Recorded lectures, online capsules and YouTube explainers are great until you have to review them. DAFi turns a video into a structured note you can skim in minutes and study from with quizzes.
DAFi turns videos into study notes. Paste a YouTube link or import a video file of a lecture, and you get a structured note with a course plan, a summary, the key takeaways and the full course. No more scrubbing through a 90-minute recording to find the one explanation you need.
How it works
- Add a video. Choose "Add a YouTube link" and paste the URL, or import a video file (MP4 or MOV) of your recorded lecture or online capsule.
- DAFi processes it. For a YouTube video, DAFi works from the video's transcript. For a video file, it processes the audio of the recording.
- Read the structured note. Your note is organized into Course plan, Summary, Key takeaways and Full course, like every note in DAFi.
- Study it actively. Launch a quiz on the note, then review the concepts you missed with flashcards.
Who it's for
Maya is in an online statistics course where each week is a series of pre-recorded capsules. Instead of watching them twice, she watches once, imports the files into DAFi and reviews from the note. Before the midterm, she uses the quizzes to see which weeks she really understood.
Tom studies engineering and relies on YouTube explainers when a lecture goes too fast. He pastes the link of a good video on Fourier series, gets a clean note, and keeps it next to his course notes in the same subject.
It also works for conference talks, recorded tutorials or a lecture your professor posted on the course website.
Videos come back in your revision too
After each quiz, DAFi generates a revision sheet that explains your mistakes. For some concepts, the explanation includes a "Watch the video" link to a YouTube video on that exact point, so you can see it explained differently before trying again. See tailored revision.
Tips
- Check that the YouTube video has captions or a transcript: DAFi needs it to generate the note.
- Combine a video with the course slides using Sources: add the files to the same note and DAFi regenerates it with both.
- Short, focused videos give focused notes. For a long playlist, one note per video (or per topic) is easier to study.
- Assign the note to a subject to keep it with the rest of the course.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my YouTube link fail?
DAFi needs the video's transcript. If the video has no captions, you'll see "No transcript is available for this YouTube video". Try another video, or import the video file if you have it.
Which video formats can I import?
MP4 and MOV files work on both iPhone/iPad and the web. You can also import audio-only files such as MP3.
Can I use DAFi on a lecture I watched live on Zoom or Teams?
If you have the recording file, yes: import it. You can also record the audio live with DAFi while you follow the lecture; see smart note-taking.
Does DAFi keep the timestamps?
DAFi focuses on a structured note rather than a timestamped transcript.
Your next video lecture doesn't need to be watched twice: watch it once, let DAFi take the notes.