Vimeo is a popular video hosting site used by more than 80 million people for education, business, and various social media purposes. The basic premise of Vimeo is its video player to which anyone can upload videos and embed them anywhere (websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). It is user-friendly and simple to use by anyone who can create a video, so it appeals to amateur cinematographers, educators, advanced filmmakers, business marketing professional, or anyone who wants to publish funny animal videos. When the videos are published through Vimeo, they are automatically ADA compliant and accessible on any device regardless of bandwidth or platform.
The owner of the video can establish privacy settings and invite others to view, edit, or contribute to the video. Yes! You read it right! Others can edit or comment right in the video itself. Even better, all versions are available to revert to in case a contributor gets too creative with their edits. The video owner can also include interactive elements in the video, such as a call to action box that prompts the viewer to respond to questions.
Vimeo also offers data analytics via a dashboard for the video owner. The dashboard integrates data from any site on which the video is located and includes data related to number of views, engagement length, and types of access. Vimeo is not a free service, but there are special pricing plans for educators and students.
Will Richardson (2010) says, “the most sweeping change in our relationship with the Internet may not be as much the ability to publish as it is the ability to share, connect, and create with many, many others of like minds and interests” (p. 85). Vimeo is more than just a video sharing platform because it allows video owners to interact within the video content and collaborate to iterate on the original creation. In the higher education setting, I would recommend instructors use Vimeo for a collaborative video project around a content area topic. For example, in a political science class, students could debate a current political topic and upload videos of different perspectives on the topic. Then they could collaboratively edit the video segments to show both sides of the argument in a single video that the instructor could evaluate.
References
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Morr Ed Tech Ideas 
Katherine,
I have heard of Vimeo but did not realize it had so many tools that can be used in education. I like the data board. It is very useful as an educator to determine if the tools we are using are being used, are beneficial and not just another item for students to check off their lists. Thanks for your post.
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