How Interactive Video Quizzing Helps Teachers and Students

As we wrap up the summer conferences and prepare for back-to-school I’m starting to get more and more requests for interactive video quizzing. I have no doubt it’s because of the recent announcement of Workday acquiring Zaption.

With this sudden excitement and interest with interactive video quizzing, I decided to explore the pedagogical advantages of having quiz questions inside a video. Going back to my days as a primary and secondary student, I remember the thought of a quiz or test provoking anxiety and hours of preparation. However, when I was a college psychology student, I took a behavior modification course at Portland State University. (Incidentally, my professor was married to my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Guthrie, so this story truly provides a full circle perspective regarding my own learning.)

The behavior modification course was pretty cool because my professor practiced the principles of the course. Instead of hours of in-class lectures followed by a mid-term and semester test, we read small chapters and discussed the topic followed by a 10 question quiz. We got our results quickly (Professor Guthrie reviewed on the spot) and were able to either proceed to the next chapter or return to the same chapter for review. In essence, our behavior was modified by learning content in small manageable chunks before moving on, finally working up to the semester test. We were slowly building confidence and mastery of topics, not cramming the night before a test. Thus, in a class about behavior modification, he actually modified our behavior of how we study.

Fast-forward several years later. We are now seeing video and quizzing combined to help not only teachers with formative assessment, but also students understand their own learning. Providing an in-video quiz with immediate feedback allows the student to take an active role in their own learning. Monitoring their own understanding of the lesson builds confidence and insight.

Some Scientific Basis for Why Interactive Video Quizzing is Effective

I recently read a blog entitled, The Cognitive Benefits of Quizzing Your Students on the Learning & Brain® website. The blogger, Andrew Watson, reveals the findings of an experiment, by Karl Szpunar, to better understand student engagement and attention. Two groups watched a video lecture on statistics that was divided into four segments. One group took breaks between each segment, while the other group took short quizzes.
The results were surprising, but align with my own experience of taking that behavior modification course in college. Watson reports that “Szpunar’s data showed that quizzed students did much (MUCH) better on the final test as well. Group 1 students—who took the break between video segments—scored, on average, 59% on that test; Group 2 students—who took short quizzes—scored an 84%.”

The experiment went on to reveal that being quizzed actually reduced student stress and anxiety. Szpunar’s experiment found two important results. First, quizzes helped the students monitor their own progress. They got feedback every 15 minutes, so they understood if they were comprehending the material. Secondly, the quizzes were low stakes and formative. The quizzes were not graded or factored into the class average. The tone surrounding the quizzes shaped the students’ experience of quiz taking.

This is why Kaltura provides interactive video quizzing, among other interactive tools, inside the LMS and our own video portal. The quiz score even flows into the LMS gradebook, and provides a full soup-to-nuts media management in-and-outside of the classroom. It offers live and video-on-demand (VOD) that is accessible on any device, anytime, and anywhere.

In the end, adding a quiz inside a video not only lets teachers assess their class. It simultaneously converts students from passive to active learners. Students and teachers both have greater insight into how well material is being communicated. As a result, they’re less stressed and more open to learning. No wonder interactive video quizzes are becoming so popular!