The Learner Experience in an LMS
In this article
Learn how to get the most out of your PlayPosit experience!
- Overview
- Log in
- Play a Bulb
- Use the rich text editor
- Enable captions
- View transcripts
- Show Captions only in transcript
- Switch video streams
- Take notes on a Bulb
- Answering Interactions
- Viewing additional resources in the Bulb
- Resume playback
- Complete a Bulb and sync grades
- Rewatch a Bulb
- Review interactions and previous answers
- View instructor feedback on free responses
- View report
- Mobile player experience
- Canvas Mobile App
- Schoology App
- Complete a playlist
- Troubleshooting
Overview
PlayPosit is an interactive video platform. Your instructor will assign videos, or Bulbs, for you to watch that will have embedded questions and interactions. You will be required to respond to these interactions in order to complete the assignment.
It is recommended that you use the latest Chrome web browser to access PlayPosit. Click here to download it if you do not already have Chrome.
Logging in
You will access all of your PlayPosit assignments through your Learning Management System (LMS) so you will not need a username and password.
Play a Bulb
Note: Videos from Bulbs cannot be downloaded.
When you click on an assignment in your LMS, you will be brought to the PlayPosit Bulb you need to complete. Click the video to play it and then answer the interactions that come up.
- Adjust the video playback speed
- Change the video stream source of the videos in the Bulb (especially important if one of the sources isn't working)
- Adjust caption language (if available)
On the lower left corner, learners can control the PlayPosit player with following options:
- Timestamp: Shows the time the learner has watched and the total time of the bulb. Learners can click on it to switch to countdown mode.
- Play: Play or pause the bulb.
- Toggle side zone: Toggle on and off the sidebar.
- Rewind 10 seconds
- Fast forward 10 seconds: Instructors need to enable learners to fast forward the bulb settings for this button to be functional.
Player controls
To change the controls display of a player, click on the Settings Gear icon in the bottom right corner.
There are two Controls Display options.
- Always: The player controls will always be displayed at the bottom of the player. This is the default selection.
- Fade: The player controls will disappear after 5 seconds of inactivity.
Use the rich text editor
If your instructor has included a free response interaction or a discussion forum, you can use the rich text editor to respond. Note: Automatic spellcheck is not currently built into free response interactions. Most spellcheck web browser extensions are compatible such as Grammarly. Click here for more information on how to download Grammarly.
When a discussion forum appears, the rich text editor will display. Select the triple dot menu to expand additional options on the rich text editor.
When the free response interaction appears, the rich text editor will display. Learners can use Emojis, upload a video response, upload an audio response, or include an image.
Some interactions allow the submission of video and audio responses using the rich text editor. Click the video or microphone icon to add a response and then click Submit.
Upload a video
Upload an audio
Note: If Submit is not clicked after a video or audio submission has been made, the response will not be marked as submitted.
Upload attachments
If an instructor allows learners to upload attachments in free response interactions, click on the paper clip icon in the rich text editor. Then select a file from the system dialog to upload. The max file size is 25 MB. All file types are supported except for audio, video, and images.
Even though an attachment is uploaded, the Submit button will only be enabled if there is text within the text box.
Use emojis
Import equations
The rich text editor also contains a LaTeX Equation Editor to respond to interactions.
You can also change the styling of your response to include a table, numbered/bulleted list, or special characters.
Enable captions
Note: If captions are not available, there will not be a cc button.
Enable captions by clicking on the cc button next to the gear icon. Adjust the language of the captions by selecting the gear icon menu.
View transcripts
To view navigable transcripts follow these steps.
Enable captions by clicking on the cc button next to the gear icon.
Adjust the language of the captions by selecting the gear icon menu.
Select the sidebar icon.
Click the Transcripts tab. Transcripts will appear as the video plays. Click on any transcript line to be brought to that specific part of the video or search for keywords in the transcript. Please note that you are not able to skip ahead if your instructor does not have fast forward enabled.
Show captions only in transcript
Learners can select to only show captions in the transcript but not overlay them on the video. Please click the gear icon and check the Show captions only in transcript option.
Switch video streams
Switch video streams if a stream is not playing or the quality is not clear.
- Select the gear icon menu.
- Choose a stream that plays best on your device.
Take notes on a Bulb
Answering Interactions
The video will pause once an interaction pops up on the screen. To complete the interaction, answer the question and click Submit and continue.
You should see a toast in the upper right-hand corner of the screen telling you if your answer was submitted successfully. If the interaction allows it, you may also see highlighting and/or feedback on your selected answer choices If an interaction covers up an important part of the screen, you can hide the question by clicking the 'x' in the top left corner of the interaction. If you want to make the interaction larger, however, click the arrow in the top right corner of the interaction.
Viewing additional resources in the Bulb
Pause interaction: Read through the information provided by your instructor in the interaction, and click Continue to move forward in the Bulb.
Web embed: Read the information and interact with the embedded website in the Bulb. Click the Play button to resume the Bulb.
PDF file: Read through the information in the PDF, and click the Play button to resume the Bulb. Learners can also add the following annotations to the PDF.
- Add comments: Click the Add Comment button on the left side, and click on the PDF file to add comments to the selected section of the file.
- Highlight the selected text: Click the Highlight button on the left side, and select the text from the PDF to highlight them. You can also use the toolbar on the left side to erase the highlight, change color, and change the highlight thickness.
- Draw: Click the Draw button on the left side and start drawing on the PDF. You can also use the toolbar on the left side to erase the drawing, change color, and change the thickness of the brush.
Note: The annotations added to the PDF will not be saved in the Bulb. Please follow the steps below to download the PDF file and keep the annotations.
- Click the triple dots icon on the top right of the PDF reader
- Select Download this file.
Resume playback
If a learner needs to leave and come back to the video, all answers and progress will always be saved. When a learner returns to the Bulb, a pop-up notification will appear with the option to resume playback at the timestamp when the video was stopped. Click Resume to return to the timestamp.
Note: Save progress does not work with YouTube videos.
Complete a Bulb and syncing grades
To complete a Bulb, answer all of the required questions in the Bulb and watch the Bulb until the end. When the Bulb is complete, the sidebar will automatically open and show the assignment score and a green pop up message will confirm the grade has successfully synced to the LMS. The sidebar will also show any interaction that requires the instructor to manually grade the answers.
Sometimes the instructor may enable retakes on a Bulb. After clicking on Retake, the score will be reset to 0 in the LMS’s gradebook until the Bulb is complete.
Note: The instructor has the option to hide learner scores upon Bulb completion. Learners can still see scores for individual interactions, but the total percentage of completion will be hidden.
The next time an assignment is launched from an LMS, there will be an option to Sync Grades again from the sidebar by navigating to the Review tab.
For some Bulbs, the instructor may require a minimum score to be met in order for the Bulb to be marked complete. If the minimum score is not met, a gray pop up message will notify you that the Bulb has not been completed. It will then be possible to retake the Bulb until the minimum score is reached.
Note: The instructor may have enabled retakes on individual interactions within the Bulb, in which case there is no need to retake the full Bulb from the beginning. Instead, retake only the interactions that have been marked incorrect.
Rewatch a Bulb
Once the Bulb has been viewed until the max timestamp of the video, a rewatch arrow icon can be clicked from the bottom left corner or from the middle of the video.
Note: Whether the instructor enables learners to retake the Bulb, learners may rewatch the Bulb at any time after completion as long as they still have access to the assignment in the LMS. If the instructor enables learners to retake the Bulb, learners will be able to change their answers to the interactions in the Bulb after their first attempt. Otherwise, learners can only rewatch the Bulb but will not be able to change their submitted responses.
Review interactions and previous answers
Learners can review their answers at any point while taking a Bulb, or after they have completed the Bulb by opening the sidebar and selecting the Review tab.
Information about all previously answered interactions will show up here, including the interaction type, text, and points earned. An interaction will not show up in the Review tab until the player has reached the interaction display time displayed in each row.
Clicking an interaction will return the player to the time at which the interaction occurred in the Bulb, causing the answered interaction to pop up. Interaction answers will not be able to be changed unless the instructor has granted access to multiple attempts on one interaction.
If a Bulb contains multiple videos, then those individual video segments will also appear in the review sheet. Clicking them will cause the video player to begin playing the Bulb from that video clip's start time.
View instructor feedback on free responses
An instructor may leave feedback on free response interactions. If feedback is available, follow these steps to view instructor feedback.
To view feedback from the Bulb, launch the assignment from the LMS. Click the menu button to open the review tab. Then, select the interaction that has feedback.
View report
- The report is only available if the instructor has enabled this option.
- If the instructor has set the minimum completion score for the Bulb, learners must meet the minimum completion score to view their report.
Once a bulb has been completed, learners can view or download the report. The report includes responses to all interactions and instructor feedback if provided.
Download results
To download a PDF, HTML, or DOCX copy of the report to your device, click on Download My Results.
When the file has successfully been downloaded, there will be a green toast message that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Note: The Discussion interaction will only show the prompt in the PDF.
The Web embed interaction will be a blank space in the PDF.
View results
To view the results, select View My Results.
This will open up a new tab with the Bulb report.
Notes will be attached to the printable report at the end of the PDF in the Learner notes section.
Mobile player experience
The following sections outline the PlayPosit player experience on mobile devices, including any notable differences between iOS and Android devices.
iOS
Click the Play button to start the Bulb.
Select the Settings gear to view the playback options that are available.
- Adjust the video playback speed. This must be enabled by the instructor.
- Change the video stream source of the videos in the Bulb.
- Adjust the caption language (if available).
Android
Click the Play button to start the Bulb.
Note: For the best user experience, click the Settings gear then select the Full screen control button and flip the phone to landscape mode to play the Bulb in full screen mode.
To exit full screen mode, select the Full screen control button again.
Select the cc button to enable and disable captions that are available.
Select the Settings gear to view the playback options that are available.
- Slide the volume control or control the volume on the Android device.
- Adjust the video playback speed. Note: This must be enabled by the instructor.
- Change the video stream source of the videos in the Bulb.
- Adjust the caption language (if available).
Canvas Mobile App
PlayPosit is accessible through the Canvas mobile app for learners to view and complete PlayPosit assignments.
- Log into the Canvas mobile app.
- Navigate to the course and then click on Assignments.
- Select the PlayPosit assignment and then click Launch External Tool.
- Play the video and answer all interactions throughout the video.
- Once you have answered all interactions and watched the video until the end, a green popup message will appear confirming that your grade has been synced. Now you can click Done to go back to the Canvas app.
Schoology App
Complete a playlist
- In order to complete a playlist, launch the playlist as a learner from the LMS. Click on the full screen icon on the top right to view a playlist full screen for the best experience.
- Complete all the items on the table of contents to complete the playlist.
- When a Bulb or item is completed, a green checkmark will appear in front of the completed Bulb or item. Learners can click the Next button on the green toast message to move to the next item in the playlist.
Note: - If the instructor has activated the Lock Progression toggle, a lock icon will be shown next to the Bulb or item in the list until the Bulb above it is complete. Learners can click on the Next button to move forward in the playlist.
- Learners need to meet the following requirements to complete the Bulbs or items:
- Bulbs: Answer all the required questions and reach the last timestamp of the Bulb.
- PDFs: Reach the last page of the PDF.
- Images, Web sites, Text items: Stay on the page for 5 seconds.
- Attachment (DOC, CSV): Click the download button.
- If the instructor has set a minimum completion score for the bulb in the playlist, learners will need to meet the minimum completion score to mark the bulb as completed.
- If there are manually graded free response interactions in the bulb with a minimum completion score enabled, learners may have to wait until the instructor grades the free response interactions to complete the bulb.
- If there are Learner Made Bulbs assignments in the playlist, please select the available video host from the list, and import the video to start creating the LMB. Please also see this article for more information about completing the LMB assignment.
- Once completing the assignment, learners will see the notification that the LMB item is completed, and please click on the Next button to move forward to the next item in the playlist.
- At any point, while working on the playlist, select Save and Exit to save all completed work.
- Finish all of the items in the Table of Contents to complete the playlist.
- If a certificate is available for the playlist, click Print Certificate to print a certificate of completion.
- If grading was enabled for the LMS assignment, upon completion of the playlist, PlayPosit will automatically send a grade to the LMS gradebook that represents the sum of the points earned on all the Bulbs at that point divided by the sum of all the points possible in those same Bulbs.
- Learners will see a green pop up message in the upper right-hand corner of the playlist that says “Started LTI Grade Sync,” and grades will be visible in the LMS gradebook shortly afterward.
- Select Save and Exit when the playlist is complete. A blue screen will appear, press the Esc button on the keyboard to exit the full screen more, and you can return to the LMS.
Troubleshooting
In general, if you're having issues on one browser, we recommend that you either update it or switch to another browser. PlayPosit 3.0 generally works best on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
My Bulb won't play
Please refer to this help article for recommendations on getting your Bulb to play. You can also try switching your video source by clicking on the gear icon at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and clicking on the drop-down menu next to the timestamp.
I closed the browser window and didn't finish
You are able to pick back up wherever you left off. Re-open the Bulb and move the cursor along the scrub bar to the point where you stopped. The white space indicates the part of the video you have already watched and the gray is the part that still needs to be watched.
I want to watch my Bulb again
As long as your Bulb is still available to you in your Learning Management System, you can click on the assignment to rewatch the Bulb without re-answering interactions.
My grades didn't sync
If you receive a message that your scores are not being recorded, there could be a number of issues.
- Your network connection is unstable or too slow. See if you can connect to the internet through other means.
- You've been logged out of PlayPosit. Close the window and log back in to reopen your assignment.
- The link you have been sent is for preview purposes only. Request a new link from the instructor.
I can't retake the Bulb
You can only retake your Bulb if your instructor has this setting enabled. You can go back and access your assignment to watch the video again and view your responses as long as the assignment is still available in your LMS.