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Navigation for Module 4: Video
Page 17 of 18

  1. *Introduction
  2. *Files You Need
  3. *Basic Concepts
  4. *Transcripts
  5. *Captioning
  6. *Windows Media
  7. *MAGpie
  8. *Publish to Blackboard
  9. * Publish to WebCT
  10. *Resources

Publishing Video to WebCT

WebCT is a popular course management system that allows course designers to create and maintain content.

Note: This section assumes you are familiar with the interface of WebCT.

To add a video file to WebCT, there are three general steps:

  1. Create a folder for the file(s).
  2. Upload your content to the WebCT server.
  3. Make a link to the file(s).

Creating a Folder

It is a good idea to organize your course into logical folders (or directories), such that related things are grouped together. A well-organized folder structure will make course content manageable, while a non-organized course could have potentially hundreds of files in a single directory.

To create a folder in WebCT:

  1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
  2. Select the "Manage Files" option in the navigation list (left side of the screen).
  3. Select the "Create New" option in the "Folder Options" section (right side of the screen) and select the "GO" button.
  4. When prompted, provide the new folder's name and select where to create the new folder (see Image 43 ).

    Description of Image 43: Creating a new folder in WebCT

  5. Note: Be careful to check folder you are creating the folder in. Creating a folder in the "My_Files" directory creates a top-level folder.

An appropriate name for the top-level folder might be "media", "multimedia" or even "video". For this example, name the "media" folder. To create a subfolder It is also a good idea to create sub-directories for each video you have, such as "Lecture1". This way, all of your videos are conveniently located in one directory (the "media" directory), but are further organized by content. For this example, create a folder inside of that media folder named "UbiComp".

Uploading your Content

Now that you have a suitable directory structure, you need to upload the content from your machine to the WebCT server . Because there are usually multiple files involved in a captioned video, you need to make sure that you upload each one of them. It is usually safest to upload everything that is involved in the process including project files, unless you have strict space requirements on your server. Alternatively, you can create a zip file that contains all of the files, and only upload that one file (see Image 44 )


Description of Image 44: Uploading content in WebCT

To uploading files into WebCT

  1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
  2. Select the "Manage Files" option in the navigation list (left side of the screen).
  3. Select the "Upload" option in the "File Options" section (left side of the screen) and select the "GO" button.
  4. When prompted, browse your local computer's hard drive to locate the file that you would like to upload to the WebCT course. Keep in mind that you will have to upload all of the files for the presentation (or just the zip file), so for now, just select one of the files (perhaps the video).
  5. Provide the folder into which you want the file to be uploaded. This should be the folder you created previously to hold the media. For this example exercise, this would be the "UbiComp" folder.
  6. Select the "Upload" button and then repeat steps 3-5 of this process for all the files for the captioned video (if applicable). Make sure you don't forget one of the files. If you do, then your video will not be complete and will be missing critical information.
Files to Upload for Window Media On-Demand Producer

For the Windows Producer software, you will want to upload (or create a zip file, then upload) any files with the following extensions:

Files to Upload for MAGPie

For the MAGPie software, you will want to upload (or create a zip file, then upload) any files with the following extensions:

Note: If you do not have streaming capabilities on your server, it is best if you zip all of the files into one file, so the user only has to download one file instead of several.

If you are not using a zip file, check that you have uploaded all the necessary files. One way is to count the number of files that reside on your local machine, then count the number that you have uploaded.

To Create a Link to the Video

Now that the files have been moved over, it will be necessary to make them viewable to the users by creating a link to the files (see Image 45 ).


Description of Image 45: Adding a link in WebCT

  1. Log into your course as the course manager (instructor).
  2. Browse your WebCT course to the location that you'd like the link to the accessible video to appear.
  3. Select the "Designer Options" (top of the screen).
  4. Select the link at the bottom of the resultant page for "Add Page or Tool."


Note: If you are working with a Real Streaming Server or a separate Windows Media server, you will select "URL" and then "Add." In the field that asks for the URL, type in the path to your Real Server or Windows Media server clip (ask your administrator for help). If your files are not zipped, select the "Single Page" option midway down the page and select the "Add" button (as shown in the following figure) You should now be on the "Add Single Page" web page in WebCT (see Image 46 ).

Description of Image 46: Adding a Single Page to WebCT

To complete the process of creating a link:

  1. Provide a title for the link (perhaps call it "UbiComp").
  2. Browse within the WebCT course's folders to find the main presentation HTML file. In the case of this example, the file was called "default.htm" for Windows Media Producer, or the .zip file you created.
  3. Once you have selected the main presentation HTML (or zip) file, select the "Pick" button to return to the "Add Single Page" form.
  4. Check the "On an Organizer Page" option and then select the page that should have the link to the presentation. For this example, select the "Videos" page of the WebCT course.
  5. Select the "Add" button to complete the process and add a link to your presentation.
You should see a link to the movie on the organizer page that you selected (for this example, Videos). When you return to "View" mode, you will then be able to examine the accessible video you created running in WebCT (because it is using a Windows Operating System (see Image 47 ).

Description of Image 47: An accessible video in WebCT

The next page offers conversion estimates of video and websites for additional information on accessible video.

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