What Is Annoto? The In-Video Engagement Layer, Explained
Most course video is a one-way street. An instructor records a lecture, uploads it to the LMS, and hopes students press play. But watching is not learning. Learners drift, skip ahead, or leave the tab open while their attention wanders elsewhere, and the instructor has no way to know. We built Annoto to close that gap without asking anyone to abandon the video they already use.
The Problem With Passive Video
Video became the default medium for online and hybrid courses, yet the experience barely changed from the days of the lecture hall. There is rarely a moment where a student has to think, respond, or commit to an answer. Comprehension goes unmeasured until a later quiz or exam, by which point the lecture is long over. For institutions, that creates two headaches at once: students disengage, and there is no documented record of the interaction that accreditors and regulations increasingly expect.
The Layer Annoto Adds
Annoto is an in-video engagement layer. Instead of replacing your video, we sit on top of it and turn the timeline into an interactive workspace. The content instructors already have in Kaltura, Panopto, YouTube, or their LMS becomes active learning with no re-recording. On any video, learners can:
- Answer in-video quizzes that check comprehension at the exact moment a concept is taught
- Post in-context comments and discussion tied to the second of the timeline they are watching
- Complete peer review and reflection points that ask them to articulate what they understood
Our AI copilot, Lumo, auto-generates in-video quizzes and scaffolds them across Bloom's taxonomy, so building an interactive lesson takes minutes rather than hours.
Inside Your LMS, With the Data to Prove It
Annoto connects to Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and Brightspace through one-click LTI 1.3, so there is nothing for IT to install and nothing new for students to log into. Grades from in-video quizzes sync straight to the LMS gradebook. Every question answered and comment posted also documents Regular & Substantive Interaction (RSI), giving your institution the compliance trail it needs. Behind the scenes, we surface analytics that passive video can never provide, including attention, comprehension, and completion, broken down by learner and by moment in the video.
Passive watching becomes active collaboration, assessment, and insight, on the video you already teach with.
That is why more than 200 institutions, including NYU, Florida State, Georgia Tech, and the University of Padova, use Annoto to make their video count. If your courses run on video, the engagement layer is the missing piece.
