Video Everywhere

This week we'll explore a third option for embedding video within your Blackboard courses - Blackboard's Video Everywhere feature.  Video Everywhere allows Blackboard users (students, faculty, staff) to easily embed their own videos from YouTube within a Blackboard course.  All ICC students, faculty, and staff have access to YouTube via their @lab Google accounts.  While these are the traditional email accounts for students, faculty and staff should use their @lab Google accounts not for email, but for working with Google apps like Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and YouTube, among others - learn more within our Google Accounts for Faculty and Staff guide.

The Video Everywhere feature is available within Blackboard's content/text box editor, allowing users to make use of this feature "everywhere" in Blackboard that the content editor is available.  Instructors could post weekly videos as part of the Announcements page, include video instructions or sample project videos within Assignments, or start a discussion forum with a video instead of text.  Content editors are even available within the Grade Center, allowing instructors an option for providing video feedback to student assignment submissions.  Students could use the Video Everywhere feature to submit assignments or post to a discussion board, blog, or journal.  

The Video Everywhere icon is available at the start of the bottom toolbar in any content editor box (highlighted below):

Clicking on this icon will open a new window that prompts you to sign in to your YouTube account.  Once you enter your @lab email address and password, you can click on the Browse tab to view thumbnail images for videos already uploaded to your YouTube library.  (Note: If you are already signed in to a different Google account within your browser, you will need to sign out of that account and then into the @lab account.)  For each video you have uploaded to your YouTube account, you will have the option of either inserting the video into Blackboard, previewing the video before deciding to insert it, or editing the video within YouTube.  

Once you select Insert, a screen with additional display options will appear.  Play in place is the default selection with a thumbnail size of 120x90.  A larger display would be more ideal - just be sure to keep the dimensions proportional.  Once you click the Insert button, you may add additional text description, attachments, due dates, etc. to the announcement, assignment, discussion forum, etc.  

Need to learn more about how to record videos and upload them to your YouTube account?  There are several options available:

• Videos can be recorded from a SmartPhone and then uploaded to YouTube directly from your phone.  
• If you wish to provide a demonstration of something on the computer, you could record it using Screencast-O-Matic (check out our Screencast-O-Matic blog post from January 2015).  
• Videos can be edited in Movie Maker (Windows) or QuickTime Movie Recording (Mac) 

The University of Idaho's BbLearn Help page Upload your video to YouTube provides an overview of each of the recording options listed above, as well as an excellent step-by-step overview (with screenshot images) of how to upload videos within a YouTube account.  


Additional Resources

• Blackboard Help's Video Everywhere page
• Video Everywhere ICC TLC blog post
  Note that the "Record from Webcam" feature is no longer available
• Blackboard Learn Quick Hit Video: Video Everywhere Building Block

For additional assistance with incorporating Web Content into your Blackboard courses, contact the TLC at tlc@icc.edu or (309) 694-8908, or visit us in room 240A on the East Peoria campus.

Next week our Blackboard Users' Group will meet in the TLC on Wednesday, April 6 at 12noon or Thursday, April 7 at 3pm - participants may attend either session.

Our May blog series will focus on the necessary steps for ending a semester in a Blackboard course and will include topics about backing up the Grade Center to Microsoft Excel, archiving courses, and bulk deleting users, and preparing a course for the following semester.

Linking/Embedding Media Content

Last week's blog post presented ideas for using Blackboard's Mashup tool as a means for embedding media content like photos, audio, and video from their original sources within your Blackboard courses.  Not all media available online has an option for being integrated via Blackboard's Mashup tool, but there are still ways to either link to or embed media content within a Blackboard course in order to reduce course size.  Learn more at Blackboard Help's page - Best Practice: Reduce Your Course Size.


LINK TO MEDIA CONTENT
Instructors can link to external content via either the (1) Web Link option or the (2) link icon within the content/text editor box.  

1. The Build Content drop-down menu available in any content area features a Web Link option.  Selecting this option will allow instructors to add a title and URL and - optionally - a description or attachment(s).  By default the link will open in a new tab.  A web link will appear in Blackboard with a globe as the icon, followed by the name you entered.  Clicking on the name (as shown in the image below) will open the web site in a new tab.


Check out Purdue University's video tutorial for a visual overview:


2. The other method to link to an external site is to do so within the content/text editor box.  Anywhere the content editor is available (items, assignments, discussion boards, blogs, journals, etc.), an instructor can highlight text and then click the chain link icon to actively link it (shown in the image below).  You will be given options on the pop-up window when you click the chain link icon.  On the Target drop-down, be sure to select Open in a New Window (_blank) so that the user will remain in Blackboard and the link will open in a new tab.

These two methods for adding web links provide a means for linking to content on another website.  A text link that can be clicked to access other content will be made available.  

Another option is to embed media into your Blackboard course so that the actual media appears within the Blackboard course (rather than having to open a link in a new tab), similar to the way it appears when using the Mashup tool.


EMBED MEDIA CONTENT
To embed media from an external website, you will need to access the embed code from that site, which is usually available by clicking a "Share" or "Embed" link.  Once you copy the embed code, it can be pasted into any content/text editor box within Blackboard by clicking on the HTML icon (highlighted below).  

For a complete list of steps for embedding Web 2.0 content, as well as brief descriptions of various types of Web 2.0 content that can be embedded into a Blackboard course or website, visit Blackboard Help's page - Best Practice: Web 2.0 Tools.


Contact the ICC Teaching and Learning Center to learn more about embedding media content to help reduce course size.  Visit our blog again next week to learn more about Video Everywhere, a means for embedding your own YouTube videos into Blackboard.

Blackboard Mashups

One of the "best practices" we try to promote in terms of Blackboard use is to keep course sizes small.  Two main ways to do so are reducing file sizes prior to uploading them (by saving Word, PowerPoint, and other file formats as PDFs) and embedding audio/video content, rather than uploading it to Blackboard.  Throughout this month's blog series we'll focus on ways to embed media content (photos, audio, video) from the web to reduce course size.  You can learn more about this best practice in general via Blackboard Help's Reduce Your Course Size page.

Our focus this week is on using the Blackboard Mashup tool, which allows you to embed media content from certain websites within a Blackboard course.  The Mashup tool is available from both the Build Content drop-down menu and within the third (bottom) toolbar of the Content Editor box.  Using the Mashup tool within the Content Editor allows you to embed media content in a variety of areas, such as discussion forums, assignments, and tests/quizzes.  Learn more within Blackboard TV's video "How to Create a Mashup":

There are numerous advantages to using Blackboard's Mashup tool:

• link to media content from YouTube, SlideShare, Flickr, or Atomic Learning resources
• reduce Blackboard course size by embedding, rather than uploading, media
• embed the actual content from its original source, rather than downloading and then uploading it
• use online resources within copyright law since the source is automatically cited with the item

For additional information, along with step-by-step instructions, about Blackboard's Mashup Tool, visit Blackboard's Create Content page section about Mashups.  

Visit us again next week when we explore options for embedding content that is not available via the Blackboard Mashup tool.