YouTube is a popular tool that allows viewers to learn about various topics or how to do any number of things. In the classroom, YouTube can show hard concepts or far away places and can be a hook for direct instruction or engaging discussions. Here are 7 tips you should know about for the classroom:
Turn On Closed Captioning
Once, only an option if the owner of the video had added the text, YouTube is now auto-generating captions for select videos. This is especially helpful during whole-class instruction. According to Utah State University, a national study showed that 98.6% of students found closed captions helpful with 52% of students saying they aided in their comprehension.
To turn on closed captioning, click the CC button under the video. While most captions will be in English, they can be changed to another language. To do this, click the gear icon, select Subtitles/CC, choose Auto-translate, and then select a language. Show students how to do this as well so they can have text support when viewing individually.
Magnify Caption Size
After you’ve turned on those closed captions, simply press the + (plus) key on your keyboard to increase the text size or the – (minus) key to decrease the text size.
Eliminate Ad Distractions
It can be hard to keep students focused when ads pop up or line the page. Add a hyphen after the “t” in a video’s YouTube link, making it yout-ube, will solve this problem and allow students to view content without interruptions.
Or embed YouTube videos in Google Slides and decide how the video will play. You can choose from:
- Play automatically, where the video plays without any clicks
- Play on click, where the video plays when you advance the slide
- Play manually, where the video plays when you click specifically on the embedded video
Use View Modes
I’m preparing to recertify my Google Educator Level I certification and learned about view modes. I didn’t know there was such a thing! Slightly related to the tip above, the different views could help with distractions or for those who need to view things a little differently. Next to the gear icon, under the video, are 3 additional rectangle icons for the miniplayer mode, theater mode, and full screen mode.
The Miniplayer shrinks down to the lower right corner and allows the viewer to continue browsing the Internet while still watching the video.
Theater mode takes up the whole upper portion of the page, shifting all the information below it.
Click the same rectangle icon to return to the default view.
Most viewers should be familiar with Full screen mode, which allows the video
to take up the whole screen and eliminate the extra “noise” found on a YouTube
page.
Adjust Playback Speed
Personally, I never think of adjusting the speed when I’m watching a video. It’s something I forget is an option. When watching on your own, adjusting to a faster speed can be helpful to get information efficiently. However, in a classroom setting, teaching students to slow down a video can be beneficial, especially when listening to step-by-step directions. To adjust the speed, click the gear icon under the video, select Playback speed, and then choose a speed.
Make a Clip
This is a new tip for me! I have had previous videos where I started the video at a certain point and skipped over the beginning. To do this, click on the share icon under the video, then click the box labeled “start at” and set a time. For example, I want to show a concept that starts at 2:35 in the video. I can set the video to that time and when viewers click the URL, the video will start at that point.
However, this other feature allows you to make a section of the video into a clip. I have educators ask me all the time, how do I show this 4-minute section of a 40-minute video? This is the solution. Instead, of clicking on the share icon, click on the clip icon, found under the 3 dots. This will allow you to set a start and end time. Then click on the share clip button to get the URL to the clip.
Pre-Load Videos and Change Resolution
If the Internet at your school isn’t great, watching YouTube videos may be a challenge. Try pre-loading the videos you need before class starts so no one has to watch the buffering wheel. Select the video and hit play, then quickly hit pause. The video will continue to load.
You can also change the resolution of the video. Many videos are now uploaded in HD, but it can take a lot of bandwidth to play. To change it to a lower resolution, click the gear icon and select “Quality”, then choose a different setting.
Ms Priester EDU 