Creating Video Lessons

There are a number of ways to find a video for your next lesson on Edpuzzle. 

My Content

Select “My Content” from the left-hand menu to search through videos you've already stored in your account.

To upload new content, click the blue “Add Content” button at the top of your screen. Then choose “Upload video” to upload a video file from your computer or Google Drive, or “Record video” to use the screen recording function provided by the Edpuzzle for Chrome extension.

Edpuzzle Originals

Edpuzzle has developed a collection of high-quality, professionally-made, ready-to-use video lessons, called Edpuzzle Originals, organized by subject and grade level. These videos are a huge time-saver and a great jumping-off point since you can always modify the embedded questions after you’ve copied a video to your Content.

With new videos being developed all the time, you’ll be sure to find an engaging video lesson that meets your needs.

To learn more about Edpuzzle Originals, check out this video.

My Network

This is where you can view and copy lessons that other teachers in your school or district have stored. 

There are two ways to access this content:

• If you’re looking for content saved by a specific colleague, select “My Network” from the left-hand menu and click on that teacher’s name from the list provided. If you’re part of a larger network of schools, first select that colleague’s school, and then you’ll find a list of teachers at that school to choose from.
• If you just want to browse content created by all teachers in your school/district, or filter by subject and grade level, Select “Discover” from the left-hand menu and then choose the “My School”/”My Network” tab. 

Discover

Select “Discover” from the left-hand menu to search through all videos on Edpuzzle.
The “Community” tab will show you video lessons that other teachers on Edpuzzle have created.

Type your keywords into the search bar at the top of your page, and Edpuzzle will display the top results. Not finding what you're looking for? Feel free to get more specific with your search terms or use the “Subjects,” “Grade levels,” “Country,” and “Source” filters to customize your findings.

Select the “YouTube” tab to browse videos only from YouTube, and use the channel filters at the top of the page to find content created by popular educational channels like Khan Academy, National Geographic, Crash Course, and more.

Finding videos directly on YouTube

You don’t have to exclusively search the channels on Edpuzzle to find your favorite YouTube videos to use as Edpuzzle lessons. Just copy the URL of the YouTube video you want and paste it into the Edpuzzle search bar to start editing.

If you're browsing YouTube and come across a video you'd like to share with your students, you'll definitely want to install the Edpuzzle for Chrome extension so that you can quickly and easily import the video directly from YouTube to your Edpuzzle library.

If you find a video you want to use with your students through any of these avenues, you can copy it to your Content and, if needed, edit it to make the video and/or questions more relevant to what you're teaching.

Here’s a quick video tutorial to walk you through the above options:

Now that you’ve found a video, there are several things you can do: edit the video, watch the video or copy the video. 

1. Edit the video
   Checking the box below the video and selecting "Edit" from the bottom menu will allow you to edit the video and customize it for your students. You can cut the video, add questions, add notes with audio, add voiceover or change the title.
   Editing the video automatically saves it to your content and takes you directly to the video editor.
2. Watch the video
   Clicking the play button on the video will allow you to preview the video, so you can check and see if it would be appropriate for your students.
3. Copy the video
   Check the box below the video then select "Copy" from the bottom menu to copy the video to your content. The video will be automatically saved to your content. This allows you to edit it at a later date and gives you the opportunity to continue searching for videos. 

To learn more, check out our article about what type of questions you can add.

Found the perfect video but only need to use part of it? Then cut it with Edpuzzle! You can use the cut feature in the editing section to include only what you need.

To cut a video, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, click on the "Cut" tab.
   2. Below your video, you’ll see a blue bar. Drag the white vertical line at either side of the bar to crop from the beginning or the end of your video.
   3. If you want to add another cut to your video (for example, if you want to cut a section from the middle), click the “Add cut” button. You can repeat this step as many times as you like!
   4. When you’re finished, the sections you’ve cut will appear in gray and the remaining video will appear in blue in the bar.
   5. To preview how your video will appear with the cuts, drag the black ball back to the beginning of your video.

Now that you have your video lesson at the perfect length, check out this article to learn what types of questions you can add to engage your students.

If you'd like to embed a question in your video, select the video you want to use and click “Edit” to open the video editor.

1. 1. Click on the "Questions" tab above the video.
   2. In the timeline below the video, click on the spot where you’d like to add a question or note.
   3. Select “Multiple-choice question”, “Open-ended question” or “Note” from the options on the right.
   4. Add your question or note, and click the blue “Save” button.
   5. To add another question or note to the same point in the video, click on the “+” icon for the question type or note of your choice below the text “Add another note or question here”.

After you've added your question(s), you can click the play button to confirm that they appear in the video at the right spot. If the timing is wrong, you can drag the question box along the timeline to the left or right until it's perfectly timed, or just click on the time box to the left of your question or note to enter the exact minute and second.

If you want to learn more, check out our article on how to grade those questions once your students have watched the lesson.

With Edpuzzle, you can customize your lessons for every class by creating your own questions and notes. You can add:

1. Open-ended questions

This is perfect if you want your students to give a more thoughtful response. These are not automatically graded since each student's answer will differ.

2. Multiple-choice

Here you can select which answers are correct and incorrect. Test your student's understanding with all kinds of question formats, like true/false, single answer, multiple answers and more. These are graded automatically.

3. Notes

This is your tool for telling your students anything you need them to know about the video. Add context, give instructions or add an interesting fact!

If you'd like to take it one step further, check out our article on how to add rich text and embed images and other engaging media to your questions.

Audio questions allow you to enhance or replace written questions embedded in your video lessons. 

Here’s how to add audio to your questions while in the video editor:

1. 1. Click on the "Questions" tab above the video.
   2. In the timeline below the video, click on the spot where you’d like to add a question.
   3. Select “Multiple-choice question” or “Open-ended question” from the options on the right.
   4. To begin recording the audio for the question you’re asking or for an answer choice (for multiple-choice questions), click the microphone icon in the bottom left corner of the associated text box. 
   5. To stop recording, click the blinking red square.
   6. Play back the audio to make sure you’re happy with your recording. If you’d like to redo or remove it, click the trash can to the right of your audio to delete it.
   7. Click the blue “Save” button to finish adding or editing the question.

You may also be interested in adding audio to your notes or allowing students to record audio responses.

For open-ended questions, you can enable the option for students to record an audio response, rather than or in addition to a written response. 

While editing your video lessons, each open-ended question will have a toggle switch that can be used to allow students to submit a recorded audio response. To activate this feature for a question, toggle the “Allow answer with audio” option to “On.”

Students’ audio responses will appear alongside any additional written response when grading assignments. 

Here’s a quick video tutorial to walk you through some additional information on audio responses:

To learn more about grading student responses, check out this article.

Why add audio? Studies show that students pay more attention to information if they hear it from a familiar voice.

Follow these steps to record audio with your note:

1. 1. In the video editor, click on the “Questions” tab.
   2. Select “Note” from the menu on the right.
   3. Click on the microphone icon below the text box to start recording.
   4. When you’re finished recording, click the blinking red square to stop recording.
   5. Click the blue “Save” button, and you’re done!

You might also be interested in our article on how to record voiceovers.

If you're wondering why you should add audio, studies show that students pay more attention to information if they hear it from a familiar voice!

A voiceover is an audio recording that plays over the original audio of the video.

To record a voiceover, select the video of your choice from “My Content” and click on “Edit” to open the video editor.

Then, follow these steps:

1. 1. Click on the "Voiceover" tab above the video.
   2. Select the spot in the video where you want to record audio by clicking on the timeline bar below the video.
   3. Click on the red “Start recording” button.
   4. If this is your first time recording audio on Edpuzzle, a pop-up window will appear in your browser asking if you want to allow Edpuzzle to access your microphone. Click “Allow” so that your audio can be recorded.
   5. When you’re finished, click on the red “Stop recording” button.
   6. To preview your recording on its own, click on the play button below “Start recording”. (If you want to delete your recording, just click the trash bin icon to the right of the bar.)
   7. To preview the video with your voiceover incorporated, click on the play button below the video.

You can add as many voiceovers to your video as you like!

For more audio options, you can also check out our article on how to record audio with a note.

Note: Due to an update in YouTube's Terms of Service, we can no longer offer the option to add a voiceover to YouTube videos within Edpuzzle.The voiceover option is only available for videos uploaded directly to Edpuzzle. To discern which videos are eligible for voiceovers, look for the “Teacher upload” indicator beneath the video.

A great way to enhance your questions and notes is by adding pictures, links, documents, and even formulas to your video lesson! To enhance your questions and notes, click on the "Questions" tab in the video editor above your video. From there, you can:

Embed links
You can include a link to another website like Google Drive or to a relevant article. To do so, follow these steps:

1. 1. Above the text field for your question or note, click on the link icon.
   2. Next, type or paste the URL for the website you want to share and the text you want to be shown.
   3. Click “OK” and you’ll be returned to editing the question/note.

Insert images
To insert an image into a question or note by uploading it from your computer or using a URL, follow these steps:

1. 1. Above the text field for your question or note, click on the image icon.
   2. You can choose to upload a picture from your computer or type or paste in a URL.
   3. Next, you can choose the title and size of the picture.
   4. Click “OK” and you’ll be returned to editing the question/note.

Make formulas
You can add a formula to a question or note using the equation editor. To embed a formula, follow these steps:

1. 1. Above the text field for your question or note, click on the “fx” icon.
   2. Click on the math symbols you need to create your formula.
   3. Click “OK” and you’ll be returned to editing the question/note.

Add rich text
To add rich text to a question (bold, underlined, or italicized), follow these steps:

1. 1. Above the text field for your question or note, click the B, I, or U to add the rich text of your choice.
   2. When you're finished typing, click the same icon to go back to normal text.

You might also be interested in our article on how to add questions.

With the Edpuzzle extension for Google Chrome, you can record, trim, and upload a screen recording, webcam video, or whiteboard drawing.

To record a video:

1. 1. Open the Edpuzzle extension, either manually through your browser or by clicking the "Add Content" button at the top of your screen and then "Record video” from the menu that appears.
   2. Choose the content you want to record. If you don’t want to record audio from your microphone or video from your webcam, click the icons next to those inputs to turn them off. 
      • • “Tab” will record only the browser tab you’re currently viewing.
        • “Desktop” will allow you to choose to record all activity on your screen, a specific window, or use the whiteboard feature.
        • “Camera only” will record only from your webcam.
   3. Click the “Show options” button to toggle on or off the options to show a countdown (this will be a three-second countdown before the recording begins) or the recording time.
   4. Use the recording controls tool to toggle your microphone and webcam on and off and to pause, continue, stop, restart, or delete the recording. Because these recording functions are made possible by the Chrome extension, the controls tool will only appear within your browser window. This means that if you’re recording a window that isn’t your browser, you’ll need to head back to Chrome to stop recording, etc.
   5. The recording controls tool also includes a Drawing Tool (available only for tab recordings and whiteboard mode) so that you can draw or write on your screen. To use this tool, click the pencil icon and then select the line weight and color. You can use standard lines or arrows (great for pointing to specific places on your screen!). To erase any of your drawing, use the undo or eraser buttons.
   6. When you’re done recording, click the square “Stop recording” icon in the controls tool (time limit of two hours per video). This will take you to a new screen that allows you to preview your video, name it, trim it, choose a thumbnail image, and set the privacy level.
   7. Click the “Next” button at the top of your page to move on to the Edpuzzle video editor where you can make further cuts (if necessary) and add your questions/notes before assigning the lesson to your classes.

Here’s a quick video tutorial to walk you through some of the above steps:

Note: When your recording begins, the Edpuzzle extension will open a new tab in your browser. Closing this tab will delete the progress on your recording, so make sure to keep that tab open while recording your video. When you finish recording, that tab will close automatically.

At this time, screen recording isn’t available while using a browser other than Google Chrome (like Safari or Firefox).

To add the Edpuzzle extension to your browser, click here.

Yes! When you want to create an assignment for which your students will submit their own video lesson, this is called a student project.

Student projects allow you to engage with your students using project-based learning and are a great way to assess their knowledge on a topic.

Here’s how to set up a student project:

1. 1. Click on the blue "+ Add Content" button at the top of your screen.
   2. Choose “Student project" from the drop-down menu.
   3. Fill in the fields for the Subject (the project name), Goal of the project, and Instructions.
   4. Choose the video source by checking the box(es) next to the option(s) you want available to your students. 
      • “Find YouTube video” will allow your students to search through our YouTube channel or paste a YouTube video URL into the search bar if they have an exact video in mind.
      • “Upload a video” will allow your students to upload their own video directly to Edpuzzle. They can upload a video file from their computer or Google Drive.
   5. Click “Save project” to save it and return to your My Content library, or “Save and Assign” to immediately assign the project to your students.

Now, the student project will automatically appear in your My Content library, below all of your other video lessons. You’ll be able to assign student projects just like you would a video lesson.

If your students need help creating their projects, you can share this article with them for details on how things will work from their end.

Note: At this time, the use of student projects isn't available for classes created through LTI integrations.

Do you want to give immediate feedback to your students? We have a feature that allows you to write a message that will automatically appear after students submit a question. This is useful if you want to explain why an answer was incorrect or send your students a little encouragement.

To include feedback for your questions, please follow these steps:

1. 1. Select the open-ended question, multiple-choice question or note option and write your question/note.
   2. Click on the "Feedback" text in the bottom right corner of the text field, which will turn the text field yellow.
   3. Type the comment you want to display in response to the student's answer.
   4. To go back to your question, click on "Question."

Notice that you'll also be able to include immediate feedback for each multiple-choice answer.

Audio files can't be uploaded to Edpuzzle.

If you’d like to use an audio file for an edpuzzle, you can first convert it to a video file and then upload that video file instead.

There are lots of programs or platforms that can help convert files from audio to video. Find one that works for you and prepare your file.

Once you’ve done this, you can upload the video file using the steps listed here.

To delete a question, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, click on the question or note you want to delete from the “Video events” column on the left. This will display it to the right of the video.
   2. Click on the trash bin icon below the question or note, and you’re done!

To delete a voiceover, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, click on the “Voiceover” tab.
   2. Click on the trash bin icon next to the recording you want to delete, and you’re done!

Yes! If you want to add multiple questions at the same point, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, click the “Questions” tab above the video.
   2. Add a question or note.
   3. Once finished, click on the “+” icon for the question type or note of your choice below the text “Add another note or question here”.
   4. You can add more questions and comments at the same spot until you're finished by repeating step 3 as many times as you need.

Once you've finished editing your video, click the blue “Finish” button in the top right corner of the editing page. 

After clicking "Finish," you can assign the video lesson to a class immediately or navigate away and assign it later.

Don't worry – you won't lose your work if you close the page by accident while editing your video! Video lessons are automatically saved every five seconds so you don't have to manually save your changes! 

How to move your question or note

To move your question or note to a different place in the video, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, select the question or note you want to move from the “Video events” column on the left.
   2. Below the video, you’ll see your question or note and to the left, the time at which it appears in the video.
   3. Click on the time and type in when you would like your question or note to appear. Alternatively, you can drag and drop your question or comment in the video timeline bar.

How to move your voiceover

To move your voiceover to a different place in the video, follow these steps:

1. 1. In the video editor, click on the “Voiceover” tab.
   2. To the left of your voiceover recording and under the red “Start recording” button, you’ll see the time at which it appears in the video.
   3. Click on the time and type in when you would like your voiceover to appear. Alternatively, you can drag and drop your question or comment in the video timeline bar.

Add a title to any video lesson for easier reference by following these steps:

1. 1. Select the video from My Content.
   2. Click “Edit” at the top of the page.
   3. Click the pencil icon at the top of the page, next to the current video title.
   4. Make your changes.
   5. Click “Save title” to ensure your changes take effect.

To change the title of a video after it’s been assigned:

1. 1. Select a class from the My Classes menu on the left-hand side of your page.
   2. Click on the associated assignment.
   3. Click “Edit assigned video” at the top of the page.
   4. Click “Edit name” beneath the current title.
   5. Make your changes.
   6. Click “Change name” to save your edit.

Note: Changing the title of a video will update the name of all associated assignments.

Closed-captioning is available for any YouTube videos on Edpuzzle that have been originally captioned within YouTube, as well as for Edpuzzle Originals and most teacher-uploaded content.

Enabling closed-captioning

When you assign your video lesson, you can select the option to "Turn on CCs" to enable closed-captioning.

When a student watches a video lesson that has closed-captioning, a “CC” button will appear beneath the video. They can click this button to enable or disable subtitles.

Enabling subtitles in different languages

Some videos may be subtitled in different languages. To go through the options, click the “CC” button.

Note that if the YouTube video owner has added subtitles manually, then you will only be able to access those manually-generated subtitles and any auto-generated closed captions will not be available within Edpuzzle.

No closed captions available

If the video doesn't have any available subtitles, the "CC" button won't appear at the bottom of the video. 

Setting closed-captioning as a default

If you always want closed-captioning to appear (when available), just click on your profile icon in the upper right-hand corner, select your name from the dropdown menu, and click on the "Settings" tab. Next to "Closed Captions," toggle the switch to “On.” That's it – your preferences will be saved automatically!