Edpuzzle is an online learning tool that allows teachers to upload videos and add questions to videos so that students can be tested in real time as they learn new concepts. Edpuzzle assignments assigned in Canvas will be automatically graded as students work through them.
How does Edpuzzle work?
Edpuzzle is not a streaming tool, so it should not be used for the purpose of showing videos from Youtube. If you wish to simply show a video from YouTube, but not create an assignment involving it, please see our Video Usage Guidelines.
With Edpuzzle, you can make any video your lesson in three easy steps:
- Find a video online, upload your own or re-use a video lesson created by another teacher.
- Then, edit the video to create your lesson. Record your voice to personalize it, and hold your students accountable by embedding questions in the video.
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Assign the video to your students and check their progress in real time while they learn at their own pace.
Edpuzzle issues:
If you run into an issue with an Edpuzzle assignment, and students cannot view that assignment,
How student rostering works:
Student rostering occurs when a student opens their first EdPuzzle assignment in your course. If a student is missing from the roster, they likely haven't accessed their first EdPuzzle assignment yet.
If a student is already in the course roster but cannot access some EdPuzzle assignments, yet they could access others in the past, the best thing to try is removing the student from the class in Edpuzzle, and then have them access the assignment again. This will act as a kind of reset and should allow them to access their assignments moving forward.
(Some student's might alert tech support to this issue in particular. This would be a helpful indication that checking/adjusting the student roster as mentioned above will help resolve this issue)
Keep in mind that removing the student from your EdPuzzle class will also remove any progress/grades of theirs on other assignments they may have completed. This data cannot be recovered on the Edpuzzle side, but it should remain accessible in your LMS grade book.
How to remove the student:
- Choose the student's class from the list under "My Classes" in the menu on the left-hand side of your EdPuzzle page.
- Go to the "Class members" tab.
- Find the student's name and click the ellipsis (...) to the right.
- Select "Remove from class" in the drop-down menu.
- Confirm the deletion in the pop-up window that appears.
Edpuzzle + Canvas Best Practices (Avoiding Common Issues)
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Avoid posting the same Edpuzzle assignment multiple times: If an Edpuzzle assignment is posted or updated several times, it may appear multiple times inside the Edpuzzle class (even if you intended it to be the same assignment). This can create confusion for both teachers and students.
Best practice:
If you see multiple copies of the same assignment in Edpuzzle, delete the empty duplicates (the ones with no progress/grades) and keep the one that contains student work.
Tip: The version that contains student progress is often listed toward the bottom of the assignment list in Edpuzzle, especially if it was the first one created.
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Understand how "Attempts" works (Edpuzzle vs Canvas)
Attempts can be confusing because Canvas attempt settings do not sync back to Edpuzzle.
Key rules: Edpuzzle attempt settings must be chosen in Edpuzzle during assigning. Canvas attempt settings do not communicate back to Edpuzzle. Once an Edpuzzle assignment has been posted, the number of attempts cannot be changed on that existing posting.
Best practice: Before posting, confirm the attempts setting in Edpuzzle (not just in Canvas).
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If students need another attempt after the assignment is already posted:
If the original posting has student progress/grades, Edpuzzle typically recommends leaving that posting as-is so you don't risk losing or splitting data across multiple copies. Instead, you can grant retries per student.
How to manually allow a student to retry in Edpuzzle: Open the Edpuzzle assignment. Choose the video/assignment. Find the student's name. Click the three dots (…) to the right of the student's name. Select Make student retry.
- If an Edpuzzle assignment suddenly stops working for some students, it may be because the original video used in the assignment was removed by the video's host (such as YouTube). When this happens, students may see a broken video image and/or find that the video stays stuck loading or "buffering" and never plays, even though other students were able to complete the assignment at an earlier date. Unfortunately, once a source video is taken down, the assignment cannot be repaired. To resolve this, you will need to find a similar video and create a new Edpuzzle assignment for any students who still need to complete the work.
Using Edpuzzle with Canvas
Before you start creating and assigning Edpuzzle content, you will need to first create an Edpuzzle account, and set it up in your Canvas course. The following article will walk you through creating your account, adding the Edpuzzle app to Canvas, and adding an Edpuzzle assignment in Canvas:
Want to learn more about Edpuzzle?
If you want to learn more about using Edpuzzle, you can check out the following link to take their free beginner's course:
If you have any questions, or run into any issues setting up Edpuzzle, please don't hesitate to reach out to the tech team.