M02e - Lecturecast Media Embedding

What Is It?

Lecturecast media embedding allows for the embedding of audio and video content into your Moodle content using the Moodle text editor.

Why Use It?

Video and audio clips are a great way to add visual interest and dynamic content to your courses. Content is viewable only by those enrolled in the course. Once uploaded, you can link to the same content in multiple courses.

Who Can Use It?

Staff with editing rights can embed media from Lecturecast into Moodle course using the Moodle text editor.

Students can access the embedded media and embed their own content into forums, wikis, or video assignments. Students need to ensure they follow Section 1: Code of Conduct for Students in the UCL Academic Manual.

Before I Start...

You need to decide where you want to place your video in the course. In Moodle content can be embedded or linked anywhere that is edited using the Moodle editor. You should avoid embedding videos on the Moodle course homepage unless you are using tabs format and you have a single introductory video. Use a page instead to keep the main Moodle course page clutter-free. For multiple videos use a book so students can focus on one at a time.

Meeting the Baseline

The UCL Connected Learning Baseline suggests the following for Structure :

1.1 Present activities and resources in a meaningful, clearly structured and sequenced way - e.g. chronologically or by theme. Typically each Moodle section represents a topic, which may cover one or more weeks of study.
- Use headings - Use Section Headings for each topic area and heading styles within text and media areas, books, and pages to maintain consistency across sections and help students see where they are.
- Clearly group and text and media area items within a section - Bring together common elements, use text and media areas to provide common sub-headings across sections to help students navigate.

The Resources category indicates that you should:

5.1 Use descriptive titles for all items and consider displaying the item's description on the course homepage, as this helps students understand the purpose of the activity or resource.
5.4 Check resources - Regularly fix or remove broken hyperlinks (URLs) and check that all resources are up-to-date before releasing these to students.

The Accessibility category suggests that you:

7.4 Provide video transcripts or notes (where these already exist) to Lecturecast or external video systems (like YouTube or Vimeo). If using YouTube you might want to check the auto transcription and edit any inaccuracies.

How Do I Set One Up?

1) Open the Embed Media Menu

While editing an activity or resource on Moodle, such as the page or book resources, click theEcho360 Plugin button in the the Atto toolbar. This button has the Lecturecast (Echo 360) logo.

Please note: you can only embed videos from your personal library. If you wish to embed videos from the course section, you will need to copy those to your personal library first.

2) Upload Media

In the embed media popup menu, click into the Upload Existing Media tab and upload your media. If you've already uploaded this file to Lecturecast before, you can skip to Step 3 Embedding Media (see below).

Then select 'Upload Media from Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive For Business or Box' which will open the 'Select Files to upload' window.

You can drag and drop, copy and paste files or click on 'Select Files to Upload' and use the file picker to select a media file and then press 'Upload'.

Once the upload has completed, you'll be taken back to the Choose from My Home tab with a popup message saying your files uploaded successfully.

3) Embedding Media

Once you have uploaded your media into Lecturecast, you can now embed it onto your course. In the Library tab, locate the media you wish to embed. You can search for this using the search box or the filters if required. Once the media has been found, click onto it's name and then click 'Next' to open a dropdown with has the embed options. You can change the size but all other settings should be left one their defaults. Once you have the desired settings, click 'Insert'.

The embedded media will appear in the Atto text editor like this. If you delete or modify this by accident, follow the steps just taken to re-embed your media.

Once you have finished editing your activity or resource, press 'Save and return to course' at the bottom of the Moodle editing page to view the embedded media.

Caution

Supported content formats

Lecturecast supports a range of media formats for video and audio files. For more information, see the Echo360 support article on supported media formats.

Video analytics

For media embedded in this way it is possible to obtain viewing data for each individual piece of media, however, it is not possible to obtain overview analytics for all media shared within the Moodle course.

See: Lecturecast: What analytics should you use?

Examples and Case Studies

None at this time.

Questions & Answers

None at this time.

Further Information

Also see M02b - Embed video, audio and other media