Messaging students who aren't watching videos? Any good workarounds?

Question

I find that many of my online students don't watch the videos. I'd like to send out reminders to those who aren't watching. I can access the reports and find out who watched only the first ten seconds (really?) but there's no way to get a list of everyone who hasn't watched.

Is there a way to generate (quickly) a mailing list of all students in the class that can be edited in the "to:" field, so that I could delete the names of the students who are watching and send a warning to those who aren't?

Thanks

AlexErmakov · Answer

Hi, Stevec. I had similar headache with statistic of watched/unwatched videos and numerous reminders sending. Indeed, there was a high part of watched only the first 10 sec. I’ve found why…

It’s curious, but the rule of “first 5 sec” to engage from marketing equally applicable to e-learning explainer or training videos. I.e. during first 5 sec. of video-reel there should be a picture+”hook” captivating attention of viewer and making him interested in continuing watching. After I leveraged this workaround into my educating video materials and added “involving-hooking questions”, the percentage of fully-watched videos had grown for abt 30%. Now I’m trying to think over more deeply when preparing videos and get to abt 10 % of “unwatched” videos average yet. Just because I ask myself how to make it more engaging. I’ve saved these good articles abt corporate training video production and Best Practices For Engaging Virtual Teaching  I keep them kinda check-lists for creating an educating video. The guidance reg. choosing/combining different types of videos (i.e live shot footage, slideshows, animated video etc) and other advices as for educational content with its’ delivery methods are good to me. There are also a lot of other materials about that and I think you can find them.... I'd like just draw your attention on the way to decrease routine things and do more creative things. Now I don’t need to send a lot of “reminders” - that, honestly, is the worst thing to do for me. It’s more exciting me to get to know better the interests + educating goals of my audience and to improve my program accordingly. Hopefully, it helps a little to you also.

StefaniePodlog · Answer

Hello Stevec,

As far as I know, there isn't a built-in feature to generate a mailing list specifically for students who haven't watched the videos. However, you might still be able to achieve your goal by following these general steps:

* Access the reports in CANVAS to identify students who haven't watched the videos, even if it only provides limited information like the first ten seconds.

* Export the report as a CSV or Excel file, depending on the options available in CANVAS.

* Open the exported file in a spreadsheet editor like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

* Review the data and delete the columns or rows that are not relevant to your mailing list.

* Copy the remaining email addresses of the students who haven't watched the videos and paste them into the "to:" field of your email client or mailing list service.

* Compose your warning message to those students and send it.

Not sure if this helps....