Overview
This tutorial will show you how to:
- Find Instructional Videos Using YouTube
- How to Insert Videos into D2L
- Other Resources for Videos
Along with providing some recommended video repositories.
Using YouTube
- Go to YouTube, and type a term to search for in the search bar (ex: ‘chemistry’, ‘biology’, ‘literature’).
- Use the filters to help narrow your search.
Some helpful filters involve upload date, Creative Commons (OER Videos), Subtitles/Closed Caption, and the duration. - Personally, I prefer looking for videos that have Closed Captions on them, as they tend to be of higher quality. Captions can also prove beneficial to your students.
- Click on any videos that you wish to use.You should see a button that says ‘Share‘, this button allows you to copy the link to the video (method 2), or an embed code for the video (method 1, preferred). Copy either the link or the embed code. The Embed Code is a code that can make the video appear as though it is a native part of your assignment page (as opposed to a link), essentially “embedding” the video, complete with the video player and all related functions/features. It allows students to access the material without leaving D2L. YouTube and some other video sites can also make the video appear embedded even if you choose just the link method.
- Follow the instructions in the next part of this tutorial, to link/embed the video into your D2L course.
Insert Videos into D2L
You can upload/embed videos in D2L within Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, Content, and other areas.
In general you can either link to the video (method 2 below), upload a video file (if you created it), or you can embed the video (method 1 below).
To do so, you can either use the ‘Insert Stuff‘ method, or the ‘Upload Video‘ method.
Insert Stuff Method
The Insert Stuff method works best when you are creating an announcement, a discussion post, adding a video to an assignment description, or anything involving D2L’s What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) Editor.
You should see a screen similar to below, when you are using the WYSIWYG Editor:
You will notice an icon that looks like cluster of the play, pause, and stop buttons:
After clicking on the button, you will see something very similar to the following:
Method 1: For most cases, it is best to choose the ‘Enter Embed Code‘ method.
Paste the embed code you copied from YouTube (as shown above) into the Embed Code area and click on Next.
You will see a preview of your video and what it will look like on D2L. Click ‘Insert‘ to finish and you should now see it in the WYSIWYG Editor.
Method 2: If you copied the link rather than the embed code, you can click on the ‘Insert Link‘ option, and simply paste that link and it will create a link to the video. In many cases this looks quite similar to the embed version, but it adds an extra layer, which is why it’s better to directly embed the video when possible.
This method works great, but what about if you want to upload a video you created or downloaded, a video currently on your computer?
Upload Video Method
You can upload video one of two ways: either upload directly to the Content page, or you can upload a video within one of your assignments/discussions etc., which will have a similar appearance to embedding or linking the video as covered above.
Content page: within your course, navigate to the area in the Content page where you want to upload the video, and click on the ‘Upload/Create‘ option. Then select the ‘Video or Audio‘ option that appears in the dropdown menu.
In the new window that appears, click the Upload tab, then Browse for your video. Once the video has been selected, click Save.
Side note, you can use the Web Video or Audio tab in that same window to paste embed codes from videos into your Content page.
Assignments, Discussions, etc: to upload videos into assignments, discussions, announcements, et al., go to the edit page where you’re wanting to upload it (such as the edit assignment screen, for example), and click the Insert Stuff button. Choose My Computer from the options. In the screen that appears, click the Choose File button, then find and select your video. Finally, click the blue Upload button.
Be sure to check out the recommended resources for other places to search for videos.
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