How to use edpuzzle!

Hello everyone! 

Today I will be showing you how to effectively use the application edpuzzle in your classroom. During distance learning I found myself struggling to find asynchronous work that was relevant and engaging for students that was not just busywork or free work periods. I was introduced to edpuzzle at a staff meeting, and have been using it ever since! 

Edpuzzle is a tool that allows you to assign students a video, or videos, to watch with embedded questions. As the video progresses, it stops at each question, and does not allow students to move on to the rest of the video until they provide and answer. You can check their progress in watching the video and see the percent of questions they got correct and incorrect in the edpuzzle application. Because it is a Google product, it can sync right up to your Google Classroom which makes grading a dream!

 

Watch this video to get a comprehensive understanding of what edpuzzle is!

HOW TO LOG IN:

1. Go to edpuzzle.com and click "Sign Up"

2. Click "I'm a Teacher"

3. Click "Sign up with Google"

4. Fill out your personal information

5. Add the school that you teach at

6. Add the subjects and grades you teach

7. You are ready to get puzzling!

HOW TO NAVIGATE EDPUZZLE:

1. At the top right you will see four main tabs. Content, Gradebook, My Classes, and a Question Mark. These are so important to understand how to use!

        a. My Classes: Clicking on "My Classes" will allow you to sync your Google Classroom to edpuzzle. This means that when you post an edpuzzle assignment it will automatically synch with your Google Classroom (more information: article or video) which means students can see when it is due, how many points it will be out of, and when it is graded without having to go to a separate app. 

        b. Gradebook: The gradebook will show you the high level overview of each class. If you click on the specific student, or the specific assignment, you can see how each student did on each video, or how the class did on a specific video. These grades can easily be sent to an excel sheet by clicking "Export Gradebook" and are already transferrable to Google Classroom either automatically or manually. More information HERE.

        c. Question Mark: You can see on the top left of this image what happens when I click the question mark. I find the Google Classroom integration to be the most useful (especially when setting up the synching), but I have never had a question go unanswered by these links.

        d. Content: This is where you will find all of your videos you create or use. When you first hit "Content" it will bring you to the "Home" screen which has your recent searches.  

If you click on "Curriculum" you can search by grade, subject, and specific topic to see pre-vetted and approved videos that edpuzzle has already created. In this video I show you how that section works (I apologize for the lack of audio!)

If you click your school, in my case, "Nathan Bishop Middle School," it will show me all of the videos other teachers are assigning.

If you click on "My Content" you will see what videos you have already used. If you then hit "Add Content" it will allow you to create or upload a new video for your class. If you create a new video it will give you options to cut, voice over, or add questions. HERE is a great video helping you learn how to use these editing tools. Edupzzle will ALSO give you the option to see all the other teachers who have already edited this video, so you could use one of theirs as a starting point too! 

2. Now that you are oriented to all of the specifics of edpuzzle, don't forget that you can also just search videos that you think might be interesting. To do that you can type in key words to the top left search bar and options will pop up! HERE is a comprehensive video showing you the best way to do that. I also included an image below of me searching "media and technology." As you can see, once you do your initial search, you can specify by subject, grade, or country to make your search more specific.

If you have made it to this point in this post, more power to you! I have found that the students enjoy this tool a lot, and that they picked up how to use the student-facing side of it very easily. I have only every used it as individual work, but I can see it working well for a small group or whole class activity if you projected it on the board too.

I hope this was helpful, and that you feel equipped to use edpuzzle in your classrooms next year! Please reach out if you have any questions!