Learning from Video: NIC’s Kaltura Platform

Video can be a very effec­tive learn­ing tool. Many research stud­ies have shown its val­ue in enhanc­ing stu­dent learn­ing in a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines and deliv­ery for­mats. Video cre­at­ed or curat­ed by instruc­tors can often allow stu­dents a more thor­ough under­stand­ing of con­tent and con­cepts and engage them in more mean­ing­ful ways while learn­ing. Stu­dents can cre­ate videos for assign­ments and projects and also cre­ate videos to share their work and demon­strate their knowl­edge and skills.

Video pro­vides a way of com­bin­ing sound and images along with import­ing slides and ani­ma­tions, titles and thumb­nails to enhance a video learn­ing expe­ri­ence. All learn­ers ben­e­fit from being able to pause and rewind learn­ing mate­ri­als. Acces­si­bil­i­ty can improve for some learn­ers with the use of closed cap­tions and being able to down­load a video for view­ing in time when there is no inter­net con­nec­tion. Video is a key part of teach­ing and learn­ing expe­ri­ences.

At North Island Col­lege, we have Kaltura, a video stream­ing and stor­age plat­form, for all employ­ees and stu­dents to cre­ate video (also audio and image files) along with the abil­i­ty to upload, edit and share! Kaltura is host­ed in Mon­tre­al on a Cana­di­an cloud envi­ron­ment and is set up for edu­ca­tion­al use by post-sec­ondary insti­tu­tions. Think of it like our own YouTube envi­ron­ment host­ed in Cana­da with free accounts to use — but also think of it with a side door into the YouTube envi­ron­ment via Bright­space — where course info and con­tent may be housed. Kaltura has an area (called My Media) where any user can col­lect and store their videos along with edit and embed into pages and share URLs. All you need to do is log in and learn! It is free.

Two door­ways to your NIC My Media collection/storage area: 1) NIC’s dig­i­tal learn­ing plat­form door­way (via Bright­space) and 2) NIC’s pub­lic web­site door­way (via NIC’s Medi­a­Space) to the same Kaltura My Media col­lec­tion. TIP: Use the Bright­space door­way if you are going to be using video with­in your Bright­space cours­es. Use the Medi­a­Space door­way if you are going to be shar­ing video (links and embed codes) with peo­ple and on web­sites out­side of Bright­space.

Kaltura Use in Bright­space: Instruc­tors and Stu­dents: Using the Bright­space door­way instruc­tors can embed video on con­tent pages, in assign­ment instruc­tions, in dis­cus­sion posts, quiz ques­tions and also on announce­ments, activ­i­ty feed, email etc. If direct­ed by instruc­tors, stu­dents can embed video in the com­ments field in an assign­ment, in a writ­ten response quiz ques­tion, via an email, in a dis­cus­sion post and also can pub­lish their video to the course Media Gallery if the instruc­tor has allowed this.

This video shares an overview of how instruc­tors and stu­dents might locate and use Kaltura. More resources below.

This video shares five ways stu­dents can share their learn­ing via embed­ding their video(s) in a Bright­space course 1) assign­ment sub­mis­sion via text  2) dis­cus­sion post 3) quiz ques­tion that allows writ­ten sub­mis­sion 4) email and also through Kaltura Media Gallery (a course-spe­cif­ic col­lec­tion of videos to share with whole class). All of these are only if the instruc­tor has enabled/required or set up the learn­ing expe­ri­ence to allow for sub­mis­sion of videos. Stu­dents can also use videos in their own web­sites and Word­Press port­fo­lios.

Check out the resources below to get start­ed! There are resources for stu­dents and instruc­tors.

NOTE: Videos with no plays old­er than 2 years will be auto­mat­i­cal­ly delet­ed a cou­ple of times a year to help man­age max­i­mum size lim­its per insti­tu­tion for video stor­age. Once a NIC email and pass­word is no longer active access to Kaltura and Bright­space is not pos­si­ble. Down­load and save to your com­put­er any videos you want to keep long term or play a video.

Resources

• Cre­at­ing Video for Teach­ing and Learn­ing: NIC Teach Any­where Page
• Kaltura Resources for Instruc­tors: NIC Teach Any­where Page
• Kaltura Resources for Stu­dents: NIC Learn Any­where Page

 

Ref­er­ences

Brame, C. J. (2016). Effec­tive Edu­ca­tion­al Videos: Prin­ci­ples and Guide­lines for Max­i­miz­ing Stu­dent Learn­ing from Video Con­tent (CBE Life Sci­ences Edu­ca­tion) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5132380/ 

Schaffhauser, D. (2021). Stu­dent Finds use of Video Boosts Learn­ing (Cam­pus Tech­nol­o­gy) https://campustechnology.com/articles/2021/02/24/study-finds-use-of-video-boosts-learning.aspx