Video lessons are everywhere: science explainers, recorded lectures, math walkthroughs, history documentaries. They are easy to watch and easy to forget. Watching feels like learning in the same way rereading does: the content seems clear while it plays, and much of it is gone a day later.
The fix is the same as for reading: add retrieval. Answer questions about the video after you watch it, and again a few days later. The research on the testing effect, including the 2006 study by Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke, shows that practicing recall beats reviewing the material again, and there is no reason video would be different.
Step 1: Pick a video with captions
Quizbot writes questions from what is said in the video, so it reads the video's captions. Most educational channels have captions, either uploaded by the creator or generated automatically. The video also needs to be public. If a video has no captions, the generator will let you know, and you can pick another video on the same topic.
Step 2: Paste the link
- Copy the YouTube link from your browser's address bar or the Share button.
- Open the YouTube to quiz tool and paste the link.
- Choose the question type, the number of questions, the level and the difficulty.
- Choose whether to include the answers or the answers with explanations.
- Generate. A typical quiz is ready in well under a minute.
On the free plan you can make multiple-choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank and open-ended questions. Paid plans add matching, calculation and question sets based on Bloom's taxonomy.
Step 3: Read and adjust
Skim the questions before you use them. Remove any that are too easy, check that each answer matches what the video actually says, and add a question about the part you care about most. Two minutes of editing turns a generated quiz into your quiz.
Ways to use a video quiz
For students
- Preview, then watch. Glance at the questions before the video so you know what to listen for.
- Answer with the video closed. Pausing to look up each answer turns recall back into rereading.
- Retake it in three days. The second attempt, after a gap, is where long-term memory is built.
For teachers
- Flipped classroom check. Assign the video for homework and start class with three of the questions to see who watched and understood.
- Station work. One station watches a short clip and answers the quiz together.
- Absent students. A video plus a quiz is a ready-made catch-up pack.
Getting the quiz into your class
Every plan can download the quiz as a Word or PDF document for printing or sharing, and send it to Google Classroom. Paid plans can also export it to Kahoot!, Moodle and other learning platforms, which we cover in our post on exporting quizzes.
Tips for better questions from video
- Shorter videos give tighter quizzes. A ten-minute clip on one topic produces more focused questions than a two-hour lecture.
- Lecture-style videos work best. Questions come from what is said, so a video that explains out loud gives the generator more to work with than one that is mostly music or visuals.
- Match the level to your students. The same video can produce a middle school quiz or a university one; set the level before you generate.
You can do the same with other sources too: our guide on turning a PDF into a quiz works the same way for readings and textbook chapters.
Summary
- Watching is not the same as remembering. Add questions after every lesson video.
- Use a public video with captions, paste the link and generate.
- Answer with the video closed, then try again a few days later.
