Adding Videos to Course Sites in Blackboard

Watch Are Memes and Internet Culture Creating a Singularity? on PBS. See more from Idea Channel.

Including different types of media in any course but especially an online course is a great way to introduce material in a non-text format. Because you lose facial expressions and the ease to demonstrate or act out an idea when your course is online, finding appropriate videos to illustrate your points can be a huge help. It can also break up the monotonty of readings and recorded lectures, and engage students with different learning styles. You can of course create your own media, but it is probably easier to start by looking at what has already been created in your subject area. “Media” can include videos, songs, podcasts, websites, games etc., but for this post I am going to focus on how to find and post free online videos into your course sites. There are many different websites that have videos aimed at a variety of topics, especially culture and communication.

The Search

First, we must start by finding and selecting appropriate, copyright free material to embed in your course site. Here are some links to get you started:

Refseek.com
Taken from their website: “RefSeek's guide to the 25 best online resources for finding free educational videos. With the exception of BrainPOP and Cosmeo, all listed sites offer their extensive video libraries for free and without registration”

A couple sites in the collection that I think are especially worth looking though are PBS and TED.

NBC Learn
NBC has created a collection of digitized stories from their archives and have made some of the collection free. The complete collection requires a subscription but you can do a 30-day trial. The OLT is currently looking for feedback about NBC Learn so if you do decide to do the trial it would be great to contact the OLT to let them know what you think. (olt@drexel.edu)

Adding Videos in Blackboard

There are a few different ways you can add videos to Blackboard each varying slightly with how the video is displayed. If you have several videos you may want to create a folder to hold the videos or embed all of the videos on a single page item (option 3).

Option 1: Create a hyperlink to the video as a stand-alone item:

1. Highlight and copy the entire URL of the website with the video.
• If your video opens in its own window with no URL, Right-click on the thumbnail and choose "Copy Link Location," "Copy link address," or "Copy shortcut," depending on your browser. You will have to do this with NBC Learn, for example.
• Some sights may have a URL link that you can copy just below the video. (This is not the “Embed” link, as is discussed below).
2. In Learn, with Edit Mode on, navigate to a content area.

3. Hover over "Build Content" and click "Web Link."

4. Give the link a meaningful name and paste the location information into the URL field.

5. Click "Submit."
   

Option 2: Create a hyperlink within a specified area in Bb, i.e. an item (page), a discussion forum, an assignment etc.

1. Highlight and copy the entire URL of the website with the video.
• If your video opens in its own window with no URL, Right-click on the thumbnail and choose "Copy Link Location," "Copy link address," or "Copy shortcut," depending on your browser. You will have to do this with NBC Learn, for example.
• Some sights may have a URL link that you can copy just below the video. (This is not the “Embed” link, as is discussed below).
2. In Learn, with Edit Mode on, hover over "Build Content" and click "Item" to create an Item. To create an Assignment, hover over "Assessments" and click "Assignment."

3. Enter a title in the Name field and appropriate descriptive text in the textbox.

4. Select one or several keywords to hyperlink in the textbox.

5. Click the Hyperlink icon (looks like a globe) and insert the location information in the URL field.

6. Click "Submit."

 

Option 3: Embed the video within a specifies area in Bb, i.e. an item (page), a discussion forum, an assignment etc. This means that rather than linking out to the video, the video will play right on the page in Blackboard.

1. If the video has an option to embed, you should see the word “embed” just below the video itself.
2. Click on “embed” and copy the html code that you get- usually it will appear in a text box field.
3. In the text box in your item (or discussion board etc.) area in Bb, click on the “< >” area in the tool bar to switch into the html view
4. Paste the code that you copied into the text window
5. Click on “< >” again to switch back to normal mode
6. Click “Submit”

Please let me know if you have any questions about this process or are not sure how to organize your videos. The OLT can also offer additional Blackboard support if you are having any trouble adding your videos. (olt@drexel.edu)

Additional Resource

In addition to using free video resources, the library has a large collection of videos that I encourage you to take a look at, as well as a way to allow you to stream your personal videos for a single course. Here is a link to the blog post published earlier this year with all of that information: Streaming Copyright Protected Media in Courses