Adding Interactive Questions to Video to Check For Understanding

As a teacher, you’re on a never-ending quest to not only get your students to pay attention to what you’re teaching, but to have them actually engage with the content. Adding interactive questions to asynchronous video is a simple and effective way to not only get students to engage with content, but also create formative assessments and checks for understanding of the content. Doing so allows you to gauge student comprehension during asynchronous learning, and promote a more inclusive and adaptive educational environment.

It’s a feat, to be sure, but Screencastify can help.

How? So glad you asked. There are multiple ways you can use interactive questions on video inside and outside the classroom, and one key use is to do a temperature check on students (individually or the class as a whole) so you can better understand how they are retaining and comprehending the material you’re teaching.

Using Interactive Questions to check for understanding

Interactive questions are ideal for checking to see how well your students are understanding content. By adding multiple choice or short answer questions, help stimulate critical thinking and encourage your students to actively participate in learning.

Here are some examples of what interactive questions that check for understanding might look like in Screencastify:‍

‍True or False: [Statement about a concept.] True or false? Provide a brief explanation for your choice.‍
Short Answer: Explain [concept] discussed in the video using at least three terms discussed. ‍
Scenario-based: If you were faced with [include real-world scenario as related to the concept], what actions would you take? Justify your response.‍
Ranking: Rank the following [include a list of related terms, subjects, concepts] in order of importance or significance. Provide a brief rationale for your ranking. ‍
Problem-solving: Apply [specific concept] to solve the following problem: [include scenario or case study]. Guide me through your thought process for finding a solution.

Interactive Questions are also a great tool to use outside of traditional assignments and assessments. Here are some uses you may want to try:

Discussion starters. At the beginning of a video, pose a thought-provoking question related to the upcoming lesson or a current event, and encourage students to share their thoughts and insights.
Close the learning loop. Use interactive questions at the end of an asynchronous video that asks students to summarize key takeaways or reflect on their understanding of the day’s material.
Activate prior knowledge. Start a video lesson with an interactive question to get students thinking about what they learned in previous material, or what they are about to learn in that day’s lesson.
Reflect on learning. Use interactive questions as prompts for students to reflect on their learning experience, discussing the challenges they faced or lessons learned.

When you incorporate interactive questions you’re offering students a more personalized learning experience. You’ll get a better understanding of how your class is interpreting and comprehending the material you’re teaching, and Screencastify’s new experience for interactive questions takes this experience to the next level. Not only does the new user interface help simplify the process of including interactive questions in learning, it also makes it easy to analyze responses and assess areas of comprehension, strength, and needed improvement, by student and by class.

Looking for more ideas? Head to our Tactical Guide for Teachers on using Interactive Questions to Personalize Learning!

Or, make a video or add a question to a video to get started today.