Occasionally, we have a YouTube premiere! YouTube premieres are a little different than our regular video releases. One big difference is that we are actually present during the release! While the video itself is pre-recorded, we are all live watching it together at the same spot in time. When you join, it will be playing live. In addition, there will be a live chat window that is up before the video plays and stays up during the video as well.

How do I find one of your YouTube Premieres?
We tend to only do a few premieres a year. If we have a YouTube premiere coming up, we announce it several days in advance on our home page and some of our social media accounts. Then, when it gets as close to a few hours before it starts, we'll add the actual link. All you have to do is click on the link for the YouTube video premiere to go to it. If you subscribe to our channel and have your notifications on, you’ll be also be notified of the premiere starting with a direct link provided.

So you will be joining the live chat before the video actually starts?
Yes! The live chat typing window will be available before the video premieres, and we usually list a time when we will join live before the video starts. We usually are there for about 15 minutes before the video starts.

Tell me more about the live chat in a YouTube Premiere. Does it involve a webcam?
No! Neither you nor us will be on a webcam. The live chat is a chat box that you type into. You must be logged in to your YouTube/Google account in order to type anything. On a computer, the live chat shows on the right. On a mobile device, you'll see it underneath the video near the share button.

Do you moderate the live chat in a YouTube Premiere?
We have volunteer moderators that do. There's a filter on the live chat as well. However, neither of those things are perfect. If you notice something that violates YouTube's community guidelines that shows up in the live chat, you can also flag a comment to help our moderators. Remember best practices when chatting on any public platform: you should never give personal information such as your full name, address, phone number, etc. If our moderators see that, they remove it and the user's future posts will also no longer show in the live chat.

What if I join late?
You can join in late! Just know that when you join, since it's playing "live," it will bring you to the same point in the video as everyone else.

What if I miss it but still want to see it?
If you can't make it, the video posts like a normal video after playing live. The link will not change, and you can view it anytime afterwards. 

Can you show me some examples of videos you had that were premieres?
Sure. Some of our premiere videos included our "One Million Subscribers Celebration" video and the "We're Back" video. You will notice that they now play as a regular video.

How do I get credited with my name as the translator? Or remain anonymous?
We greatly appreciate the volunteers from the community that have spent time translating the video transcript. On our Google Form (the link to it is at the top of this page), you will note that there is an option to remain anonymous or to be credited. If you wish to be credited, the form will ask how you would like the credit to look. We also ask if you would like us to place a credit in the video details (which you can see when you click "show more" under a video) or if you would like to place a credit line yourself in the subtitles you submit (at the beginning or the end), or BOTH.

How do I see what translations already exist for one of your videos to determine if a translation is needed?
Go to any of our videos on our YouTube channel. Once our video is playing, click the gear icon and click "subtitles" to see all languages that our community has so kindly contributed. If the language you are interested in adding is not listed, we are still in need of that translation for the video!

As lifelong learning amoebas, we find a lot of value from feedback. Feedback helps us grow and improve. Sometimes, it's brought to our attention that we need a clarification note. Sometimes, it is brought to our attention that there is a mispronunciation or mistaken sentence that needs to be corrected. Sometimes, there is updated information. Sometimes, we learn something new and really think it's important to add that detail or exception.

For this reason, we utilize pinned comments. Pinned comments allow us to put important notes about our videos!

To learn more about how we try to make edits on or videos, please check out this post here!

Our most frequent need for a pinned comment though tends to be due to the many AMAZING exceptions and details that we find are difficult to address in such short videos of under 10 minutes. We do like to pin comments about those amazing details and exceptions, and sometimes our description additionally has further reading suggestions where you can learn more about them too!

LAST UPDATED: December 21, 2020

Fellow educators, we hope you are safe and healthy during this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know that schools worldwide will be making difficult decisions on whether they open face to face, virtually, or both. We want to be able to support you in this challenging time! We continue to receive a larger volume of emails than typical regarding terms of use and suggested use, so we wanted to try to keep this page as updated as possible. As we start to look at the majority of question types, we thought we could proactively put some of the question types we have been receiving with some helpful suggestions. 

News for Spring Semester 2021:

• We continue to update a dropbox folder you can access at the top of our handout page that has all of our free video recap handouts in one place as we know that offers more convenience. 
• We will be making some update videos this spring including a new updated video on cellular respiration and a new updated video on photosynthesis. It will include improved audio and illustrations! However, we do NOT delete old videos so links and YouTube embeds will still function. We'll only move them out of our playlist and replace them with the updated version.
• Due to popular demand, we are going to be making some more Unlectured topics to create a second series! We'll continue to make sure they use flattened images that will work in a variety of edtech tools that accept .ppt tools. We had previously looked into making Nearpods, but unfortunately the space limit on the free version isn't large enough for our illustrations.
• Please take a look at our frequent questions below during this time! 

Note: This post is often updated due to changes that occur in YouTube.
LAST UPDATED: November 17, 2021

YouTube. We're so grateful to have a platform where we can share our work, and the platform also helps (partially) with supporting our work so we can continue to create. A while back, we wrote a post about tips for viewers using YouTube to watch edu videos. We wanted to update and expand on that based on what we've learned over the years.

Are the background of the captions blocking you from being able to see illustrations in the video? Did you know you can change the font color, background color (or make it 100% transparent), and more?! Viewing the screenshot below, click the gear (labeled 1 below) - select subtitles - and then click "options" (labeled 2 below).

Sometimes those edu videos may go a little too fast! Did you know you can slow it down? (Or speed it up?) The video speed is an option when you click the gear at the bottom right of a video.

As an educator, Pinky found those keyboard shortcuts so helpful when needing to pause the video to ask questions or skip back or forward. If you're a teacher, you can even consider having a wireless keyboard so that you can control the video in the back of the room and start discussions from anywhere. Edu videos with engaging graphics (in our case, cartoons!) can make great discussion starters.

It's important to know how to share YouTube videos by using the YouTube link (or using the YouTube embed code, which is enabled on many edu channels)!  Most are familiar with YouTube links, but if you want a nice, streamlined look with a YouTube video on your class website or LMS, you may want to look at the YouTube embed feature, which will be available on videos if the channel enabled it. Just click "share" underneath the video, and click on "embed." You can also embed entire playlists so you could embed our entire learning playlist! YouTube embeds still feed from the YouTube channel itself. Need more detailed instructions on how to embed? Check this out from YouTube.

[NOTE: Embedding from YouTube using the YouTube embed code is very different from "ripping" and uploading a YouTube video, which is generally a terms of use violation. This means using software or a website to download a YouTube video and then posting it somewhere like on a school website, on social media, or on another YouTube channel typically violates the creators' rights as well as YouTube's terms of service. To avoid this, please make sure you are using either the YouTube link or the YouTube embed code, as those actually feed through the creator's channel.]

Many viewers may not realize the huge amount of information in a lot of edu video details (video descriptions). By clicking that "show more" underneath the video description, you can expand to see everything the edu creator has placed there. In our videos, we include references, further reading suggestions, our music credit, and additional links about our content.

A pinned comment is a comment that the edu creator has placed at the top of their comments. In many cases, it may be a comment from the edu creator themselves. The comment may have a clarification or important video note.