7.2. Working with Video Components¶

7.2.1. Introduction to Videos¶

You can create a video of your lecture and add it to your course with other components—such as discussions and problems—to promote active learning. Adding a video to your course has several steps.

1. Step 1. Create the Video.
2. Step 2. Create or Obtain a Video Transcript.
3. Step 3. Post the Video Online.
4. Step 4. Create a Video Component.

Also see:

• Video Table of Contents
• Additional Transcripts
• Steps for .sjson Files

To help course teams protect video assets, the edX video player hides video URLs from students by default. This functionality is in effect for all video files, including YouTube videos and videos that you have posted in other locations. Students can still download videos if you select the Video Download Allowed option for your video components. For more information about posting non-YouTube videos online, see Step 3. Post the Video Online. For more information about options that you can set when you create a video component, see Advanced Options under Step 4. Create a Video Component.

7.2.2. Step 1. Create the Video¶

Your videos can contain whatever content you want to include in the course. The Creating Videos section of edX101 Overview of Creating an edX Course has some helpful pointers for creating good video content.

7.2.3. Step 2. Create or Obtain a Video Transcript¶

Transcripts are required for your videos. Transcripts are helpful for students who are viewing a video in a language other than their native language, who are unable to watch the video, or who want to review the content of the video. You can allow students to download transcripts so that they can read them offline. You associate a transcript with a video when you create the video component.

Timed transcripts in the SubRip Text (.srt) format are strongly recommended. A transcript in the .srt format appears next to its associated video and automatically scrolls as the video plays. A student can click a word in the transcript to jump to the point in the video where that word is spoken.

To create or obtain a transcript in .srt format, you can work with a company that provides captioning services. EdX works with 3Play Media. YouTube also provides captioning services.

When you upload an .srt file, a .txt file is created automatically. You can allow students to download these transcript files. If you allow your students to download transcripts, a Download transcript button appears under the video. Students can then select either SubRip (.srt) file or Text (.txt) file to download the .srt or .txt transcript.

You can also provide transcripts in different formats, such as .pdf, and you can provide transcripts in different languages. For more information about these options, see Additional Transcripts.

7.2.4. Step 3. Post the Video Online¶

All course videos should be posted to YouTube. By default, the edX video player accesses your YouTube videos.

Because YouTube is not available in all locations, however, we recommend that you also post copies of your videos on a third-party site such as Amazon S3. When a student views a video in your course, if YouTube is not available in that student’s location or if the YouTube video doesn’t play, the video on the backup site starts playing automatically. You can also allow the student to download the video from the backup site.

After you post your video online, make sure you have the URL for the video. If you host copies of your video in more than one place, make sure you have the URL for each video location.

7.2.5. Step 4. Create a Video Component¶

1. Under Add New Component, click Video.

2. When the new video component appears, click Edit. The video editor opens to the Basic tab.

   

   You replace the default values with your own.

3. In the Component Display Name field, enter the name you want students to see when they hover the mouse over the unit in the course ribbon. This text also appears as a header for the video.

4. In the Default Video URL field, enter the URL of the video. For example, the URL may resemble one of the following.

   http://youtu.be/OEoXaMPEzfM
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoXaMPEzfM
   https://s3.amazonaws.com/edx-course-videos/edx-edx101/EDXSPCPJSP13-G030300.mp4
   https://s3.amazonaws.com/edx-videos/edx101/video4.webm
   

5. Next to Default Timed Transcript, select an option.

   • If edX already has a transcript for your video–for example, if you are using a video from an existing course–Studio automatically finds the transcript and associates the transcript with the video.

     If you want to modify the transcript, click Download Transcript for Editing. You can then make your changes and upload the new file by clicking Upload New Transcript.

   • If edX does not have a transcript for the video, but YouTube has a transcript, Studio automatically finds the YouTube transcript and asks if you want to import it. To use this YouTube transcript, click Import YouTube Transcript. (If you want to modify the YouTube transcript, import the YouTube transcript into Studio, and then click Download Transcript for Editing. You can then make your changes and upload the new file by clicking Upload New Transcript.)

   • If both edX and YouTube have a transcript for your video, but the edX transcript is out of date, you receive a message asking if you want to replace the edX transcript with the YouTube transcript. To use the YouTube transcript, click Yes, replace the edX transcript with the YouTube transcript.

   • If neither edX nor YouTube has a transcript for your video, and your transcript uses the .srt format, click Upload New Transcript to upload the transcript file from your computer.

     Note

     • If your transcript uses the .sjson format, do not use this setting. For more information, see Steps for .sjson Files.
     • If you want to provide a transcript in a format such as .pdf, do not use this setting to upload the transcript. For more information, see Additional Transcripts.

6. Optionally, click Advanced to set more options for the video. For a description of each option, see Advanced Options.

7. Click Save.

7.2.6. Video Table of Contents¶

You can add a table of contents for your video by adding an .srt transcript file that contains clickable links to different parts of the video. When your students view the video, they can click the CC button at the bottom of the video player to switch between the main transcript for the video and the table of contents.

To add a table of contents, you work with a third-party service to create the .srt transcript file. Then, you use the Transcript Languages setting in the video component to associate the .srt file with the video.

1. After you obtain the .srt transcript file that will function as the table of contents, open the video component for the video.

2. On the Advanced tab, scroll down to Transcript Languages, and then click Add.

3. In the drop-down list that appears, select Table of Contents.

   An Upload button appears.

4. Click Upload, browse to the .srt file for the transcript, and then click Open.

5. In the Upload translation dialog box, click Upload.

7.2.7. Additional Transcripts¶

By default, a .txt file is created when you upload an .srt file, and students can download an .srt or .txt transcript when you set Download Transcript Allowed to True. The Download Transcript button appears below the video, and students see the .srt and .txt options when they hover over the button.

If you want to provide a downloadable transcript in a format such as .pdf along with the .srt and .txt transcripts, we recommend that you use the Upload Handout field. When you do this, a Download Handout button appears to the right of the Download Transcript button, and students can download the .srt, .txt, or handout version of the transcript.

To add a downloadable transcript by using the Upload Handout field:

1. Create or obtain your transcript as a .pdf or in another format.
2. In the video component, click the Advanced tab.
3. Locate Upload Handout, and then click Upload.
4. In the Upload File dialog box, click Choose File.
5. In the dialog box, select the file on your computer, and then click Open.
6. In the Upload File dialog box, click Upload.

Before Studio added the Upload Handout feature, some courses posted transcript files on the Files & Uploads page or on the Internet, and then added a link to those files in the video component. We no longer recommend this method. When you use this method, the Download Transcript button appears, but only the transcript that you add is available for download. The .srt and .txt transcripts become unavailable.

If you want to use this method, you can post your transcript online, and then add the URL to the transcript in the Downloadable Transcript URL field. However, bear in mind that students will not be able to download .srt or .txt transcripts.

7.2.7.1. Transcripts in Additional Languages¶

You can provide transcripts for your video in other languages. To do this, you work with a third-party service to obtain an .srt transcript file for each language, and then associate the .srt file with the video in Studio.

1. After you obtain the .srt files for additional languages, open the video component for the video.

2. On the Advanced tab, scroll down to Transcript Languages, and then click Add.

3. In the drop-down list that appears, select the language for the transcript that you want to add.

   An Upload button appears below the language.

4. Click Upload, browse to the .srt file for the language that you want, and then click Open.

5. In the Upload translation dialog box, click Upload.

6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 for any additional languages.

Note

Make sure that all your transcript file names are unique to each video and language. If you use the same transcript name in more than one video component, the same transcript will play for each video. To avoid this problem, you could name your foreign language transcript files according to the video’s file name and the transcript language.

For example, you have two videos, named video1.mp4 and video2.mp4. Each video has a Russian transcript and a Spanish transcript. You can name the transcripts for the first video video1_RU.srt and video1_ES.srt, and name the transcripts for the second video video2_RU.srt and video2_ES.srt.

When your students view the video, they can click the CC button at the bottom of the video player to select a language.

7.2.8. Steps for .sjson Files¶

If your course uses .sjson files, you upload the .sjson file for the video to the Files & Uploads page, and then specify the name of the .sjson file in the video component.

1. Obtain the .sjson file from a media company such as 3Play.

2. Change the name of the .sjson file to use the following format:

   subs_{video filename}.srt.sjson

   For example, if the name of your video is Lecture1a, the name of your .sjson file must be subs_Lecture1a.srt.sjson.

3. Upload the .sjson file for your video to the Files & Uploads page.

4. Create a new video component.

5. On the Basic tab, enter the name that you want students to see in the Component Display Name field.

6. In the Video URL field, enter the URL of the video. For example, the URL may resemble one of the following.

   http://youtu.be/OEoXaMPEzfM
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEoXaMPEzfM
   https://s3.amazonaws.com/edx-course-videos/edx-edx101/EDXSPCPJSP13-G030300.mp4
   

7. Click the Advanced tab.

8. In the Default Timed Transcript field, enter the file name of your video. Do not include subs_ or .sjson. For the example in step 2, you would only enter Lecture1a.

9. Set the other options that you want.

10. Click Save.