Any advice on the following 2 points please?
The audio & video tools give the impression that adding audio or video would result in a neatly embed media clip , with the associated player. But this is not the case (as you all may already know) ....
Whilst doing some more testing of the audio and video content tools we established that :
The problem stems from Blackboard is sending out the wrong types in the HTML – WMV files get sent out as MPEG video, and MP3 files get sent out as WAV files. So, if Quicktime is installed, it can play MPEG files so that’s why it appears for the WMV items. Similar for the WMA (ok, in the real world they probably won’t get used), they get sent out as a wav file which Quicktime can play.
The incomplete testing comes about from if you’ve not got Quicktime installed (this machine hasn’t), and you’re in IE it will use Windows Media player, and being as WMP can play MEPG files, it appears and the embedded media works. (Firefox won’t use Windows Media Player without the WMP plugin – chrome just automatically downloads all the material on the page it can’t embed)
There are no warnings or messages at either the upload point or the playback point to tell users what the issue is, leaving them understandably frustrated. Most of our users who would be uploading their own video content would be using either iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to make their video clip. These editors export .mp4 and .wmv respectively, both of which are not supported formats that the tool will work with.
Question : Do we just disable these tools and advise users to use either the item or file type tools?
Secondly, our copyright expert is advising against embedding video (from 3rd parties) into a Course. But instead, to just to link to it. This of course makes the YouTube "Mash up" tool essentially redundant. Unless of course you are embedding CC cleared videos, or work you have asked permission for (therein lies the problem). To comply completely with the advice given, I feel it's part of our responsibility to warn others of the issues. This could mean disabling the YouTube "Mashup" tool! Which is sad, because it offers great potential. What are others advising - knowing that there is a wealth of useful educational content on YouTube?
We have placed a new copyright tutorial on our site along with the tutorials on adding content, to help inform staff : http://tlc.aston.ac.uk/blackboard/copyright-guidelines-teaching-quick-overview
Regards.
Kevin Brace.
T: 0121 204 4230
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