THE IMPACT OF EDPUZZLE ASSIGNMENT LENGTH

The Impact of EdPuzzle Assignment Length

Justin Brandenburg

Coastal Carolina University

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The Impact of Edpuzzle Assignment Length

Edpuzzle is an online tool that allows teachers to pull in personal and web-based videos,

like YouTube, to be cropped and used with other content. This can mean adding in voice overs,

audio commentaries, extra resources, or even embedded assessment questions. It is a modern

platform that's engaging for students but is also very easy to use for teachers. Given that many

schools have transitioned to a virtual platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Edpuzzle is used

by more than half the schools in the U.S. But what length of assignment on Edpuzzle is best for

students in a middle school setting. Too long and they tend to drown out the message; too short

and there is not enough content covered to be worthwhile. According to John Hattie of Visible

Learning, interactive videos have an effect size of 0.54 which means they have above average

“potential to accelerate student achievement.” To best implement Edpuzzle as a tool in the

classroom, one needs to understand how long these lessons should ideally be and what type and

how many questions should be included in these assignments.

Review of Literature

When it comes to the types of questions being asked, Bennet, Rock and Wang found in

1990 that free response questions required more in-depth thinking and therefore resulted in

higher effectiveness. However, they also found that if there were more multiple-choice questions

about the same subject that the same effectiveness as a free response question could be found.

So then, how many is too many. In a study of college students, it was found that a 100-item

length assignment produced significantly less performance than the 25-item length assignment

(Tuckman, 1992).

While Edpuzzle is considered to be a great tool by many, is it effective and desired by

students? A study at Boston University showed that 75 percent of student comments about
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Edpuzzle were positive (Pulukuri & Abrams, 2020). They even found that many of the students

who listed negative comments about the program were actually about settings that are intended

positives of the EdPuzzle platform (i.e., preventing skipping through a video). Another study

showed that “the addition of interactive element significantly improved completion percentage as

well as average viewing time for both ‘long’ and ‘short’ video lecture groups by more than 20%”

(Geri & Zaks, 2017). As for edPuzzle’s effectiveness, a 2020 study showed that mean score on

an assignment within a class increased from 31 to 74 after learning using EdPuzzle (Giyanto &

Rubini, 2020).

Methodology

This study took place in a seventh grade classroom in a virtual school setting. The class

size was thirteen students that range from the ages of twelve to thirteen. Students in this class

attend virtual classes every day, with social studies class occurring from 10:45 until 11:35 in the

morning. These students were given a variety of Edpuzzle assignments that varied in both length

of video and the number of questions provided. Usually, the longer the length of the video

resulted in a higher number of questions. The videos ranged from about ten minutes to about

thirty minutes in length, with the average video being twelve minutes long. The number of

questions ranged from ten questions to 20 questions, with the average being fourteen questions.

One Edpuzzle assignment was given per week as to not oversaturate the students with this style

of assignment. A survey was given via a Google Form at the end of the third quarter of the

school year to judge student satisfaction. Students were asked on a Likert scale whether they felt

that Edpuzzle worked for them, it somewhat worked for them, or it did not work at all for them.

Students were also asked if they preferred longer or shorter assignments and whether they

preferred assignments with more questions or less questions. They were also asked whether they
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felt that they could receive the same knowledge level from a regular “stand and deliver” format,

such as a slideshow given by the teacher. Finally, they were also asked to give general feedback

and concerns about the Edpuzzle platform as a whole.

Analysis

Scores on Assignments

Below is a table showing the scores of students in a nine-week trial basis during the third

quarter of the school year. Names were omitted from this table. The highest scoring assignment

was nine and a half minutes long while the lowest scoring was tied, including the assignment

with the longest video. The average score of videos with twenty questions was 88.5 while the

average of scores on videos with ten questions was 92.2. The lowest score of the entire trial

period was found on a video that was fourteen minutes long, followed by the video that was

about thirty-two minutes long. Surprisingly, more assignments with ten questions were skipped

(three) rather than assignments with twenty questions (one). Scores were still relatively high

throughout the trial period with every student receiving an average of at least an eighty percent.
Week # Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Average
Video Length 13:42:00 14:06:00 9:55:00 31:57 9:27:00 14:10:00 8:36:00 12:46:00 14:08:00 12:06
# of Questions 20 20 10 20 10 20 10 10 10 14
95 100 95 100 90 90 90 100 95
Scores

80 95 100 85 100 95 90 70 80 88
90 100 100 85 100 95 100 100 100 97
85 95 100 75 100 90 100 70 100 91
80 89 90 100 95 100 70 80 88
75 100 100 80 100 100 100 70 100 92
75 89 80 80 100 90 90 60 83
85 95 70 75 100 95 100 90 90 89
90 95 80 80 90 95 100 80 80 88
75 89 100 65 95 70 80 90 83
80 84 100 85 100 85 90 90 90 89
95 95 100 95 100 100 100 100 100 98
80 100 100 90 100 95 100 80 100 94
Average 83 94 94 83 99 94 95 83 90

Survey Results

The survey resulted in overwhelming positive ratings for the Edpuzzle platform. Out of

the thirteen students in the class, twelve of them said that EdPuzzle worked well for them. Only
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one student said that it worked “okay” for them, and no students said that the program did not

work for them at all. Surprisingly, students actually preferred assignments that had more

questions. I asked students about this outside of the survey and they stated that when there were

more questions, they were able to reflect on the content more than when there were less

questions. It forced them to stop and think about the content on a deeper level. Although, they

did prefer shorter videos. This was expected from a seventh grader – who really wants to do

longer assignments? They did say that they understood that some assignments just needed to be

longer, as the content covered had more detail than some of the other shorter videos.

Findings

Overall, this survey proved that EdPuzzle is a positive and successful platform for the

virtual middle school world. Students seemed to really enjoy learning from interactive videos

rather than learning from a traditional “stand and deliver” format. What was interesting is that

students preferred assignments with more questions, but their scores were better on assignments

with less questions. Finding a middle ground of fifteen questions seems to be the way to go as

the class average came out to a score of ninety. These findings correlate with what was found in

this study, although my approval rating was a bit higher. When reviewing survey questions,

students in this middle school class had the same quarrels with the program as those in the

Pulukuri and Abrams study. Students disliked that they could not skip ahead. While students may

not like this feature, it is important as a teacher to enable this setting as it ensures that students

are watching the entire video.

This platform is extremely beneficial for any teacher. It is free to use, although upgrades

are available. These upgrades allow for more storage and technical support from the company. It

allows teachers to show the content that they want to present in an entertaining way while still
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asking questions to ensure understanding. This study was completed in a social studies class, but

teachers in other content areas will quickly see how this teaching tool would be just as useful in

math, science, ELA and with English language learners.

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References

Bennett, R., Rock, D., & Wang, M. (1990). Free‐response and multiple‐choice items: Measures

of the same ability? ETS Research Report Series, 1990(1), i–29.

https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2333-8504.1990.tb01349.x

Geri, Winer, A., & Zaks, B. (2017). Challenging the six-minute myth of online video lectures:

Can interactivity expand the attention span of learners? The Online Journal of Applied

Knowledge Management, 5(1), 101–111.

https://doi.org/10.36965/OJAKM.2017.5(1)101-111

Giyanto, Heliawaty, L., & Rubini, B. (2020). The effectiveness of online learning by EdPuzzle in

polymer materials on students’ problem-solving skills. IOP Conference Series. Materials

Science and Engineering, 959(1), 12006–. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-

899X/959/1/012006

Pulukuri, & Abrams, B. (2020). Incorporating an online interactive video platform to optimize

active learning and improve student accountability through educational videos. Journal of

Chemical Education, 97(12), 4505–4514. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00855

Tuckman, Bruce (1992). Does the length of assignment or the nature of grading practices

influence the amount of homework students are motivated to produce? The Journal of

General Education (University Park, Pa.), 41, 190–199.

Waack, S., & Hattie, J. (n.d.). Hattie Effect Size List - 256 influences related to achievement.

Hattie Ranking: 252 Influences And Effect Sizes Related To Student Achievement.

Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-

effect-sizes-learning-achievement/