personal Kaltura My Media library, instructors can incorporate public YouTube and Vimeo videos into their PlayPosit activities, so consider this use case if you use any YouTube or Vimeo videos as required viewing in your course. Through PlayPosit’s Template Gallery, you can quickly add a single customizable discussion interaction that students can post to throughout the entire duration of the video.

Students can use the discussion interaction to collaboratively annotate the video to add their interpretations, cite criticism or link to pertinent online resources, and pose their own questions for class discussion. Each comment posted in the discussion is timestamped with the position of the video at which the student paused and submitted the comment. Students and instructors can select the timestamp on a post to immediately jump the video player to that moment of the video and make threaded replies to build off each other’s contributions. PlayPosit discussions are a great way to get a class to go on a deep exploration of a short video or clip that warrants repeated viewings.

Maximum Impact, Minimal Time

Each of the use cases described in this post involves using PlayPosit to add only one or two interactive elements to a course video. If you already use videos in your course, you can create any of these in under 10 minutes! Watch the video below to see the process from start-to-finish in under 3 minutes:

These PlayPosit enhancements to your course videos can give you big returns on just a little bit of time invested. Teaching with asynchronous videos doesn’t have to feel like lecturing into the void when you build formative exercises directly into the videos and give students ways to provide you with immediate feedback each time they watch a video. You’ll get a clear picture of which students are engaging with your video content, and, since you’ve turned the video watching experience into an active one, your students will be more likely to engage and stay engaged with course videos.

We hope these examples will spark you to take the first step to using PlayPosit in your courses. CATL is happy to provide consultations both to instructors who are looking to get started with PlayPosit as well as instructors who have already taken their first steps and are now inspired to build beyond the fundamentals and create interactive video masterpieces. Fill out our consultation request form to schedule a time to meet with a CATL team member or reach out to us at catl@uwgb.edu with your questions and ideas!

VoiceThread Contract Ending: Alternatives and Solutions

On June 1, 2022, UWGB faculty, staff, and students will lose access to VoiceThread. After this date, you will no longer be able to create new VoiceThreads or access and reuse old VoiceThread projects in Canvas or on the VoiceThread site. You can, however, download and store past projects in a different application or format before June 1 (see instructions below).

We feel confident about moving forward and being able to help you meet your teaching and learning goals. Instructors have used VoiceThread for several purposes, but we think those same instructional goals can be met with other tools. Please consult the list below to find your particular use(s) of VoiceThread and read about alternative tools or strategies. Still, this blog post is intended only as a reference document. Before you begin modifying your course or activities, we would encourage you to reach out to CATL for a brief consultation about your specific situation, rather than simply reading this information. You can reach us by email (CATL@uwgb.edu), phone (920-465-2541), or by filling out our consultation request form.

Alternatives to VoiceThread by Activity Type

Discussions or Critiques Using Audio or Video Recordings

The most common use for VoiceThread is to facilitate discussions that incorporate audio and video recordings, such as having online students record introduction videos and respond to those of their peers. The good news is that you can still have discussions this way using two tools you are likely already familiar with: Kaltura and Canvas discussion boards. Click the case below for more details.

Use a Canvas discussion board with Kaltura (My Media) audio/video embeds

  1. Set up a Canvas discussion board.
  2. Provide instructions on the following in the discussion board description:

Narrated Presentations or Lecture Videos

Some instructors used VoiceThread to record lectures that permit students to add comments on slides. You can instead, however, provide opportunities for student interaction with a pre-recorded lecture by turning your video into a PlayPosit bulb (see this article for a few easy ideas). If you’re simply looking for a lecture recording tool, Kaltura Capture and PowerPoint are great options. Click on the use cases in the accordion below to learn more. You can also read more about recording with Kaltura and PowerPoint in this guide.

Use PowerPoint & Kaltura (My Media)

  1. Record narrations in PowerPoint.
  2. Export the presentation as a .MP4 file with recorded timings and narrations.
  3. Upload the .MP4 file to Kaltura (My Media) in Canvas.
  4. Embed the Kaltura video on a page in Canvas.

Use Kaltura Capture & Kaltura (My Media)

  1. Record your lecture using Kaltura Capture; you can record your webcam footage and your computer screen at the same time.
  2. Once you are finished recording, click Save & Upload in Kaltura Capture to upload the recording to Kaltura (My Media).
  3. Embed the Kaltura video on a page in Canvas.

Use PowerPoint or Kaltura Capture, Kaltura (My Media), & PlayPosit

  1. Record your lecture with PowerPoint or Kaltura Capture and upload to Kaltura (My Media) in Canvas.
  2. For ungraded PlayPosit activities, create a bulb on a Canvas page in the Rich Content Editor. For graded PlayPosit activities, create a Canvas assignment with “External Tool” as the submission type and then create the bulb through the External Tool pop-up window.
  3. On the page or in the Canvas assignment description with the PlayPosit bulb, include instructions on how to interact with the bulb and leave comments in the bulb’s discussion; this PlayPosit student guide is an excellent resource to link.

Student-Created Narrated Presentations

Recorded student presentations are a common method to assess learning, especially in asynchronous online classes. Depending on your assignment learning outcomes, a video link submission to a Canvas assignment may be all you need, however, if you would like students to view and/or comment on peers’ presentations, there are ways to accomplish this using Canvas discussions or PlayPosit peer review assignments.

Use PowerPoint or Kaltura Capture, Kaltura (My Media), & a Canvas assignment

  1. Set up a Canvas online submission assignment with “Website URL” checked as the online entry option.
  2. Provide instructions on the following in the assignment description:

Use PowerPoint or Kaltura Capture, Kaltura (My Media), & a Canvas discussion board

  1. Set up a Canvas discussion.
  2. Provide instructions on the following in the discussion description:

Use Canvas Groups, Kaltura Capture, Kaltura (My Media), & a PlayPosit peer review assignment

  1. Set up Groups in Canvas; students will have to review the presentations of the other members in their group, so use that information to determine an appropriate group size.
  2. Create a Canvas assignment with “external tool” as the submission type.
  3. Set up the PlayPosit peer review assignment in the External Tool pop-up window.
  4. Provide instructions on the following in the Canvas assignment description:
    • How to record a video with Kaltura Capture and upload it to Kaltura (My Media) (most PlayPosit assignments will use Kaltura videos, though you can also use YouTube or Vimeo video links).
    • How to submit a PlayPosit peer review assignment, how to view and assess peers’ submissions, and how to view peer and/or instructor feedback on your own submission; this PlayPosit peer review guide for students is an excellent resource to link.

Exporting & Saving VoiceThreads for Future Use

Considerations Before Exporting

VoiceThread, by design, is meant to foster student engagement and discussion. If you are thinking about exporting a VoiceThread to reuse in a future course, first reflect on the purpose of the VoiceThread activity and whether the recorded video version would accomplish the same goals as the original activity. What modifications would you need to make for the video to still be an effective learning experience? Will the video be embedded in a PlayPosit bulb or Canvas discussion to allow for student interaction? Would it be better to redesign the activity and adapt it for another tool entirely?

If you are able to give sound pedagogical reasoning to support exporting and reusing a video of a VoiceThread, or perhaps would just like to keep them for archival purposes, read on.

Guidelines for Exporting VoiceThreads

VoiceThreads can be exported as video files (.mov) that include all slides and comments played in sequence. You can export as many threads as you wish, but it will take an investment of time.

If you used VoiceThread simply to present your own content (e.g., lectures), your downloaded exports can be uploaded to your Kaltura My Media library and shared with students in future classes. As a bonus, machine-generated English captions will be added automatically when you upload the video to Kaltura.

If you have a VoiceThread that includes student comments and you wish to reuse it as a video presentation in a future class, before exporting it, you should first create a copy of the VoiceThread that includes no comments or only instructor comments. Export that “clean” copy to comply with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) law. By law, you cannot share student comments from one class (not even the identities of those students) with another class in the same or future semesters.

Please refer to this knowledgebase article on exporting VoiceThreads and downloading those exports. Note that UWGB’s license includes an unlimited amount of “export credits.”

TIP: To quickly access your personal VoiceThread home page and see your library of threads, first launch any VoiceThread in Canvas, then navigate to voicethread.com/myvoice.

Please export any VoiceThread content you wish to keep a copy of before June 1, 2022.

Questions?

Please remember that CATL is here to help! If you would like help adapting your VoiceThread activities and assignments, we encourage you to request a consultation, email CATL@uwgb.edu, or call us (465-2541). A CATL team member would be happy to assist you.

PlayPosit Use Cases

PlayPosit has many potential applications for teaching, so it can be overwhelming to decide how you might use it in your own course. We’ve collected some use cases spanning a range of disciplines and course formats as a way to help you think about how other instructors are already using the tool, and then, by extension, how you might adopt it for your own teaching style and content area. The use cases below are organized by four of PlayPosit’s features: 

  • Core Platform, which refers to PlayPosit’s interactive video builder and player used for asynchronous learner engagement 
  • Broadcast, which is PlayPosit’s live audience response system used for synchronous learner engagement 
  • Learner Made Content, which refers to PlayPosit bulbs or interactions created by learners and assessed by instructors 
  • Peer Review, in which learners review and provide feedback on PlayPosit content created by their peers 

Core Platform (Asynchronous Learner Engagement)

Knowledge Checks

One of the most common ways to use PlayPosit’s main platform is to add knowledge checks to videos. These knowledge checks might be as simple as an objective true-false question, or as complex as a subjective free response question requiring students to reflect, analyze, or extrapolate. 

PlayPosit player, paused with a multiple choice question popped up.
In this example by the Digital Learning staff at the University of Arizona, the instructor added a knowledge check in their syllabus overview video about the number of attempts for reading quizzes.

Since PlayPosit bulbs can be either graded or ungraded, you can pick the option that works best for the function of the bulb. If you wish to keep the knowledge checks in your lectures low-stakes and for the sole benefit of the users, they might remain ungraded. Alternatively, perhaps you wish to replace some of your formative assessments (e.g. a post-lecture quiz) with an in-lecture quiz in the form of a PlayPosit bulb, in which case you would want to create a graded item. Learn more about graded and ungraded bulbs, as well as the types of interactions available, in this other PlayPosit toolbox article. 

Engagement Checks

Another way to keep your PlayPosit interactions low stakes is to use engagement checks, rather than knowledge checks. In distance learning environments, instructors often worry that students won’t watch their videos. PlayPosit interactions can be built in to ensure just that. For these scenarios, you might make use of the poll and pause point interaction types in particular. 

Polls function like a multiple-choice question but with no correct or incorrect answers. Since there are no right answers, polls are a simple, low-stakes way to add student engagement your bulbs. If the bulb is graded and you add a point value to the polling interaction, students are awarded points simply for responding.  

Pause points are interactions where students simply have to click a button to continue. Pause points might be useful for adding extra tips or reminders or linking to external resources. Like polls, if you add a point value to the interaction, students will receive full points for simply “completing” the interaction when used in a graded bulb. 

PlayPosit player paused with a pause point interaction popped up. The interaction includes a statement with a hyperlink and a blue "Continue" button.
In this example, a pause point interaction was added to direct learners to a supplemental resource in the form of an external link.

Learner Notes 

The notes feature is not an interaction type, but a default feature built into the PlayPosit video player. Learners can add timestamped notes while watching PlayPosit bulb, making it easy for them to go back and review certain points of a bulb at a later time. It also lets learners add content like images, links, and equations to their notes. If you would like students to make use of this feature, consider adding a few pause point interactions to your videos with suggestions for what points to include in their notes, like an important equation or acronym. You can also use PlayPosit’s pre-built learner notes template from the template gallery. 

PlayPosit player with the "notes" tab selected. The learner has left a note with a link.
In this example, the learner left a note at 0:25 in the video with a “note to self” and a link to a web resource.

Potential Use Cases

In the first session of a synchronous course, instructors often spend a good chunk of time going over the syllabus. With PlayPosit, you could instead record a syllabus overview video and then add knowledge checks with questions like, “when are office hours?” or “how many times can you take a quiz?”. See this example from the University of Arizona if you want to try it out from the learner's perspective.

In both empirical studies and student surveys, the prevailing messaging around lecture videos is that shorter is better. If you have a 45-minute lecture recording, consider breaking it down into smaller chunks of 5–15 minutes and then delivering them as PlayPosit bulbs. Adding PlayPosit interactions can incentivize students to watch all the way through and help you track which students are interacting with the lectures.

Some instructors are moving away entirely from synchronous lectures, opting for pre-recorded content delivery. Synchronous class time, whether face-to-face or virtual, can then be used to answer student questions, go over homework, or hold class discussions instead. One way to start is by using bulbs for pre-lab training, in which you assign PlayPosit bulbs in advance that deliver the necessary background information needed to engage in a lab, studio, or other hands-on activity that takes place during class.

Several PlayPosit interactions or features allow asynchronous viewers to contribute their thoughts and questions. Instructors can review learner feedback to get a sense of what is working in the class and identify concepts that require additional review. See our follow-up posts from What Will You Carry Forward?, Collecting and Working with Mid-Semester Feedback, and Building Information Literacy and Racial Literacy Together for a few examples. The bulbs in each of these posts use a different type of interaction (pause point, discussion, and free response, respectively) so it may be worth taking a look at all three to compare.

Broadcast (Synchronous Learner Engagement) 

The use cases in the previous sections make use of what PlayPosit refers to as its “core platform”, however, our license includes additional features. One of these features is “Broadcast“, PlayPosit’s audience response system. Unlike the core platform, Broadcast is used in synchronous learning environments.  

Broadcast allows instructors to push interactive learning content (quiz questions, polls, etc.) to both in-person and remote synchronous learners’ personal devices for real-time engagement and feedback. You can learn more about using Broadcast in this PlayPosit guide. 

The PlayPosit player before launching a Broadcast bulb as a student.
Like regular, graded PlayPosit bulbs, students will launch PlayPosit broadcasts through a Canvas assignment. Image credit: PlayPosit.

Potential Use Cases

Julie Wondergem in Chemistry has used the Broadcast feature to send out multiple choice questions during her lectures to check student understanding and increase engagement. Students are allowed to work together and the questions are only a half-point each, keeping the task low-stakes while still rewarding students for engagement and attentiveness.
Students are often hesitant to raise their hand and ask for something to be repeated, a certain problem or concept be reviewed, or request that the instructor move more slowly. Polls or free-response questions can be used to gauge how students are doing during class while keeping their responses anonymous to their peers.

Learner-Made Content

All of the examples up until this point have focused on instructor-made content, but did you know that you can have students create bulbs too? PlayPosit refers to bulbs, interactions, and other content made by students as “learner made content“, and student-created bulbs as “learner made bulbs ” (LMBs).  

You can either have students select their own video for creating a bulb or provide them with a video link to use. In the latter scenario, students will add their own annotations or interactions to demonstrate their understanding of the video’s content. Another nice feature of learner-made bulbs is that the instructor can leave timestamped feedback on students’ bulbs. This could be particularly useful for student presentations, instrumental or vocal performances, or other activities that you would like students to record for assessment. You can learn more about creating assignments for learner-made bulbs in this PlayPosit guide. 

Learner-made content assignment in Canvas from a student perspective.
The image above is what a student will see in Canvas when they click on a learner-made content assignment. Clicking “Start” will launch the PlayPosit bulb designer. Image credit: PlayPosit.

Potential Use Cases

Some fields like nursing or counseling require a lot of instructor observation, which can prove challenging in distance learning environments. One nursing instructor was able to simulate one-on-one, face-to-face observation by having her students record their activities and then create PlayPosit bulbs out of the videos. The instructor could then provide timestamped feedback and supply additional resources if needed (images, links, etc.). Another instructor in counseling has her students use learner-made content in a very similar way.

When you create a learner-made content assignment, you can provide a video link for your students to use. The students’ task then is to add interactions or annotations based on your guidelines in the instructions. For example, perhaps you find a YouTube video of a lab experiment. The instructions might ask students to add this video to their bulb and then add timestamped annotations identifying and describing the steps of the scientific process as they occur in the video.

Peer Review

Peer review builds on the previous feature, learner-made content. Like a regular peer review Canvas assignment, students first submit their own video to the PlayPosit peer review assignment and are then assigned peers’ video submissions to review and leave feedback.  

One useful aspect of this tool is that student reviewers leave their feedback as discussion comments that are each timestamped to indicate the exact moment of the video when the reviewer paused and entered the comment. Instructors may additionally create a rubric for student reviewers to complete. You may also appreciate that PlayPosit requires reviewers to watch the video in full before submitting their review. As the instructor, you can view both the learner videos and the feedback left by other students and assign grades accordingly. Learn more about peer review in this PlayPosit guide. 

Peer Review assignment in Canvas. Students can toggle between tabs to give feedback, view (peer) feedback, and view instructor feedback, as well as see their own bulb and assigned bulbs.
After a student has submitted their own video, they will be able to see which students they have been assigned to for peer review, leave feedback for submitted videos, and view their own feedback from peers or the instructor. Image credit: PlayPosit.

Potential Use Cases

Students will be assigned certain videos to view, which they can then leave timestamped feedback for. You can set the perimeters of the assignment to control what kind of feedback is provided. For example, do you want students to leave questions about the presentation content on their peers’ videos? Do you wish for them to critique or correct the information presented? Or are they assessing their peers’ presentation and public speaking skills?
Similar to the nursing and counseling scenarios described above in the learner-made content section, you can also have students record their activities and create a video for peer review. This could be useful for peer observation activities in courses where in-person observation is not feasible. The video format allows students to see their peers’ skills across time and space, while the PlayPosit player allows them to leave timestamped feedback and fill out a rubric created by the instructor.

Questions?

As you explore PlayPosit, we encourage you to consult PlayPosit’s extensive knowledgebase of instructor guides, including this guide for Canvas users. You can contact PlayPosit support directly by clicking the “Contact” link on their support site and filling out their web form. PlayPosit also offers live trainings, webinars, and office hours. If you are interested in any of these vendor-led training opportunities, contact dle@uwgb.edu to learn more. 

As always, we also welcome you to request a CATL consultation if you’d like to see a demo of PlayPosit or talk through how you might use it in your course. 

 

PlayPosit Introduction and Overview

A blue, white, and black logo with a Dachshund dog and the word "PlayPosit"

The PlayPosit logo; in written copy, PlayPosit is written with no spaces and both “p’s” capitalized.

What is PlayPosit? 

PlayPosit is a platform for building and viewing interactive video content. With PlayPosit, learners are invited to engage in interactions at various points throughout a video. These interactions can be simple or complex, and graded or ungraded. PlayPosit’s uses are broad and varied, but one thing they all have in common is that they can help increase the engagement and attentiveness of learners, particularly in asynchronous environments.

An interactive video built with PlayPosit is called a “bulb.” A bulb is made up of a video or series of videos and a set of timestamped interaction points. When building a bulb, you can import videos from YouTube, Kaltura (My Media), and Vimeo, and then arrange and trim the clips as necessary. After that step, you pick points on the timeline to add interactions—multiple choice questions, polls, reflective pause points, and more—and then determine other important settings, like whether the interactions will be worth points or whether students can attempt a bulb multiple times.

The first tab of the PlayPosit bulb video builder, "Video Source." The dropdown menu is set to "Kaltura" and underneath are the first two video listings from a Kaltura video gallery
When building a PlayPosit bulb, you can pull in videos right from your Kaltura (My Media) library, such as lectures recorded with Kaltura Capture.

When a viewer watches a PlayPosit bulb, the video clips play until the player reaches the first interaction point on the timeline. Though it depends on the bulb’s settings, generally video playback will pause at an interaction point and a menu will pop up, asking the viewer to answer a question, complete an activity, or engage with an external resource. After doing so, the viewer can click “continue” and then proceed with the video until the next interaction, and so on, until they reach the end of the PlayPosit bulb.

The PlayPosit video player; on the left is a menu bar, and on the bottom a playback bar. In the middle there is the video and a pop-up menu with a true or false question.
An example of what the PlayPosit player looks like from a learner’s perspective. In this scenario, the student submitted the incorrect answer to a true/false question presented at the end of the video. As in this example, you can add automatic feedback for a correct or incorrect answer when building a PlayPosit interaction.

PlayPosit Canvas Integration

PlayPosit at UWGB is integrated with Canvas, and instructors can build and assign bulbs directly within their Canvas courses. Instructors can add bulbs to their Canvas course as either graded or ungraded activities: 

  • Instructors can build and assign graded PlayPosit bulbs within Canvas assignments that sync with the Canvas gradebook. 
  • Instructors can build and add ungraded PlayPosit bulbs to their course by embedding a bulb in a page with the Rich Content Editor or adding a bulb as an external tool link in a module. 

Graded Bulbs 

Graded bulbs are bulbs that are tied to the Canvas gradebook. Graded bulbs can contain both automatically graded interaction types like multiple choice questions and manually graded interaction types like free response. To create a graded bulb, you will create a Canvas assignment and then select “PlayPosit” from the “External Tool” submission options. You can read more about how to create graded bulbs in this knowledgebase article.

The "submission type" dropdown menu and settings in a Canvas assignment
You will find PlayPosit as an option in the “External Tool” submission type in Canvas assignments.

For a graded PlayPosit assignment, a student’s score in the Canvas gradebook is calculated by applying the percentage of points earned out of points possible in the bulb to the total points the assignment is worth in Canvas. For example, let’s say you create a Canvas assignment worth ten points and link a PlayPosit blub within that assignment which contains two questions worth a point each. A student who answers one out of two questions correctly would earn 1 out of 2 possible points in the bulb (50%), which would translate to a score of 5 out of 10 (50%) in the Canvas gradebook. 

Ungraded Bulbs 

Ungraded bulbs are completely independent from the Canvas gradebook. While they can still have interactions that are worth points in PlayPosit, these points are not tied to any gradebook item in Canvas. For ungraded bulbs, points and grades are only there for the learner to check and assess their own understanding. If you wish to add an ungraded bulb to your course, you can either add it to a module as an item or embed it with the Rich Content Editor (the editor found in Canvas pages, discussions, etc.).

A Canvas module titled "PlayPosit Demo Jan 22" with an external link item underneath labelled "Stopping a Kaltura Classroom Stream Early"
One advantage of the PlayPosit Canvas integration is that learners can complete PlayPosit activities without going to an external site. For example, this PlayPosit bulb linked in a module will open in Canvas when a user clicks on it (unless the “Load in a New Tab” box was checked when adding the link).

Types of Interactions

PlayPosit has eight main types of interactions. Each type of interaction is either auto-graded, manually graded, or ungraded by default. For graded interactions, keep in mind that the points only impact students’ grades in Canvas if the bulb is added to the course as a Canvas assignment. Below are the types of PlayPosit interactions. You can also read descriptions of the interaction types in this PlayPosit guide.

The menu for inserting an interaction in PlayPosit. Questions: multiple choice, check all, free response, fill in the blank, poll, discussion. Annotations: pause, web embed. Templates: my interactions, vocabulary matching. At the bottom is a button that says "more options below."
PlayPosit’s interaction menu also includes the option to use a template for building an interaction. Templates still use one of the eight interaction types but have pre-sets for common question styles. For example, the vocabulary matching template makes use of the “fill in the blank” interaction type.

Auto-Graded Interactions 

Auto-graded interactions are graded by PlayPosit. When you create one of the interactions below, you will be asked to provide the correct answer(s) for auto-grading. These interactions can also be set to “0 points” if you wish for them to not count toward a student’s score. 

  • Multiple choice 
  • Check all 
  • Fill in the blank 

Manually Graded Interactions 

Manually graded interactions require the instructor to read students’ submissions and then assign a grade. These interactions can also be set to “0 points” if you wish for them to be ungraded. 

  • Free response 

Ungraded Interactions 

Ungraded interactions are not scored and therefore are set to “0 points.” You can assign points to these interactions if you choose, in which case PlayPosit will award full points for completing the interaction (clicking “continue” for a pause or web embed, or submitting a response for a poll or discussion). 

  • Pause 
  • Web embed 
  • Poll 
  • Discussion
The grading view in PlayPosit. At the top is the question and the student's response. Below that is a bar to select the number of points to award, and a text box for entering feedback. At the very bottom is a "Submit" button.
When reviewing a student’s PlayPosit submission, you can change the points they received for an interaction and in some cases, like free response interactions, leave feedback.

Questions? 

As you explore PlayPosit, we encourage you to consult PlayPosit’s extensive knowledgebase of instructor guides, including this guide for Canvas users. You can contact PlayPosit support directly by clicking the “Contact” link on their support site and filling out their web form. PlayPosit also offers live trainings, webinars, and office hours. If you are interested in any of these vendor-led training opportunities, contact dle@uwgb.edu to learn more. 

As always, we also welcome you to request a CATL consultation if you’d like to see a demo of PlayPosit or talk through how you might use it in your course.