Rethinking Video Learning: Measuring Competencies and Engagement with Annoto in an Open edX platform

We are always focused on providing an immersive and engaging learning experience, and we constantly look for ways to design and develop courses with a lasting impact.

Our journey with Annoto began back at the Open edX® conference in Lisbon, where we first discovered its potential to turn passive video consumption into an active, collaborative learning experience. During the December 2025 Open edX Virtual Meetup, we had the pleasure of connecting with Hen Eytan (CEO of Annoto). In his inspiring session, "The Future of Education: Measuring Competencies Through Engagement," Hen demonstrated how modern digital education is moving far beyond simple attendance tracking toward a deep, data-driven understanding of what students truly learn.

Annoto brings the advantages of a physical classroom directly into the online learning environment—allowing users to find their voice and form a social learning community. Best of all, the latest versions of Annoto are seamlessly integrated into the Open edX platform as native components, ensuring that neither instructors nor learners ever have to leave the LMS.

Beyond Passive Watching: How Annoto Works

Annoto adds an interactive, platform-integrated layer over your video and course content. It enables course participants to contribute time-based interactions, transforming videos into collaborative hubs while providing instructors with actionable insights.

The core user experience is built around three intuitive layers:

Interactive Comments & Discussions

While a video plays, learners can pause at any timestamp to post questions, share insights, or start a thread. This can be done in written form or as a video/audio recording. By encouraging in-video discussions and peer reviews, the platform fosters natural participation and community building.

Social Features & Gamification

Learners can "like" comments, use emoticons to label posts, and chat directly with peers. With advanced notifications, users are alerted when someone replies to their thread, keeping the learning momentum alive outside of class hours.

Timestamped Personal Notes

Learners can keep a private, digital journal directly alongside the video timeline. These personal notes are tied to specific seconds in the video and are strictly visible to the individual student—perfect for exam preparation and self-paced study.

The Next Level: AI Insights and Competency Tracking

The latest evolution of Annoto introduces powerful AI-driven analysis and pedagogical alignment based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Instead of just tracking if a student watched a video, institutions can now measure how they engaged with the material.

By evaluating in-video quizzes, participation in discussions, and peer review activities, Annoto generates meaningful evidence of a learner’s understanding and progress. This enables educators to:

• Track performance in real time to identify students who might be falling behind.
• Measure skills and competencies directly tied to the curriculum.
• Deliver data-driven insights that help institutions refine their course content and better prepare students for the job market.

Advanced Analytics & Course Governance

For course teams and administrators, Annoto provides a comprehensive, built-in analytics dashboard within Open edX that requires zero external configuration:

• Course Video Insights: A detailed breakdown of performance metrics for every single video asset in the course.
• User Activity Tracking: A transparent overview of individual learner progress, tracking how they interact with the content over time.
• Activity Trends Graphs: Visual data pipelines showing key engagement metrics across the course lifecycle, making it easy to spot which topics spark the most discussion.
• Automated Instructor Alerts: Instructors can simply click the "Follow this Course" button on the dashboard's Controls Bar to receive instant email notifications whenever a new comment or reply is posted, allowing for rapid feedback and moderation.

Our Opinion

Annoto remains one of the most powerful extensions available for the Open edX ecosystem. By shifting the focus from simple video completion metrics to real competency measurement, it perfectly bridges the gap between digital learning and practical student success.

Whether you are looking to deploy student assignments, collaborative peer reviews, or AI-assisted learning assistants, the latest version of Annoto fits naturally into your existing Open edX courses. We are excited to continue leveraging this tool to build next-generation, high-impact learning ecosystems for our clients.