Based on some conversations I’ve had with faculty members, I think I’ll have an upcoming project making use of the H5P video annotation tool, so I’ve been spending some time messing with it so I know what to expect.
It’s cool as hell. Clunky, at times, but really cool.
To start with what doesn’t work: the integration with YouTube kind of sucks. For obvious reasons, you can’t nuke the ads, or the “More Videos” banner and close screen, and while these mostly appear under the annotations, they are confusing. They especially seem to mask the Summary exercise that comes at the end of the video (and I can’t see an easy way to deliver that hot button to viewers earlier).
Also, the lack of options to manipulate text is a problem. It’s huge text by default, limiting what can be put in an annotation — a particular shame, given that the ability to force the video to pause for annotations should in theory allow for longer text. But it’s good to know this limitation ahead of time so faculty know they should limit notes to a couple of sentences.
I love the ability to link out to other sites for context — indeed, I think that’s the most useful application — and that it auto-pauses the video while you go and do outside reading. I like the application I’ve used it for here, in terms of adding context to historical footage. It’s also nice to cue students on when to check out that material, so they’re including it in their notes at the more useful point.
The idea of quizzing students within the video is cool, but a little gimmicky, though I was thinking that if students watch videos for class like I watched the mandatory InfoSec training at work (and why wouldn’t they), some light gamification to keep me paying attention wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I think the Summary feature at the end is a nice robust way to build formative evaluation into what can be a really passive learning experience (though I worry a bit about how these evaluative tools are deployed — like, I think this would be inappropriate in any kind of summative context, though I don’t actually think the results are recorded anywhere at the moment?).
Overall, I can see a lot of applications for this tool, even with the current shortcomings.
