Add links to Videos in Microsoft Stream

Day 107 of 365 Ideas for Microsoft 365 is all about app-smashing to make links to websites clickable in your Stream-hosted videos, thanks to Microsoft Forms integration. This started when I read a comment on Twitter about how nice it is that you can save PowerPoint recordings in Stream for distribution to students. However, it would be nice if the links to websites in the original PowerPoint were still clickable. Of course links inside of videos are NOT clickable, but here you will find a workaround.

Uses for links IN videos

Let’s consider how this is useful, then get into the “How to”. There are nearly limitless ways you can deliver content to students. One possible blend of traditional and digital is to add all your content to a slideshow in PowerPoint and narrate it. PowerPoint can save your voice and inking so students can watch your lesson. Maybe there are sites you would have your students go to during that lesson. If you share the lesson with them via video, you can have the video pause while they click the embedded link to go to those sites. Or maybe your sole purpose is to get them to a site to complete an assignment. How do you give directions? You could record directions in a video and add that as an attachment or a link, and have a separate link to the assignment. Or, you could use this idea to just give your students one thing to click on instead of clicking back and forth. How about a video Hyperdoc? Give some content and instructions and send them to complete a task. They comeback to get more instructions and content before completing another task. How about a math teacher showing how to solve one or more problems, then sending students to complete a Forms assessment, then showing solutions to those, then sending them to complete more? (OK, that’s not just for Math teachers!) Send them to Smithsonian, to complete a Flipgrid recording, to an article on the web or in a OneNote Class Notebook, to a Padlet, Jamboard or Microsoft Whiteboard to collaborate, synchronously or asynchronously. The possibilities are endless!

How To Add Links to your Videos

First step is of course to upload your video into Stream. If you aren’t familiar with Stream, I’ve written about it here.

Since Stream integrates with Microsoft Forms, that’s our next stop. If you have never created a Microsoft Form, here’s what you need to know. This won’t be a Quiz, so you can click to create a new Form.

Sections in Forms

We don’t need to ask any questions, so all we need is to create a Section in our Form. A section allows you to enter content without asking for a response. The only content we are going to add to our Form is the hyperlink.

Give your Form a title so you will be able to find it easily in Stream.

 In the “Section” field type in directions, like “Click here to open…”

Add the Link

In the “Enter the description” field, paste or type the actual url you wish to link to.

 If your video has more than one link, create a new Form for each one.

Click on the Share button. Set your permissions for who can respond and click copy.

You are now finished in Forms. Go back to your video in Stream. To the right of the video, click on “Add Form” under the Interactivity tab.

Add Form to your Video in Stream

Paste the url for the Form here. Name your form. Pause the video and drag the scrubber to the point in the video you want the link to appear, and click “Add to Timeline”. Repeat for additional links.

Now when you share the link to the video, students can watch the video in Stream and at the point you insert the Form, the video stops and the Form fills the screen. (It even has Immersive Reader in the Form.) Click on the link to open it in a new tab. The video will remain paused at that point.

Want further app-smashing capability? Copy the link to the Stream video and paste it on a page in OneNote to embed the video to play inside of OneNote. The Form will be embedded inside the Stream video inside of OneNote!