Video Assignments
These instructions are for Blackboard Original. If you are in a course using Ultra Course View, switch to the video assignment guide for UCV.
If you've been given a video assignment by an instructor, there are multiple ways to add video in Blackboard along with multiple sources of video content. This guide provides an overview of 3 cloud-based options for hosting video files:
- YouTube
- OneDrive
- Echo360
While it is possible to upload .mp4, .mov, and narrated .ppt files into Blackboard (Bb), these file types tend to be very large, which quickly uses up the finite amount of available Bb course data and can cause time lags and download issues for everyone involved. For this reason, we recommend using the cloud services outlined here to host videos and link to Blackboard.
YouTube
Whether you need to find and share a video for a discussion board or create your own video, YouTube is a great resource for video sharing.
If you need some guidance uploading video to YouTube, please see our Student Help Guides for YouTube for uploading from your computer or from your mobile device.
Once you've uploaded video to YouTube, you can then link or embed it in Blackboard. In an assignment, click Write Submission.
Next, click the three dots button at the end of the editor options to expand and show a full set of button options.
You can now post your YouTube video one of three ways using the content editor:
1. Hyperlink
2. Plus Sign Tool
3. Embedded Source Code (< >)
In order to create a hyperlink, you will need to type some text, highlight it, then click the hyperlink button to paste the link path; or paste the link entirely for your instructor to copy and paste in their browser.
If using the plus sign tool for a video you've created, that video will need to be public on your YouTube channel in order to populate in the search option. Otherwise, you can use the source code option for an embedded video.
Note: Source codes are not the same as the web path to the video. Embed codes can generally be retrieved by clicking a Share button from the video source. They typically appear in carrots (< >) and have the word "iframe" in them. Pasting this code directly in the content editor will not work; you must also choose the source code button in the content editor to paste your code, as seen below.
If you've successfully embedded the source code, your video frame will appear in the content editor like this, at which time you can click "submit":
These same instructions generally apply to any content editor in Blackboard, including when clicking to create a thread in a discussion post.
OneDrive Cloud Hosting
If you have .mp4 and .mov video files, these often pose problems in the Blackboard course environment due to course size limitations and lag time for uploads and downloads. One solution for this is to cloud host this content in your OneDrive and then provide links to it in Blackboard. Active faculty, staff, and students are provided 1 TB of storage in OneDrive through their Office365 accounts administered by Information Technology. For more information, please see the UToledo IT page about OneDrive, which includes a video overview and OneDrive user guides
To access OneDrive, you will need to log in to office365.utoledo.edu with your UTAD credentials. OneDrive is administratively supported by IT. For technical issues with OneDrive, help tickets should go to [email protected]. If your support needs are related to Blackboard integration, contact UToledo Online at [email protected].
Use the hyperlink method outlined above in this article to link OneDrive material in Blackboard.
Echo360 Video Assignments
Please see the Echo360 Student Guide for Recording and Posting Videos for instructions on downloading and using Universal Capture, uploading video to the Echo360 platform, and submitting Echo360 video assignments using the mashup tool.
You might not have access to Echo360 unless the instructor has linked their course to a corresponding Echo section to enroll all students in Echo. You should only use the Echo360 method if this is what your professor has instructed in the specific assignment.