Make Videos Student Friendly with EmbedPlus

I have enjoyed using Tubechop, but I recently stumbled upon another program called EmbedPlus. Embed Plus allows users to share YouTube videos more effectively.  EmbedPlus allows users to seamlessly and freely upgrade video embeds with attractive features that the standard YouTube player does not currently offer. Given a YouTube link and a few seconds, it applies APIs to generate enhanced embed code that adds features like: DVD-like controls, “chopping”, real-time Internet reactions, third-party annotations, and more. EmbedPlus could be useful to anyone wanting to offer viewers more without having to actually alter original video content.

Using EmbedPlus is very simple: 

1. Enter the URL of your You Tube video

2. You can then use the EmbedPlus features to make the youtube video like a DVD control such as scene skipping, movable zoom, third party annotations, slow motion on-demand, and instant replay. You can even set a start time as well as fast forward to a specific scene. Teachers can even add words to the video to explain a particular scene.

3. When finished, click “get code” and either copy the new url for your video or embed the code into your website or blog to share with others.

 

Here are some ways teachers can use Edmbed Plus in the classroom: 

Chapter/Scene Skipping

Videos often have specific segments or turning points that viewers may wish to jump back and forth to, especially after the first view. A video could span multiple topics and/or contain different speakers. Teachers can mark each turning point for easy navigation using the jump buttons on the player. Alternatively, if a video has certain ‘skippable’ parts that are not relevant to the desired lesson, the beginning of the relevant parts could be marked for direct access to them.

Movable Zoom and Slow Motion

These are the other DVD-like controls. They can be particularly valuable for science and nature videos in which students are to make observations. To illustrate, a video might contain experiments and chemical reactions that may happen too quickly for normal playback. Slow motion and zoom offers students a chance to get a closer and clearer understanding of the event. They can also provide greater accessibility that some students might need for viewing text and other objects within a video.

Third Party Annotations

Teachers might wish to offer additional information beyond what is presented in a video. Such information could be effectively displayed using annotations that popup at user-defined times. EmbedPlus offers such a feature for third-parties–i.e. anyone that wishes to embed a video. While annotations/captions are also possible through YouTube, they can only be added by a user with access to the video’s channel. EmbedPlus complements YouTube in this way. You will also find that with EmbedPlus’ annotations, the control bar of the player displays the text to avoid blocking the video screen and possibly distracting viewers.

Real-time Reactions

This optional feature displays YouTube and Twitter reactions right inside the player. We are speculating that some comments from YouTube and Twitter can offer students useful viewpoints from others that have viewed a video, particularly those outside the students’ classroom. This of course depends on the nature of the commenters and tweeters.

 



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