Add a video lesson

A lesson of type Video plays one video. It does not use a prompt or blocks. The video comes from a link or from a file you upload.

Before you start

On the Lessons step, click the type pill under the lesson title and pick Video. Then click Edit next to the lesson.

In the editor, the Link and Upload switch chooses where the video comes from:

  • Link: the video stays on YouTube, Vimeo or Loom and plays from there. It is not copied into your SCORM package, so the package stays small, but your learners need access to that site wherever they take the course.
  • Upload: your own file plays inside the lesson and goes into your SCORM package. No YouTube or Vimeo account is needed.
  1. Keep the switch on Link.
  2. Paste the address into Video URL (YouTube, Vimeo or Loom), for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..., https://youtu.be/..., https://vimeo.com/... or https://www.loom.com/share/.... An embed link from the video's share options works too.
  3. Click Save.

Links from youtube.com, youtu.be, vimeo.com, player.vimeo.com and loom.com are accepted. A Loom link must be a /share/ or /embed/ link. A link from any other site is refused with "Video URL is not from a whitelisted host." Links work on every plan and do not count towards your video limits.

Upload a video file

  1. Switch to Upload.
  2. Optional: under Quality, keep 720p or choose Sharp (1080p) - bigger file.
  3. Click Upload video and pick the file, for example MP4, MOV or WebM.
  4. Wait while the editor shows Compressing... and then Uploading... with a progress bar. Cancel stops both steps.
  5. Click Save.

The video is compressed in your browser before it is uploaded, so a large original from a camera or a screen recording is fine: only the compressed copy is sent. On some browsers compression is slow. The editor then warns you and lets you choose Continue or Cancel.

After the upload you can play the video in the editor and see its size and how much of the course's video space is used. Replace video swaps the file. Remove video deletes it, and Save then leaves the lesson empty.

Limits:

  • up to 15 minutes per video on every plan,
  • Free: 1 uploaded video per account, up to 50 MB,
  • Pro: 500 MB of video per course and 5 GB per account.

On Free a second upload is refused with "The Free plan includes 1 uploaded video. Remove it or upgrade to Pro to add more." See Free and Pro: what is included.

Warning

Uploaded videos travel inside the exported SCORM package, so the package grows with every video. Many LMSs accept 50-100 MB. The Export step shows the Estimated size of the package - check your LMS limit before uploading. For long recordings, a link keeps the package small. See Export your course to SCORM 1.2.

Transcript and captions

The Transcript, quiz and captions section is under the video in the editor.

Uploaded video (Pro)

  1. Pick the spoken language, or Detect automatically.
  2. Click Transcribe this video. The transcription service reads the file straight from our video storage through a temporary link. A long video can take a few minutes.
  3. The transcript appears under Transcript with its length in characters. It is read only. You also see how many minutes the video used and how many transcription minutes you have used this month.

Transcription uses your monthly transcription minutes: 300 a month on Pro, the same minutes as Transcribe a recording on the Course step. Transcribe again replaces the transcript and the captions after you confirm, and uses minutes again. On Free, Transcribe this video is shown with a Pro badge.

A transcribed video gets captions made from its transcript. Show captions is on by default. The captions play in the preview, on review links and in the SCORM and HTML exports. Learners turn them on and off in the video player. Turn Show captions off to leave them out.

Video link

We cannot download videos from YouTube, Vimeo or Loom, so a linked video cannot be transcribed. To build a quiz on it, paste its transcript into Paste the transcript (up to 60,000 characters) and click Save transcript. The quiz also needs the lesson saved with the link. A pasted transcript does not add captions.

Add a quiz after the video

When the lesson has a transcript, click Add a quiz after this video. It adds a quiz lesson right after the video, in the same section, named "Quiz:" followed by the video lesson title, and opens it in the quiz editor. If you uploaded and transcribed a video but have not saved the lesson yet, the button reads Save and add a quiz after this video and saves the lesson first.

The AI prompt of that quiz asks for questions based only on the transcript: copy it to your AI chat as for any quiz - see Build a quiz lesson. The quiz keeps a copy of the transcript from the moment it was added, so if you transcribe the video again, add a new quiz. A connected AI chat can also read the transcript itself, because get_lesson returns it for the video lesson. The new quiz counts towards your lesson limit, and in a presentation it needs Pro, like any lesson between slides.

What you should see

The lesson is marked Ready in the lesson list, and the preview plays the video. An uploaded video also plays in the editor, and once it is transcribed, Show captions appears under the transcript.

If something goes wrong

  • "Video URL is not from a whitelisted host.": use a link from YouTube, Vimeo or Loom. For Loom, copy the share link.
  • The video is longer than the limit: the editor says how long it is and what the limit is. Trim it, or use a link instead.
  • "We could not read this video.": use an MP4, MOV or WebM file.
  • Add a quiz after this video is greyed out: the hint under it says what is missing - save the lesson with the video, transcribe it, or paste and save the transcript.
  • Transcription stops with a message: the message says why. All transcription minutes for this month may be used up (they renew next month), or another transcription is still running for your account - wait until it finishes and try again.

Next

Check the size of your package and export it: Export your course to SCORM 1.2. The Video block puts a video between other blocks of a regular lesson: see Block reference.