Introduction
In this article we will walk you through the intended purpose of Interactive Video.
A great benefit of online/hybrid learning is the use of multimedia materials (documents, audios, and videos) to increase student engagement and address diverse learning needs. Here you can read more about the importance of student engagement↗.
However, students often passively consume the recorded material assigned before class, thus coming to lectures unprepared and teachers have to explain the content again which wastes valuable class time.
Interactive document addresses this challenge by incorporating social annotation to enhance student engagement with document materials. The teacher uploads a document and adds Question Cards or Discussion Threads. Question Cards allow both teachers and students to assess comprehension of the document's content, while Question Cards and Discussion Threads highlight key arguments or spark online discussions. This ensures students are better prepared for class.
Here you can find our user guides for Interactive Document:
How It Works
Using documents is an excellent way for students to engage with course content. Allowing students to read and revisit sections as needed enables them to process the material at their own pace. Additionally, documents can be made interactive, providing opportunities for students to engage with the content, collaborate with peers, and communicate with the teacher. The meta-analysis of Bernard et al. (2009) has shown the importance of interaction when teaching online: the study shows that letting students interact in the three ways mentioned above (student-content, student-student, student-teacher) positively affects their learning.
With our Interactive Document tool, students are rewarded for engaging with content and encouraged to participate in discussions and ask questions embedded in the material. At the same time, teachers gain insight into progress and performance essential for judging the uptake of material.
Interactive Document ensures continuous student engagement. Here’s why:
Enrich the documents with questions or discussion threads: Instructors add in-line questions or discussion threads to the annotated sections, then decide which are compulsory to answer before proceeding to the next.
Engage in the reading materials: Students read the documents, answer the annotated questions and prompts. They can also add their own questions or discussions by highlighting a specific part of the document.
Access students' learning analytics: Instructors track students’ performance to monitor the progress and intervene when necessary. Data for performance per question, and also per student, is accessible via the tool and downloadable.
Highlighted Features
To get the most out of Interactive Document, educators have made use of the following features to support their existing pedagogy.
Practice questions and comments: Add discussion points, multiple choice and/or open questions directly to highlighted sections of your document to stimulate active interaction and comprehension of the material. Optionally make certain questions compulsory to answer before proceeding, or allow students to start their own discussions.
Questions and comments
Multimedia attachments to questions: Include attachments in the form of documents, images, or voice-note to the questions to diversify how instructors and students interact with each other during the feedback activity.
Easy adding attachments to questions/comments
Sort input of students: Sort and filter students’ responses based on the latest activity, location, most upvotes, or most comments. This helps identify areas to address during synchronous sessions.
Easy sort and filters
Configurable grading: Turn the activity into a formative/ summative assessment by assigning grades to each activity step. The results are then automatically synchronized with the LMS.
Configurable grading
Learning analytics export: Follow students' progress and performance within the tool, and download the analytics (in excel or csv format) for an even more thorough analysis.
Analytics export
Copyrighter material: Choose whether to prevent students from downloading or modifying the materials in accordance with your copyright policy.
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Powered by Acai: Acai's Engagement Assistant turns passive learning into active learning by creating pedagogically driven question cards and discussion prompts, saving faculty time and enhancing student engagement across various teaching formats.
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Benefits of using Interactive Document
Interactive documents offer a range of benefits that enhance student engagement, collaboration, and learning outcomes. Here are some key advantages:
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Enhanced Engagement: Students interact actively with the material through embedded questions, discussion prompts, and annotations, transforming passive reading into an engaging experience.
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Improved Comprehension: Inline questions and discussions help students focus on critical arguments and concepts, enabling a deeper understanding of the content.
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Fostering Collaboration: Features like discussion threads and peer annotations encourage students to exchange ideas and learn from each other, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
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Support for Reflective Learning: By encouraging students to reflect on their understanding and the impact of the content, interactive documents promote metacognition and personal growth.
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Asynchronous Flexibility: Students can work at their own pace, reviewing and interacting with content whenever it suits them, which is particularly beneficial in hybrid or online learning settings.
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Teacher Insights and Adaptability: Real-time analytics allow teachers to track progress, identify challenges, and tailor their instruction to address areas where students struggle.