Using Panopto In-Video Quizzes for Online Education

While use of videos in online and remote courses has exploded since YouTube launched in 2006 [1], viewers tend to disengage or stop watching after 10–12 minutes [2]. Therefore, long videos need to include interactivity, transitions, or segmentations [3]. Tools like Panopto have made this easy for faculty members in the context of higher education.

Panopto is a screen and lecture capture tool that works well with presentation software like PowerPoint. It also offers automatically created “Smart Chapters” for segmentation, and includes an in-video quiz feature, for which faculty members often use interactive knowledge checks. There is no shortage of quizzing tools in the world, but displaying a quiz directly in the video is different from most. In-video quizzes are known to be effective at keeping students watching and helping the lecture content stick in their memory [4].

Why Does This Work?

Behaviorists assume the learning happens through a stimulus-response process, and Cummins et al. stated one of the biggest learning benefits of having an in-video quiz is providing an opportunity for students to receive immediate feedback on correct and incorrect responses [5]. “Immediate” is a key word here. If one creates a knowledge check in an LMS quizzing tool, for example, students would likely finish watching the video, navigate to the quiz and make several mouse clicks to launch it, then have to think back to relevant parts of the video, and complete all of the questions in the quiz before receiving any feedback. In-video quizzes allow instructors to do knowledge checks and give feedback at the point and time of highest relevance.

Other studies have shown out of Moore’s three types of interaction [6], student-content interaction most significantly predicts a student’s retention and perceived learning effectiveness [7, 8], and in-video quizzes change the viewing of pre-recorded lectures from a passive to an active process. Some results indicated those who solved in-video quizzes constantly stayed engaged with the content with a rate of one question per 8.7 minutes of video [9], skipped around the video [10], and watched longer [11]. 

Strategies for Developing Effective In-Video Quizzes

Research indicates there are four underlying motivations in completing the in-video quizzes [5]:

1. Completionist students want to answer all in-video quizzes because they regularly complete every task they are given.
2. Challenge-seeking students only answer the questions they believe push them to expand their thinking or skills.
3. Desire for feedback is a motivation for students who use the quizzes to verify their understanding of the materials.
4. Some students are motivated to complete and even redo quiz questions to review material before the examination date.

Keeping this in mind, to maximize the effectiveness of your in-video quizzes, consider the following recommendations.

First, allow learners to access the video navigational controls. Jumping back to an earlier point in the video contributes to in-video retention. As such, encouraging non-linear navigation is particularly important for learners to complete the video and in-video quizzes.

Second, chunk videos into a manageable length and put the quizzes at the end of each segment. This helps to achieve optimal cognitive load, as a recent experiment on segmented videos showed [12].  Viewers were able to retain the presented content and then solve a newly presented problem. Panopto automatically creates chapters, but if your videos are longer than the aforementioned 12 minutes, you may see learners “dropping out” of the video.

Third, we really recommended providing answer feedback. The nature of asynchrony makes it difficult for teachers to offer useful feedback for all students. And while literature pertaining to the effects of feedback on in-video quizzes is scant, the topic of feedback has been widely studied. Without a doubt, feedback plays an integral part in any learning situation, and for low stakes knowledge-checking questions, feedback is a particularly powerful tool [13]. In a physiology course, researchers investigated the impact of quizzes containing feedback. The vast majority of students perceived the online quizzes as a useful learning tool, and there was a correlation between quiz performance and the end-of-semester grade [14].

Quiz feedback should follow these guidelines:

• Make it timely (this is already done as an in-video quiz!).
• Don’t present new information. The feedback should help learners reflect the newly acquired knowledge.
• Be sensitive. Your tone should be encouraging, not discouraging.
• Demonstrate real-life consequences. Potential impacts of the incorrect quiz response can be addressed so that learners can imagine what would happen in the hypothetical situation and apply this knowledge in any relevant real-world situations they may encounter.
• Be concise and clear. That way, learners can effectively internalize the feedback. For example, negatively phrased questions tend to be more confusing for learners [15].

Finally, you may consider making some quizzes ungraded. One study of an introductory psychology course found when it came to final exam grades, students taking ungraded quizzes outperformed students taking a graded form of the quizzes (and students taking no quizzes at all) [16]. In addition, the students taking the ungraded quizzes reported positive feelings about the quizzes. In another study of six undergraduate psychology classes all taught by the same professor, students performed significantly better on exams when they used ungraded quizzes rather than graded quizzes and correct answers to the quizzes were included [17].

Wrapping Up

Bear in mind that in-video quizzes are an assessment for learning, not an assessment of learning. It is best to use them as knowledge checks that increase learner engagement, rather than as a gatekeeper tool that offers questions so challenging, learners are prevented from moving on.

With a high number of in-video dropouts, it is imperative to help learners stay engaged with your content. When implemented carefully and strategically, Panopto’s in-video quizzes have proven to be an effective way of doing this. Looking forward, we expect to see research on how to maximize engagement for learners with different motivations (e.g., extrinsic versus intrinsic). 

"The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University or the Department of Defense."

References

About the Authors

Dr. Eulho Jung has earned a doctorate in instructional systems technology from Indiana University Bloomington. He is currently serving as an assistant professor at the School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), a military medical school. His research interests revolve around intersecting expertise development and instructional systems design with the goals of realizing personalized learning.

Greg Snow is an instructional design consultant and doctoral student at Boise State University???s eCampus Center. He specializes in online teaching and course design.