Cool Tools: Zaption

This week’s topic is the epitome of a cool tool. I’m talking other side of the pillow and cool kids’ table cool. This week’s tool is Zaption.

 

If you haven’t heard of Zaption that’s okay. It’s still a relatively new tool that we’ve been testing for about a year and a half here at GSU. Zaption hasn’t needed much time to become a favorite (let’s be honest it’s the favorite) tool among the instructional design team.

 

Okay, let’s breakdown what Zaption actualy does.

 

Video:

Zaption first and foremost is a video delivery tool. You can upload your own videos and deliver them inside of BrightSpace. BrightSpace already supports videos so this isn’t the cool part. Zaption also gives you the ability to play videos from Youtube, Vimieo, and a variety of other streaming services within BrightSpace.

Again, some of you may be thinking how this is better than embedding or linking out to these external video services. One of the advantages provided by Zaption is the ability to edit video.

Key Features

Add Video: With Zaption you can combine multiple videos from different locations (personal videos, youtube, etc.) into one video.

Trim: Ever find a great video but only need a small portion of it? Zaption lets you trim videos from external services so your students only see relevant content.

Questions

Once you’ve created the perfect video you can make it interactive be adding a number of different question types. If you have images or want to add a text overlay, then Zaption still has your back. Zaption will pause the video where ever you add a question until students answer it.

Key Features 

Custom Feedback: You can create feedback messages for each question and

Jump to: If a student answers a question incorrectly you can have Zaption jump back to the section of video that is related to the question.

Analytics:

Zaption provides detailed analytics at the student, question, and course level. This allows you to see who is watching your videos, how long they watch for, answers to questions, and plenty more.

Key Features 

Dashboard: Zaption provides an easy to use dashboard so you can quickly view analytics and drill down to the information that’s important to you.

Excel Export: If you want raw data you can easily export the analytics from Zaption as a .csv file and open it in Excel.

 

To get a hands on tour of Zaption come visit the CETL in Library South. To get access to Zaption send an email to help@gsu.edu and include the class you’d like to have Zaption activated for.