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Adding a Video to your Blackboard Course

If you wish to add a video to your Blackboard course and it is smaller than 25MB in size, you can add it by using the Built Content menu and selecting Video from the dropdown menu. You can upload the video file to your Course Files and use Browse Course to locate the file, or upload it from your computer directly into your content area using the Browse My Computer button.

Blackboard cannot accept uploads of files larger than 25MB at one time.

In order to post any video file that is larger than 25MB to your Blackboard course, it must either be located on the Western Media server or posted on YouTube.

To have your video uploaded to the Western Media server, please contact Video Services.

To add a video that has been uploaded to the Western Media server:

  1. Obtain the URL for your video from Video Services. It should be in the form http://media.wwu.edu/...
  2. Select the Build Content button and then select URL from the drop down.
  3. Type a name for your video into the Name field.
  4. Paste the URL that you received from Video Services into the URL field.
  5. Add any descriptive text that you wish to appear below the video in the Text field. You can post images into this text area by using the buttons in the Text Editor if you have the Text Editor set to the ON position.
  6. Below the Text field, you may attach any other type of file, such as a PDF or Word document, by using the Browse My Computer button below the Attachments section of the screen.
  7. As with other kinds of Blackboard content, in the Options area, you can set date and time restrictions or track the number of views the video receives. Most importantly, you will want to set the Open in New Window option to Yes.

To add a video that is on YouTube:

  1. Select the Build Content button and then select YouTube Video from the Mashups list, on the right hand side of the dropdown menu.
  2. Search for the YouTube video you are seeking by typing search terms into the Search field and then clicking Go. Only videos that are open to the public and searchable are available via this search.
  3. You will see a list of results. If the list is too long, you may want to add terms in the Search field and play with the settings for the search. "All of the words", "At least one of the words", "None of the words" and "Exact phrase" will all produce different numbers of results.
  4. You may preview any video by using the Preview link below the video's thumbnail (on the left hand side of the results list). Once you have found the one you want, click Select to place it into the Create Mashup Item dialog box.
  5. In the Create Mashup Item dialog box, you may change the Name of the video (which defaults to the video name on YouTube), and modify its settings. Like other Blackboard content, you can choose date and time restrictions and track the number of times students view the video.
  6. When you have set everything the way you want it to appear, click Submit. You can go back later and make edits to the settings as well.

[11-14-11 ATUS Blackboard Technical Support]