changes to video hosting tools

  • In AU22, instructors are required to provide captioning for course videos.
  • The College of Medicine (COM) has purchased Echo360—an accessible, video hosting platform—to replace Mediasite for video hosting beginning in AU22.
  • Review Next Steps (below) for important information on migrating Mediasite videos to Echo360; action is required by March 27.
  • For more information, attend Echo360 Virtual Office Hours (link to page) or contact OCS (link to email address).

the details

The College of Medicine (COM) has been working to identify technologies that will support our efforts to provide accessible content to our students (see the University’s Digital Accessibility Policy).

Beginning AU22, all units are required to provide captioning for all digital academic content, including lecture capture and other multimedia used in physical, hybrid, and virtual classrooms.

To date, Mediasite has been the University’s solution for video hosting.  Unfortunately, Mediasite does not have built-in transcription generation/editing, making it unnecessarily difficult for our instructors to provide accessible, captioned content to learners.

As such, COM has invested in a subscription to Echo360 (external link) as the video hosting solution for academic programs.  Echo360 will be available for programs beginning AU22.

Gantt Chart for Transitioning COM to Echo360

video hosting tools

Chart displaying approved and unapproved tools for video hosting tools by academic year

echo360

Echo360 is a cloud-based tool for recording, hosting, editing, and transcribing videos.  Due to its accessibility, Echo360 is viewed favorably by the ADA Coordinator’s Office.

Echo360 provides:

  • built-in AI transcription,
  • built-in app for editing transcriptions,
  • built-in app for embedding interactive content into videos, such as quiz or discussion questions,
  • an LTI for integration with CarmenCanvas LMS,
  • a “lite” LMS (external link),
  • variable playback speed, and
  • robust analytics based on views and engagement.

Echo360 has been adopted by the Colleges of Pharmacy and Optometry and has been successfully piloted this AY with a small subset of courses in COM.

mediasite

At this time, Main Campus will continue to support Mediasite.

However, given the accessibility challenges with Mediasite, all COM Programs are highly encouraged to transition to Echo360 for AU22.

Those academic programs that prefer to continue using Mediasite will need to take the appropriate steps to ensure compliance with accessibility policies:

  1. Submit an exceptions request to use Mediasite for the Program
  2. Provide transcription/closed captioning for each Mediasite video by:
    1. Creating a transcription file for each video and
    2. Uploading the transcription file for each video to Mediasite.

carmen

Due to storage and file size restrictions, videos should not be stored or embedded in CarmenCanvas.

Instead, videos should be hosted in Echo360 or Mediasite and linked to CarmenCanvas using the appropriate LTI.

youtube

Due to security and accessibility issues, YouTube is not an approved tool for hosting academic content—even when the content is hosted in a “private” channel.

All YouTube content must be removed and hosted in Echo360 or Mediasite.

important next steps for echo360

The Echo360 integration with CarmenCanvas will be available for COM Autumn courses following the conclusion of the Spring semester.  Action is required to ensure Mediasite videos are migrated to Echo360.

automated migration

To minimize the burden of this transition on programs and faculty, the Office of Curriculum and Scholarship (OCS) in the College of Medicine will facilitate an automated migration of content from Mediasite to Echo360.

(Important) To be included in the automated migration, each instructor will need to complete the Mediasite Video Inventory (link to file) by March 27.

mediasite video inventory for migration (due march 27)

  • Download the video inventory spreadsheet (link to file)
  • Save the spreadsheet, adding the Instructor’s last name to the file name (e.g., “Mediasite Video Inventory for Migration to Echo360_Brutus”)
  • Instructor tab
    • Select your Department and Program from the dropdown menu.
    • List the Instructor’s Name, OSUMC Email Address, and # (OSU Username).
      • The identified Instructor will be the “Owner” of the videos once they are migrated to Echo360. As the Owner, the video will appear in the Instructor’s library.
      • Ownership can be changed, if necessary, and videos can be shared with or copied for other instructors
  • Videos tab
    • In Columns A-D, identify the Course associated with the video.
      • Course Code
      • Course Name
      • Term: identify the Term during which the Course will be taught next; select from the dropdown menu
      • Is this Course using a Carmen Course?: select a response from the dropdown menu
    • In Columns E-F, identify the video.
      • Mediasite Title of Video: the exact title of the video, as it is listed in Mediasite
      • Mediasite Video URL: the Mediasite URL used to share the video
  • Submit the completed spreadsheet to OCS@osumc.edu (link to email address) no later than March 27.

for more information

Attend Echo360 Virtual Office Hours (link to page) with the Office of Curriculum and Scholarship or contact OCS@osumc.edu (link to email address) with questions.