Keywords: Media Central, MediaCentral, Media Services, video, audio, embed, locked-down, access, secure, view, hide, private, group

What is it?

The Media Resource activity provides a method of adding media content securely to a course via integration with UCL media servers provided by the Educational Media team. Staff on Moodle can add video and audio content directly into a courses, meaning content is viewable only by those who are enrolled on the course. 

Why use it?

Staff can easily upload media content, but also do a quick recording from their webcam.

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?

Only staff can add media content to the course, but staff and students can view it if they are enrolled on the course. You can add restrictions to each Media Resource if you want to make it so only those in a specific group can view, or for content to be viewable at a certain time. 

Before I start...

Think about:

• If your Media should sit within the Lecturecast service instead - so that it sits alongside other recorded lectures, or can make use of interactive features.
• If you want your media content to be accessible by people outside Moodle - in which case you should upload your recording directly into UCL MediaCentral and add a link to it in your Moodle course. 
• If you have a significant number of video or audio files that you wish to add to your Moodle course, please contact the UCL MediaCentral Team for further help and information.
• Whether you have suitable consent from any people appearing in your media content, and if have suitable copyright clearance to use this material. 
• Please see the MediaCentral Moodle help pages maintained by the Digital Media Services Team for FAQs and further guidance. 

Meeting the baseline

The UCL E-Learning Baseline suggests the following for Resources:

• 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.

• 5.2 Provide learning resources - Provide presentation slides, notes or handouts. See which file format to use when. UCL policy is to provide lecture materials 48 hours in advance. 

• 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.
• 5.6 Embed videos and other media  (such as animations, audio, virtual labs) from Lecturecast, Box of Broadcasts, YouTube, Vimeo, Khan Academy and other sources.

How do I set one up?

Please see the MediaCentral Moodle help pages maintained by the Educational Media team, for full instructions on how to add a Media Resource activity into your Moodle course. 

Caution

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Examples and case studies

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Questions & Answers

Please see the MediaCentral Moodle help pages maintained by the Educational Media team for FAQs and further guidance. If you experience any issues with using the Media Resource activity, please contact the ISD ServiceDesk or the Digital Media team via mediacentral@ucl.ac.uk, who will be able to pass your enquiry to the relevant team. 

Further information

Please see the MediaCentral Moodle help pages maintained by the Educational Media team for FAQs and further guidance. 

For further information about selecting the correct platform for sharing media resources and for guidance on creating educational media resources please see the Educational Media Resource Centre.

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