Monthly Archives: January 2014

New Blackboard Feature – “Video Everywhere”

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Now it’s easier than ever to put YOU in your course.

  • Want a quick and easy way to record and embed a short video introduction of yourself in your course?
  • Looking for a simple way to provide video feedback for your students?
  • Thinking about a way to record and post a short video demo?
  • Hoping to repurpose a video from your YouTube channel and add it right into your course in seconds?

You can do all of those things right in Blackboard with Video Everywhere!

VE RECORD IMAGE

Video Everywhere is a new feature in Blackboard that lets you record with your computer’s webcam, upload the video right to your YouTube account, and embed it into your course – all at the same time and all without leaving the Blackboard environment. If you already have a video in your YouTube channel that you’d like to quickly insert in your course, you can use Video Everywhere for that too!

Got a computer, a webcam, a Google account, and a YouTube Channel? You’re good to go!

Getting Started
When you choose to add an item to your course, you’ll find the “Video Everywhere” icon in the Content Editor. It looks like a small webcam:

 video_everywhere_icon

You can find the icon located in the lower left-hand corner of the content editor:

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When the “Record” window opens, just sign into your Google/YouTube account (you’ll need to create a Google account if you don’t have one already and you’ll need a YouTube channel if you don’t have one yet.).

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Note that the default is the Record screen but you can choose the Browse tab to insert a video you already have in your YouTube channel.

Once you sign in, you’ll be walked through the process to easily Record, Upload and Insert your video right into your course. Just grant access when asked along the way.

Once it’s in your YouTube channel, the video will be available to insert in any of your other courses using Video Everywhere’s Browse option from within each course.

That’s all there is to it!

A word about privacy: Please be aware that any video recorded with Video Everywhere will go directly to your YouTube account and have a default privacy status of “unlisted”. This means that it can only be viewed by those who have the URL for the video, and it won’t come up in a search, but the status is NOT “private”.  More information about this is available on Blackboard’s Video Everywhere Support site (see link below).

For More Information
You can find a step-by-step guide to using Video Everywhere here: Blackboard’s Video Everywhere Support Page, including information about privacy issues and making videos accessible.

You can also view Blackboard’s quick video introduction.

For more help with this new feature, contact elis@lesley.edu.

myLesley Update for Spring 2014

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Happy New Year and welcome back from the break. We are excited to announce that as of January 3rd, 2014, myLesley will be updated to include a couple of enhancements: the profile feature and a new “look and feel,” which will enable viewing the discussion board in tree view again. You will find detailed information about these enhancements below.

New Profiles
You can now create a profile in myLesley to share with your classmates and instructors. Your profile will allow you to post a photo of yourself, and provide a little information about yourself, such as what you are studying. Profile photos can be viewed next to your posts on the discussion board, allowing you to better connect with your classmates and colleagues. You also will be allowed to choose how you want your name to display in your profile.

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Learn how to create your profile at http://tinyurl.com/qjxhdjm.

Return of the Discussion Board Tree View
If you have missed the Tree View on the Discussion Board, the new “look and feel” of Blackboard allows us to get that back. You can once again choose to view discussion forums in list or tree view depending on your preference.

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New Icons
The new “look and feel” of myLesley also includes a few new icons:

icon1  The new Logout button looks like a power icon seen on many digital devices.

icon2  View and edit your Profile.

icon3

 Posts from multiple courses.

icon4  View the Calendar.

When editing content, the chevron menu icon chevron  no longer exists. In the new, cleaner look, you will not see edit icons until you hover your mouse over the item of content you wish to edit. Once you move your cursor to the item you would like to edit, all the edit options will appear. The old chevron edit icon has been replaced with a simple down arrow.

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Please remember that if you hover your mouse over any icon you don’t recognize, a text popup will identify it for you.

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For more information on how to use myLesley, please refer to our Faculty Instructional Resources site.