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Canvas – How do I use TED-Ed?
TED-Ed, an external app with a collection of quality videos that can be embedded in your Canvas course for instructional purposes, is a “lesson creator” platform that allows you to structure an assignment around a video and assess students’ engagement with the material. The lesson format consists of a lesson title, a written introduction (“Let’s Begin”), a series of multiple choice or open-ended questions (“Think”), a place for additional resources to encourage further exploration (“Dig Deeper”), an interactive class discussion (“Discuss”), and a closing (“And Finally”).
You can create your own TED-Ed video at http://ed.ted.com, link to completed user-created content, or use YouTube videos.
Benefits of using Ted-Ed
- Explainer Videos Are Relatable
- Content is Engaging
- Diverse Topics
- Comprehension Questions
- Use Questions for Discussion
- Flipped Classroom
- Curate Watchlists
Key Features
- Provide feedback directly on the TED-Ed Lesson page, while reviewing the students’ answers
- Track and measure various forms of engagement within each TED-Ed lesson over time
- Customize video lesson to make it more engaging
- Sharing and collaboration
Adding Ted-Ed to Canvas
Ted-Ed can be added to your course navigation or to a module.
Module
- Log into Canvas and navigate to your course.
- Add a Module to your content by selecting + Module.
- Click the + button in the module you just created.
- Select External Tool from the Add Item drop-down.
- Scroll to TED Ed.
- Click Add Item.
Resources
There are many resources available to help you with TED-Ed as well as continuing support.
- How to Track Learning Progress
- A Student’s Perspective on Using a TED Talk in Class
- Using TED-Ed to Create a Flipped Classroom
- Can TED Talks Really Work in the Classroom?
- Teachers’ reviews of Ted-Ed
- About interactive videos (alternatives to TED-ED)
- Educational video resources
Accessibility
This is a tool for presenting information visually, thus sight of the user is assumed. However, multiple contrasting colors and zoom abilities may help for those with impaired sight. Sound quality, transcript availability and closed captioning depends on video source. Tips for increasing accessibility of YouTube videos are here but are not evident on the TED-Ed site.
Tips and Tricks
- Always preview and critique videos for effectiveness before building a lesson around them.
- Use short videos. When showing longer videos, never show more than 6 minutes of video without interaction taking place.
- Plan out all activities that will be included in the lesson prior to building your lesson in Ted-Ed. Review with your students the appropriate way to watch a video for learning purposes. Reinforce that they can use the pause button to stop, think, reflect and take notes. Remind them that they can rewind to review the information and that they can fast forward to skip information that they already know.
- Ensure that all students will have access to the video lesson
Technical Support
TED Ed support is provided by the vendor.