Video Quizzes the CTLD Way- Using YuJa to Increase Engagement

Last updated on September 21, 2026

Lecturing in class is a live performance. With your students in front of you, you can immediately gauge their understanding of the material by asking them questions or pausing to give them time to reflect. The feedback from students to the instructor, and vice versa, is a valuable part of ensuring learner comprehension.

But, how do we replicate this experience in an online environment? The video lecture is a staple tool in the online teaching repertoire. It personalizes you in the class and mimics a student’s experience in a traditional classroom setting, especially when you’re on camera. However, it misses one of the most essential components: the ability to make students active participants in the learning experience rather than a passive audience. This lack of interactivity is a critical weakness, but one that can be addressed by using video quizzes.

A video quiz is any video content that incorporates assessment questions at key points. This prompts students to immediately apply the knowledge they’re receiving, reinforcing it or exposing gaps in their understanding. This immediate feedback on their comprehension of the material, as it unfolds, can increase its effectiveness by prompting students to rewatch parts they didn’t understand.

Best Practices

What does a video quiz add to my class?

• Interactivity – video quizzes are much more effective at engaging the audience since they require active participation. Students can more easily lose focus on a video lecture compared to a face-to-face lecture and video quizzes can pull them back in.
• Reinforcement – Students can reflect on what they’re learning when presented with questions about the material. This builds confidence in their understanding of the material and reveals deficiencies in what they missed. 
• Preparation – You can preview questions that will be coming in future assessments to students to encourage better results when summative assessment occurs.
• Multimedia – The unique value of multimedia content for learning is well demonstrated, and video quizzes let you leverage that value in summative assessments as well as activities.

When should I use video quizzes?

• Whenever you provide a lecture or any other kind of lengthy video content, students will benefit from brief, occasional assessments of their understanding. Here are a few examples of effective video quizzes:
  • A fifteen-minute lecture has been chunked into five-minute segments, with a question at the end of each segment. This routine prompting of student interaction can pull their attention back to the material.
  • An hour-long documentary has questions occasionally inserted after an expert interview portion, emphasizing the main point of what they said. Student comprehension of the content is tested, and they can rewatch certain portions quickly to pick up what they missed.
  • The video quiz is used as a summative assessment, such as a conversation in a foreign language. Students are periodically prompted to identify vocabulary words in the speech. The multimedia benefits of audio-visual content are uniquely well-suited to such disciplines.

What should I keep in mind when creating video quizzes?

• When creating any kind of multimedia content, you should be aware of and implement important multimedia principles for instructional media. You can learn more about these in our Create Presentations Using Multimedia Principles spotlight.
• When creating multimedia content or sourcing existing content for use in a video quiz, be mindful of natural points for interruption that won’t break the natural flow of the content. For example, consider adding a question just before switching to a new slide in a lecture presentation or at a scene break in a film or documentary. The goal is to create manageable chunks of material for students to reflect on when answering questions.
• In lectures, make sure there’s a happy balance between content and questions. A question every three to five minutes is a comfortable interval in most cases. Too frequent interruptions will disrupt the students’ engagement with the material, but too few might allow the students’ attention to wander.
• The Yuja video platform provides a useful system for creating and delivering video quizzes, including auto-generated closed captions and synchronization with the Canvas gradebook.
• There is a sample video quiz made in Yuja below if you’d like to see the student experience for yourself.

Let’s walk through it together

[Length 10:30, CC Available]

Create a Video Quiz in YuJa

Before you begin, make sure you already have a video created in YuJa. If you need help with this, refer to the tutorial Use YuJa to Create and Upload Videos.

1. Go to msudenver.yuja.com,
2. Select MSU Denver Single Sign-On from the dropdown on the top right.
3. Click Sign In in the top-right corner, and enter your MSU Denver credentials.
4. Hover over the video you want to turn into a quiz.
5. Click More.
6. Select Quizzes from the left-hand menu.

Create a Video Quiz

Video Quizzes allow you to embed interactive questions throughout the video to assess student understanding of video content.

1. Click+ Create under Create Video Quiz.
2. Enter a Quiz Name in the text field at the top left of the Quiz settings page that opens.
3. Click Play to begin the video.
4. Pause the video or move the playhead to the point where you want to add a question.
5. Click Add Question below the video.
6. Select a question type:
   • Multiple Choice: Students select one answers from multiple options (Auto-graded).
   • Select Multiple: Students select more than one answer from multiple options (Auto-graded).
   • Short Answer: Students type their answer to a short response question (Manually graded or Auto-graded based on word count).
   • True/False: Students select whether a statement is true or false (Auto-graded)
   • Reflective Pause: This is an ungraded option meant to provide opportunities for students to think/reflect during the video.
   • Decision Point: This is an ungraded option that directs students to a designated timestamp based on the decision they chose.
     • YuJa also offers a Branching Video Tool that connects multiple video segments to create video pathways based on decision points. To learn more about how to use this tool, view our tutorial, Create Branching Videos in YuJa.
   • Fill in the Blank: Students enter a word or phrase to fill in the blank (can be case sensitive or not)
7. Enter the point value for the question in the Points field at the top right.
   1. Note: Reflective Pause and Decision Point question types are ungraded.
8. Enter your question in the text box.
9. Enter any answer choices in the fields below if question type required it.
10. Click Add option if you need additional answer choices.
11. Click the circle or square to the left of an answer choice to mark it as correct.
12. Optionally, click an icon to enhance your question (Not all question types will have all icons):
    • Light bulb: Enter a hint to help students.
    • Formatting icon (3 lines to the right of an answer option): Adjust text formatting for answer choices.
    • Arrow icon: Link answers to different points in the video.
    • Trash icon: Remove an answer option.
13. Click Add in the bottom right corner of the pop-up window to add the question to your quiz.
14. Repeat steps 4-13 to add additional questions throughout the video.
15. Click General Settings in the top-right corner to adjust the video quiz settings.
16. Check the boxes to the left of any quiz setting options you want.
    • Note: The Playback Credit Options will be unavailable. See the Playback Quiz section below for steps on creating a playback quiz.
17. Click Save at the bottom right of the pop-up window.
18. Click Preview to view the quiz from a student perspective.
19. Select Exit Preview in the bottom right corner when finished.
20. Click the arrow next to Save and Post in the top right corner.
21. Select Save Quiz to save your video quiz.
    • Avoid clicking the Save and Post button as it can sometimes cause issues with the Gradebook. Instead, save the quiz, and follow the steps in the section below, Create a Video Quiz Assignment in Canvas, to add the quiz to a Canvas Assignment.

Create a Playback Quiz

Playback quizzes grade students based on a specific watch-time threshold, such as 80%, or based on percentage of video watched.

1. Click Create under Create Playback Quiz.
2. Enter a Quiz Name in the Quiz Title field.
3. Select a credit option.
   • Give full credit based on threshold: Students will receive full credit for watching a designate percentage of the video. If the student watches less that the threshold percentage, they will receive no credit.
     • Enter the desired threshold in the Percentage Watched field.
   • Give credit based on percentage watched: Students will receive a score based on the percentage of the video they watched. For example, if a student watched 70% of the video, they would receive a 70% for their grade.
     • The score will be calculated automatically in the Canvas Gradebook based on the points the playback quiz assignment is worth.
4. Optionally, Enter a Custom Introduction Message that will display for students before playing the video.
5. Click Create at the bottom right of the pop-up window to save the quiz.
   1. Note: The quiz status will appear as closed, and the date will appear as invalid. Once you follow the steps in the section below, Create a Video Quiz Assignment in Canvas, to add the quiz to a Canvas Assignment, YuJa should fix the status and date automatically.

Create a Video Quiz Assignment in Canvas

1. Log in to your Canvas account.
2. Select the course where you’d like to add your video quiz.
3. Click Modules in the left-hand course navigation menu.
4. Click the + button to the right of the module name.
5. Select Assignment in the dropdown menu.
6. Then click Create Assignment.
7. Enter a name for the video quiz.
8. Click Add Item on the bottom right.
9. Click on the assignment that you just created at the bottom of the module list.
10. Click Edit in the top right-hand corner.
    • Add instructions and change any relevant settings on this assignment page.
    • Note: For Video Quizzes, the number of points entered here must match the total points your quiz is worth in YuJa.
11. Select External Tool under Submission Type.
12. Click Find.
13. Choose the first YuJa from within the list.
14. Click the Quizzes tab toward the left of the pop-up in the YuJa window that opens.
15. Locate and select the video quiz you created.
16. Click Insert Content on the bottom right.
17. Click Select in the bottom right-hand corner of the Configure External Tool pop-up.
18. Under the Submission Type section, you can check or uncheck the “Load This Tool in a New Tab” option.
    • Unchecking this option will embed the video quiz on the Canvas page.
19. Click the Save and Publish icon in the bottom right-hand corner.

Sample Video Quiz

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Have questions?

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