Category Archives: Video Creation

Embedding Video into a webpage or brightspace… from Google Drive

So, as is normal, there are different ways to tackle embedding video using systems here at SBU. I’m just going to look at google drive embeds.  When you embed a video, it plays right there in the page, not something you have to click on which then opens up a new page or downloads the video to view it.  Like this:

(BTW – this video I am using in this demonstration was made via copilot as I outlined in the previous blog post.)

So how did I do that?  One usually won’t just drop a video into this blog site, as it will likely be too big.  So the first thing I did after making the video, is drop it into my google drive. Make sure you share it to anyone that has the link or anyone at SBU as appropriate.

The thing is, the embed code from google drive is a wee bit hidden.  You have to click on the three dots next to the file name, open it in a new tab, then click the three dots above the player area and then at the very bottom of the menu you can find the embed code.  You will need to highlight and copy the code out from there.

Now that you have the embed code, what next?  Well, here in the blog I switch from a Visual View to a Text view, and that shows me the html for the page and I just copy it in.  It might look a little scary, but right after you paste, you can switch right back to the Visual Mode and safety.

In Brightspace, you go to the area you want to have the video,  find this icon:

the "insert stuff" icon from the wysiwyg menu in brightspace.

This is the “insert stuff” button which can be found in just about any text entry window where you can format the text.

List of the stuff you can insert. Embed Code is at the bottom.

Enter Embed Code is at the bottom

this shows the interface where you paste the embed code.

Paste in your code and hit next.  It gives me a warning that you are getting media from another site.  Click Allow. Click Insert.  I got that warning again, and I told it to allow it again.  And now it looks like this:

screenshot showing the video embedded into a brightspace page.

Google Drive auto captions the videos that you put in the drive. (You should still check and edit them.)

You do not get all the same engagement tools and analytics that you get in echo360  embedding, but I felt that this was still worth sharing.

 

 

 

 

 

Sora: A First Shot

If you pay for ChatGPT, you now have access  to Sora, their video creation AI application.  This is my first attempt…   It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s super goat!

 

Prompt: a herd of mountain goats can be seen charging up the side of a rocky hill. One of the ones in the front is carrying a ran banner. it is very dramatic and the camera zooms in as they get to the top of the hill.

Adobe Express does a little bit of everything

Without even bothering to explore Adobe Express much, I just assumed it was a dumbed down version of Adobe Photoshop.  It does satisfy that description, but it is also a dumbed down Premier, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, converter, AND text to graphic AI generator.

 

a screenshot of the menu items under quick actions in Adobe Express: remove background, resize image, logo maker, convert to gif, convert to pdf, generate QR Code, convert to svg, convert from pdf, text to image

menu of quick actions

another screenshot of the menu items under quick actions in Adobe Express: text effects, collage maker, convert to png, animate from audio, trim video, caption video, merge videos, crop video, convert to mp4, crop image, edit pdf, combine files, organize pages

part two of quick action items in adobe express

QR Code maker:

Generative AI image style:

What is a seawolf?

Maybe make it look more like a university mascot?

 

or start with a real photo and just mess with that using AI

That one “Animate from AudioI’ve blogged about before: https://you.stonybrook.edu/jadams/2024/06/12/adobe-education-institute-animate-from-audio-in-adobe-express/

 

Here is that Collage Tool:

Automatic Speech Recognition – Now Available in Different Languages

New feature!

Echo360!

Change you ASR to be something other than English at the course section level!!

Log into echo360.org

Go to your desired Course, then to Settings and then Features.

and find ASR Language Settings

Then select the new language that you would like your section transcribed to.

Obviously this is fantastic news for language courses.  Let me know in the comments what other courses you will be using this for!

 

Reusing Echo360 content

There are two different ways of sharing echo360 content in Blackboard, and therefore two different ways to reuse the content as well.

Most instructors at SBU currently link to their echo360 videos via LTI links.  This has been the only way in the past to get the analytics that you needed, give the students the active learning tools and also automatically post new scheduled recordings as they happen throughout the semester.  Using the LTI link is the process where you are going to a content area where you want the videos to be placed, selecting “Build Content -> Echo Cloud”.

When reusing the LTI link in a course you have copied from a previous semester, you will want to go to where the link was made (it will still be there), click on that link and reconnect it.

 

The second way and previously feature sparse method (but this has been rapidly changing!), is to embed the echo360 content into any area of your site that gives you the ability to use the Bb text editor.  You can embed content using the wysiwyg editor using the button : “Add Content -> Echo360 Video Library”. It looks like a plus sign in a circle and is the last button on the bottom right.

When you have embedded content and you run a course copy, the video will still work without further tweaking.  It is for this reason, and because echo360 has been working hard to bring all the features to the embed model that already exist in the LTI links, that we will be suggesting using embed going forward (at least, as soon as playlists are up and running and that could even happen this week).

 

 

 

Free Video Editor -Davinci Resolve

As more instructors are working to create video content for their courses, I thought I would offer this up for use.

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/

Available for Windows, Mac and Linix in both a free version and a Studio paid version.

This is already an industry standard, so go ahead and suggest it for student use as well.

 

 

Where Can an Instructor Turn ASR On and Off in Echo360?

SBU will be setting Echo360 to automatically produce Automatic Speech Recognition after a recording is finished.  This will bring it into line with Zoom and VoiceThread which already do this.

If the instructor would like to turn this back off, they can follow this link:

Enable or Disable Automatic Transcriptioning for a Section (ASR)

image of setting panel in echo360

Huge Update in Echo360’s Universal Capture!

It now allows for live streaming!

I’ve done some tests already.  I’m seeing a 10 sec lag on what comes out of my mouth and what comes through the stream.  The screen share seems about 3 seconds ahead of my camera’s live video.  There is a 15 secondish lag between when you start streaming and the stream actually begins.

I was testing on a laptop that had a hard wire connection to my router at home… the receiving computer was on the wireless.

 

Here is their documentation which includes technical requirements:

https://learn.echo360.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041458112

I will be doing more tests… but this is awesome news for additional options for synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning!

You don’t have to download a new version of the software.  If you have never used it before, the software can be downloaded from echo360.org with your netid and password.

 

More to follow!

 

YouTube videos in Blackboard

Blackboard has this cute mashup feature where you can go into your course, go to the content folder of your choice, select Build Content and select YouTube Video.  You don’t even have  to know the URL of what you are looking for… it lets you search by keywords and select the video right there.

but  – the window is smallish and the ability to make it bigger seems non-existent.

So – if you need the video to be bigger…. here is what you can do:

Go to YouTube.com and search for the video you want there.  When you find the video, click on Share…

then embed…

now Show More…

and finally, pick the video size you would like to display in Blackboard:

Copy the code provided… it is the one that starts with  “<iFrame width” as seen above.

Now head back to Blackboard….

Go to your Documents folder (or whatever content folder you desire), Build Content -> Item:

Give it a Name, then click the chevrons in the upper right hand corner of the Text box.

Which reveals more wysiwyg tools:

click the HTML tool and paste in the code from your clipboard:

click update and click submit.

Now you will get this gorgeous and large video, right in your folder – just like this. (This is the same embed code as seen in WordPress.)

 

Personal Capture’s New Download location

As we have moved to echo360 in the cloud… the new place to find your personal capture software is now also in the cloud.

From the main page that you first see when you login – go here:

or go directly to this link:

https://echo360.org/downloads

Don’t forget to still let us know that you are using the software by filling out this form.