6 Ways to Use Edpuzzle in the Classroom

After a school year that felt more science fiction than real life, teachers and students around the world are finding their “new normal.”

That new normal overwhelmingly exists in the physical classroom, with a recent Edweek study showing that just 10% of educators reported that their districts were following a hybrid learning model for this school year (down a whopping 59% from 2020-2021).

So what to do with all of those new edtech tools?

The good news is, even if your hybrid learning days are behind you, you can still incorporate edtech into your classroom in ways that will enrich the learning experience for your students (and save you time – one of the main goals of technology!).

Here are six stellar ways to use Edpuzzle in your classroom that will engage students and liven up your lesson plans.

1. The In-Class Flip

Familiar with the flipped classroom? What about the in-class flip?

Just like the flipped classroom, for the in-class flip, your students will still be receiving self-paced instruction via video. The only difference is that they’ll be doing it in class rather than at home!

Your students will need their own devices and headphones as they watch the video you’ve assigned.

If you’ve recorded your own video with Edpuzzle’s screen recording tool, you can literally be in two places at once as you circulate to answer questions while your students view your video at their own pace.

You can also choose one of Edpuzzle’s millions of ready-to-go video lessons for a lesson plan that will come together in a couple of clicks.

After all of your students have finished watching the video and answering the embedded questions, you can use the rest of class time for practical exercises and activities to apply what students have learned.

2. The Station Rotation Model

The beauty of the station rotation model is that it allows you to give personalized instruction to small groups of students.

How does it work?

First, divide your class into groups (three or four groups is usually a good number). Then, have your students rotate through stations, spending about 10-15 minutes at each one.

If you’re doing three stations, in broad strokes, your three would be:

1. An online station (watching an Edpuzzle video and answering questions)
2. An offline station (doing a practice activity like an experiment, a 3D model, etc.)
3. A teacher-led station (students get personalized attention from you and ask questions)

Another fantastic perk about the station rotation model? Its flexibility makes it perfect for elementary, middle, or high school students, and its infinite possibilities allow you to configure your stations in a million different ways.

3. Gamification With Live Mode

Using Live Mode on Edpuzzle is a great way to invigorate your class if your students are feeling low energy and need a quick boost!

You’ll project the video on a screen in front of the whole class, and students will see the questions pop up on their individual screens.

It’s a great, low-stakes way to get participation from all of your students, since the big screen won’t display who got the answers right or wrong but rather the percentage of right vs. wrong answers.

Live Mode is also a great idea for videos introducing class rules or lab safety procedures, or even for parents on back-to-school night.

4. Homework or Test Review

Going over video lessons you had assigned for homework is another excellent application of Edpuzzle in the classroom.

You can have students start the class with a warm-up of watching the video (either all together in Live Mode or individually), or take the whole class to watch a whole unit of videos for test prep.

5. Extension Materials

No two students are the same, nor do they work at the same pace. If you have a class of 30 students, you know that none of those 30 students will finish an activity at exactly the same time.

Edpuzzle’s ability to help you differentiate your teaching means that you can create a bank of video lessons that can be used as extension materials.

Students can access these videos if they finish up an activity early, or they can also use them during the quiet time after completing a test or a quiz.

6. Student Projects

Seeing a student’s creativity blossom during a project is a magical thing.

With Edpuzzle’s Student Projects feature, your students become the teachers as they create their very own video lessons.

Use class time to watch the finished product in Live Mode and have students engage each other through the videos they create.

How do you use Edpuzzle in the classroom? Let us know on Twitter, and get inspired by our community of teachers!