As usual around this time of year, I'm doing a lesson about St Patrick's Day (17th March) with my EM Normandie students. In the past I've shown videos on the big screen using a videoprojector and given them questionnaires to fill in as or after they watch, but as they all have iPads now, I thought I'd try something different.
There are several web-based tools which allow you to create interactive videos by inserting questions and other media into an existing video, so I decided to try two to see how they compare: EDpuzzle and Zaption. Here's the one I made using EDpuzzle (you can find the original video here).
I couldn't embed the one I made with Zaption as my blog page is not wide enough, but you can find it here.
COMPARISON
So how do the two tools compare? Well, first of all, Zaption has a slicker interface and is rather more user-friendly. Both tools let you add multiple choice and open-ended questions but only Zaption allows you to add feedback for each question (with Edpuzzle you only get the correct answer). However, with EDpuzzle you can add your own voiceover, which you can't do with Zaption. Zaption streams the videos direct from YouTube, so you get the annoying ads, and crucially, many schools (including mine) block YouTube anyway. EDpuzzle scores by allowing you to upload your own videos, which avoids this problem (in fact, I downloaded the video from YouTube to my computer, and then uploaded it to the EDpuzzle site before adding the questions). However, once you've published a video on EDpuzzle you can't edit it, whereas Zaption allows you to 'unpublish' a 'tour'. Both EdPuzzle and Zaption have apps, which is great if your students have iPads, like mine. They also both have analytic tools, which give you information about who has taken a quiz and how they did. Finally, EDpuzzle is 100% free, while you have to subscribe to Zaption ($89/year) to access some advanced features.
VERDICT
I would certainly recommend both tools. If your school blocks YouTube, then EDpuzzle is a no-brainer, but Zaption does have better feedback and editing features, which just about gives it the edge in my opinion.
POSTSCRIPT
Another site for making interactive videos is eduCanon, which is very similar to Zaption, except for the fact that you can only create multiple-choice questions unless you subscribe to the Premium version (also $89/year!) You can try the quiz I created with eduCanon here.
Which of the three do you prefer?
ALSO SEE
• Introduction to Zaption
• EDpuzzle demo video
• Seven things you need to know about interactive video assessment tools (PennState)
• Zaption vs EDpuzzle (Donovanscience)
• EDpuzzle Review: Easy-to-Use Tool Lets Teachers Quickly Turn Online Video into Lessons (Edudemic)
• Try EDpuzzle's Chrome Extension to Save Videos for Flipped Lessons (Free Technology for Teachers)
• eduCanon Review (Common Sense)
• eduCanon's Builder Environment Walkthrough (YouTube)
