How to set up a video assessment — webcam recording or file upload — and what makes a video prompt worth recording against.
Video assessments capture skill demonstrations that text can't — a sales pitch, a customer-service scenario response, an instructional walkthrough. Continu supports two response types: a webcam recording the learner makes inline, or a file upload of a video they recorded separately.
Video assessments are graded by a human (manager, buddy, or assigned graders) against a rubric. They give you richer signal than text on demonstrable skills, but they also take more time to grade — so reach for video when the format actually fits the skill, not just because it feels more thorough. For the strategic frame, see Assessments: Designing Knowledge Checks That Are Useful.
How to Create a Video Assessment
1. Open the Assessments tab. Navigate to Create > Assessments from the left-hand navigation panel.
2. Add an Assessment. Click Add an Assessment.
3. Choose Video Response. Click Video Response, then select the Response Type — Webcam Recording (learner records in-app) or File Upload (learner uploads a pre-recorded file).
4. Fill in the basics. Title, Author Name, Description. Add tags if relevant. Click Next.
5. Write the Question Prompt. The prompt is what the learner sees before they record. Be specific about what they're demonstrating and what success looks like. Adjust any prompt-level settings below the prompt field.
6. Set the Grading Criteria. This is the rubric graders will use to score the submission. Two options: a single overall score (Question Point Value) or a multi-criterion rubric (Grading Criteria). For most skill-demonstration assessments, a rubric produces more consistent grading — see Setting up Grading Criteria for Video Assessments for the rubric design framework. Click Next.
7. Configure Assessment, Grading, and Admin Settings. Set the pass mark, retake policy, certificate behavior, and grader rules. These shape what the assessment is and who grades it — see Assessment Settings and Assessment Grader Settings. Click Next.
8. Review and Publish. Review the assessment and click Publish. The assessment is now ready to be assigned.
Considerations
Specific scenarios over open questions. "Walk us through how you'd handle this customer" is open-ended and produces inconsistent responses. "You're on a call with a customer who says X — walk us through the next 60 seconds" gives the learner enough constraint to actually demonstrate the skill.
Define the time expectation. Tell the learner how long the recording should be (e.g., "2–3 minutes"). Without that, you'll get a wide range from 30 seconds to 15 minutes, which makes grading inconsistent and time-consuming.
State what graders will evaluate. If the rubric scores empathy, accuracy, and resolution, the learner should know that before they record. Hiding the rubric doesn't produce more authentic responses — it produces confused ones.
Pair Webcam Recording with low-stakes practice. Inline recording is fast and friction-free but can produce shorter, less-polished responses. Use it for practice and reinforcement. Use File Upload when learners need time to prepare, retake, or get a clean recording.
Configuration Pitfalls
Single Score on a Multi-Skill Prompt. If the prompt asks the learner to demonstrate multiple skills (opening, discovery, handling objections), a single Question Point Value collapses all of them into one number. Use a rubric instead.
Publishing Without Defining the Rubric. Video assessments published with no rubric depend entirely on grader judgment, which produces grader-to-grader variance. Set up grading criteria before publishing, even on lower-stakes programs.
Webcam Recording for High-Stakes Demonstrations. A learner facing an inline recording with one take often performs worse than they would with the chance to prepare. For high-stakes certifications, File Upload gives learners the room they need.
No Grader Calibration. Even a well-designed rubric produces inconsistent scores across graders who haven't applied it to sample responses. Run a short calibration before the program goes live — see Assessment Grader Settings.
Skipping the Preview. The Preview view shows the learner's perspective — confusing prompts, missing context, or unclear time expectations often surface here. Preview before publishing.
Where This Fits
You're here because you're creating a video assessment. The rubric design framework lives in Setting up Grading Criteria for Video Assessments. The grader pool decisions live in Assessment Grader Settings. The learner-facing settings live in Assessment Settings. Once published, see Assigning an Assessment for assignment paths.
See Also
- Assessments: Designing Knowledge Checks That Are Useful — the strategic anchor.
- Setting up Grading Criteria for Video Assessments — rubric design.
- Assessment Grader Settings — who can grade.
- Grade a Video Assessment — the grading automation after the learner submits.
- Create a Screen Recording Assessment — for screen-share demonstrations.
- Creating a Video Coaching Assessment — for the video coaching add-on.
Video assessments measure demonstrated skill. A specific prompt and a clear rubric make the format work.