This is a question that gets asked quite a lot on social media, and the simple answer is: well, yes, and no…

This post looks at what you can do for FREE on TeachVid.

1) FREE, but without registering

Anybody can go to the TeachVid site and do the following, without even registering or logging in:

• Public resources
Browse and search through the many publicly available TeachVid resources via the resources page, using the selectors available to search by video language, translation, category, level, etc. (No advanced search though: this is available to subscribers only.)
See the TeachVid resources page

• Resource page for each resource
Open the resource page for any resource that has been made publicly available, or for which they have been given the URL. The resource page provides links to the YouTube video and also allows users to read a transcript of the video (where one is available).
See this example of a resource page

• Learn Mode
Open all resources in Learn Mode. This allows users to watch and listen to the video with bilingual subtitles and transcript / translation (where available), compare and contrast language chunks, use Auto-pause to pause after each caption, etc.
Read more about TeachVid’s Learn Mode

• Activity Mode for “featured” resources
Open any “featured” resource in Activity Mode. Currently the featured resources on TeachVid account for about 10% of all resources. All users can open the video player and the interactive activities for any featured resource. (TeachVid can’t save any of your activity progress, though, if you are not registered and logged in.)
Read more about TeachVid’s Activity Mode

• PDF printables for “featured” resources
View and print PDF printables for any “featured” resource. Each resource has up to 12 printable options, several of which can be configured so that the user can choose things such as gapped words, amount of text affected, etc.
Read more about PDF printing on TeachVid

2) FREE, but with registration

That’s already quite a lot that you can do, not only for free, but without even registering with TeachVid. If you do register, you get ALL OF THE ABOVE, and you also get the following:

• User profile page
This is only accessible by you, but it lists your recent activity, such as activity completion.

• Activity progress tracking in Activity Mode
This means that you can start an activity, leave it, and go back to it at any point and your progress will have been saved, so that you can continue where you left off.
Read more about TeachVid’s Activity Mode

• The History tab on the resources page
TeachVid keeps a history of all resources where you have opened the video player in either Learn Mode or Activity Mode, with your most recently visited resources listed first. You can remove resources from the History tab with a simple click.

• The Favorites tab on the resources page
Once you have registered, you can “favorite” resources either via the resources page (i.e. the search page with the tabs on it) or the resource page itself. All of your favorite resources are listed in the Favorites tab, most recent first. This means you can keep all of the resources that you like in one place. You can un-favorite a resource from the resource page, the resources search or by deleting it from your Favorites tab.

• The My Resources tab on the resources page
The My resources tab lists resources that you have created. From here you can create a new resource, open it, edit it or delete it.

• Additional Activity Mode access
Activity Mode access to an additional 10 resources per month, in addition to the many “featured” resources.
Read more about TeachVid’s Activity Mode

• Temporary LIVE Sessions based on “featured” resources
All registered users can set LIVE Session competitions based on any featured resource. This is done by clicking on the “Set Live Session” icon that appears on the resource preview image on the resource page. This feature allows you to set up a Temporary LIVE Session competition (lasts up to 7 days), where students compete to score points on the LIVE scoreboard. Temporary Live Sessions are accessed via the “Live” menu option on the TeachVid navigation bar.
Read more about LIVE Sessions on TeachVid

• Create your own resources
If you register, you can create your own resources. The limit for created resources for free registered users is 5. That said, if you reach your limit, you can delete one of your old resources so that you can make space for a new one (unlike some platforms, which have a hard limit). Note that free registered users cannot create “Public” resources (i.e. resources that will appear in the resource search for other users). But you can create “Private” resources (only accessible by you) and “Unlisted” resources (accessible by others via a URL). You create your own resources via the “My resources” tab on the resources page (see above).
Read more about creating your own resources on TeachVid

• Copy your own created resources
Make copies of your own created resources, via a “Copy resource” icon which appears on the resource page and in the resources search.

• Activity Mode for your own created resources
Activity Mode access to your own created resources, in addition to the many “featured” resources and the additional 10 resources per month, with your activity progress saved for all activities.
Read more about TeachVid’s Activity Mode

• PDF printables for your own created resources
PDF printable access to your own created resources, in addition to the many “featured” resources.
Read more about PDF printing on TeachVid

• Temporary LIVE Sessions based on your own created resources
You’ll see that there is a “Set Live Session” icon on the resource preview image on the resource page for all of your own created resources. Click this to set up a Temporary LIVE Session competition (lasts up to 7 days), where students compete to score points on the LIVE scoreboard. Temporary Live Sessions are accessed via the “Live” menu option on the TeachVid navigation bar.
Read more about LIVE Sessions on TeachVid

Aaaand that’s the end of the FREE stuff…

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Wow, that’s tons of stuff! So why subscribe?

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of subscribing to TeachVid, please read on…

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3) WHY GET A Teacher Subscription?

In addition to ALL OF THE ABOVE, Teacher subscribers also get:

• Activity Mode for all resources
Full access to Activity Mode for all resources, including activity progress tracking.
Read more about TeachVid’s Activity Mode

• Improved search
Search box on the resources page (in addition to the selectors), allowing you to search by text terms.

• Full PDF printables access to all resources
Teachers can print PDFs for any resource for which this is an option, no longer being limited to featured resources and their own resources.
Read more about PDF printing on TeachVid

• Create an unlimited number of resources
Whereas the FREE tier only allows you to create 5 resources.
Read more about creating your own resources on TeachVid

• Create “Public” resources
Teacher subscribers can create resources which appear in the resource search on the resources page. You decide whether or not your resource may be copied by other Teacher users.

• Resource copying
“Copy resource” option for all resources that are uploaded as “Public” and copiable. This means that if you see a Public resource that you like, but that you want to tweak in some way, you can simply make a copy of it and change it in any way that you like.

• Create classrooms
As a Teacher subscriber, you can create multiple private classrooms for your students. You can then invite your students to join your classroom so that they can take part in assignments etc (of which more below).

• Pre-register student emails
Teacher subscribers can pre-register student emails, which is a useful option for those scenarios in which students are not able to receive confirmation emails from outside sources. Teacher subscribers can pre-register students via their profile page.
Read more about getting students signed up to TeachVid

• Temporary LIVE Sessions based on all resources
As explained above, this feature allows you to set up a Temporary LIVE Session competition (lasts up to 7 days), where students compete to score points on the LIVE scoreboard. Temporary Live Sessions are accessed via the “Live” menu option on the TeachVid navigation bar and are created directly via the “Set Live Session” icon on the resource page.
Read more about LIVE Sessions on TeachVid

• Set Classroom Assignments based on all resources
An assignment can be based on one or more resources. It can have video previews in Learn Mode, and multiple activities. Each activity can be set as an assessment or as a practice assignment, it can have a pass mark, and you can decide on the focus for a particular activity: video-only (i.e. dictation / listening focused); translation only (i.e. translation focused); video + translation (i.e. listening and translation combined); neither video nor translation (i.e. pure text-reconstruction). Each assignment has a due date, and students can see the assignments that have been set for them via the Assignments tab in their classroom.
Read more about setting assignments on TeachVid

• Duplicate assignments
Once you have set an assignment, TeachVid makes it easy for you to duplicate your assignment and share it to any or all of your other classrooms. This is also a really easy way of re-setting an assignment for the same class.
Read more about setting assignments on TeachVid

• Set assignment via resource page
Just as you can set a Temporary or Classroom based Live Session directly from a resource page, as a Teacher subscriber, you can set a classroom assignment in the same way. This means that, as soon as you come across a resource that you like and that you’d like to use with your classes, you can click to assign it to one of your private classrooms.
Read more about setting assignments on TeachVid

• Assignment results
The results for each assignment can be viewed via the Assignments tab, or in more detail via the Students tab.

• Set Classroom LIVE Sessions
A classroom-based Live Session works in a similar way to the Temporary Live Session mentioned above, but it is accessed via the Live tab in the classroom, and the scoreboard data available once the Live Session is finished is more in-depth: you can see points and scores for each activity for each student.
Read more about LIVE Sessions on TeachVid

• Homework and classwork
Assignments can be used to set work to be done in class, or for homework. Live Session competitions can also be set to be accessed during the class, so that students can compete in real time against each other until the Teacher ends the session, or they can be set over a longer period, with students competing over the space of days or weeks. Students will see the top 10 scores on the scoreboard, while the teacher has access to all scores, and to more in-depth per-activity data once the Live Session is finished.

• Manage Premium Students
If your subscription plan includes add-ons for Premium Students, you can manage them via your profile page.

4) WHAT IS A School Subscription?

Note that multiple teachers can be combined into a School subscription, which offers significant price reductions compared with individual Teacher subscription.

5) Premium Student Subscription

Premium Students get the same as the FREE tier, but with the following extras, which essentially mean that Premium students have free reign to use TeachVid as a self-study tool:

• Activity Mode for all resources
Full access to Activity Mode for all resources, including activity progress tracking.

• Improved search
Search box on the resources page (in addition to the selectors), allowing you to search by text terms.

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• Visit TeachVid’s pricing page for up-to-date pricing information for all of our subscription plans.
• Read this on various routes into exploiting a TeachVid resource with students.
• Read the TeachVid user guides.