Prerequisites for using the Echo360 Insert Stuff embedding feature: A Brightspace Administrator must have created and configured a Remote plugin for Echo360 embedding on your Brightspace instance. In addition, for Students to embed videos, the Student Library must be turned on for your institution.
If a Brightspace/D2L Admin has enabled it for your institution, you will see an Echo360 option in the Insert Stuff selections available from the toolbar of a content window
The Echo360 option for Insert Stuff provides the ability to:
- Embed a video from your Echo360 My Content library directly into a Brightspace content window.
- Enter a URL link for a video in your Echo360 My Content library into a Brightspace content window.
- Upload a video then embed it (or provide a URL link) as a single process.
- Create Media by launching Universal Capture, creating a capture, then embedding it as a single process.
The same option provides access to all three of these features. These features are available wherever Brightspace provides an Insert Stuff button for its content windows (e.g., Discussions, Content pages, etc.).
Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Students can select any video already resident in their library (My Content) or they can upload a video to embed or link. Brightspace/D2L Administrators who are also Echo360 Administrators can select any capture in the system they have access to (or upload a video).
LMS-Embedded videos provide view data such as view counts and heatmap data, as shown in the Analytics tab of the media details page of the video. Furthermore, as long as the user is logged into the LMS, the views can be attributed to unique viewers and as such are counted as Unique Views in the analytics data provided.
Embedding an Existing Video into a Content Window
The steps below are for selecting a video already resident in Echo360 for embedding into the content window. You must OWN the video you want to embed (it appears in the My Content tab of your Echo360 Home page) or you must be an Echo360 administrator with access to some set of videos in the system. If you need to add the video to Echo360 first, see the instructions later on this page.
The procedure adds a new File into a module of a Brightspace course. You can add any element into any type of course content, as long as the element contains a content window into which the video can be embedded.
To embed an existing Echo360 video into a content window
- Log in to Brightspace.
- Open the Course in Brightspace where you want to post the video.
- Add a module or discussion post or other content item where you want to add the video.
- Click the Insert Stuff button, identified by the arrow in the below figure.
- If necessary, scroll through the Insert Stuff list to find and select the Echo360 plugin. It should be clearly named.
A dialog box appears with the Choose From My Home tab active, listing the videos you own, or for admins, the videos you have access to. If you need to upload a video to embed, click the Upload Existing Media tab, and refer to the instructions later on this page.
- If necessary, use the Search Content text box and/or Filters options to find the video you want to embed into the window.
- Click Reset to clear any search/filters as needed.
- Select the video you want to embed. The row expands to show additional embedding options.
If you plan to post a URL link to the video instead of embedding the video directly into the content page, see Posting a Video Link in an LMS content window instructions later on this page.
- From the Select size drop-down list, select the size you want for the embedded video. There are three size options.
- If appropriate, enable the option to Autoplay the video (it will play as soon as a user opens the page you are embedding it into).
- If you enable Autoplay, Automute is automatically enabled, to accommodate browsers that no longer allow autoplay with sound. You CAN enable Automute separately without Autoplay.
- If appropriate, set a Start At time. If set, the video will begin playing at that timestamp, although viewers will be able to rewind/fast-forward the player to view any segment of the embedded video.
- When finished, click INSERT. A preview of the inserted video appears inside the content area.
- If the Administrator has NOT added the Echo360 URL to the Trusted Sites list, you may see a notification to Allow links to this URL, as shown below.
- Click Allow and be sure the Always trust this URL box is checked.
- The embedded video appears in the Preview window as shown below. If it is the video you want, click Insert.
- The content window holding the video appears with the video showing in the main portion of the window. Complete the remaining fields or other configuration items for the thing you are creating, and click Publish.
Once the item is added, other users in the course can open the page or module and view the embedded video. If you selected Autoplay or Start At configurations for the video, those are enacted for the user upon viewing.
Uploading a Video to Embed into a Content Window
The steps below are for uploading a video to Echo360 then embedding the new upload into the content window. Most of the procedural steps are identical to embedding an existing Echo360 video, with the exception of being able to upload the video first, before selecting it from your existing content list.
To upload and then embed an Echo360 video into a content window
- Log in to Brightspace.
- Open the Course in Brightspace where you want to post the video.
- Add a module or discussion post or other content item where you want to add the video.
- Click the Insert Stuff button, identified by the arrow in the below figure.
- If necessary, scroll through the Insert Stuff list to find and select the Echo360 plugin. It should be clearly named.
A dialog box appears with the Choose From My Home tab active, listing the videos you own, or for admins, the videos you have access to.
- From the media selection dialog box that appears, select the Upload Existing Media tab, as shown in the below figure.
- Click Select Media.
The dialog box changes to allow you to upload from your local machine (this is the default).
- To select to upload from a shared drive location (such as Dropbox or Google Drive), click the list icon in the top left corner of the dialog box as shown below.
- Follow the options to find and select the video to upload to Echo360 for embedding into your LMS content window.
- Click Upload.
NOTE: You may need to scroll down to see the Upload button shown in the below figure.
Once the file is uploaded, you are returned to the media list in the Choose from My Home tab, with the newly uploaded video selected by default, as shown in the below figure.
NOTICE that the video may not have a preview thumbnail; this is because the video is still being processed by Echo360. How long this takes is partially dependent on the size of the video.
If you plan to post a URL link to the video instead of embedding the video directly into the content page, see Posting a Video Link in a Content Window later on this page.
- From the Select size drop-down list, select the size you want for the embedded video.
- After selecting a size, you have the option to Autoplay the video (it will play as soon as a user opens the page you are embedding it into).
- If you enable Autoplay, Automute is automatically enabled, to accommodate browsers that no longer allow autoplay with sound. You CAN enable Automute separately without Autoplay.
- If appropriate, set a Start At time. If set, the video will begin playing at that timestamp, although viewers will be able to rewind/fast-forward the player to view any segment of the embedded video.
- When finished, click INSERT.
- The embedded video appears in the Preview window as shown below. It will likely show as Processing, depending on the size of the video. Click Insert.
- The content window holding the video appears with the video showing in the main portion of the window. Complete the remaining fields or other configuration items for the thing you are creating, and click Publish.
While the newly uploaded video is still processing, users will receive a message noting this, as shown in the below figure. Once the item has finished processing, it will appear for users in the content window. If you selected Autoplay or Start At configurations for the video, those will be enacted for the viewer on playback.
Launching Universal Capture to Create Media to Embed
One option from the Embed Media dialog box is to launch Universal Capture and create a new capture, then select to embed the new video directly into the Brightspace content window. If Universal Capture is already installed on the computer, it will automatically open to the Preview screen. If Universal Capture is not installed or detected on the computer, you are given the option to install it (for students, UC downloads must be enabled), then return to the Embed Media window to launch the application..
To create media to embed into a content window
- Log in to Brightspace.
- Open the Course in Brightspace where you want to post the video.
- Add a module or discussion post or other content item where you want to add the video.
- Click the Insert Stuff button, identified by the arrow in the below figure.
- If necessary, scroll through the Insert Stuff list to find and select the Echo360 plugin. It should be clearly named.
A dialog box appears with the Choose From My Home tab active, listing the videos you own, or for admins, the videos you have access to.
- From the media selection dialog box that appears, select the Create Media tab, as shown in the below figure.
- Click Launch Universal Capture.
If Universal Capture is installed on the computer, a window opens, allowing you to select your inputs and start recording whenever you are ready.
If Universal Capture is not installed or detected on the computer, you are given the option to install it, then returned to the Embed Media window to launch the application. - When you are finished recording, click Finish.
Once the file is uploaded, you are returned to the media list in the Choose from My Home tab, with the newly uploaded video selected by default, as shown in the below figure.
NOTICE that the video may not have a preview thumbnail; this is because the video is still being processed by Echo360. How long this takes is partially dependent on the size of the video.
If you plan to post a URL link to the video instead of embedding the video directly into the content page, see Posting a Video Link in a Content Window later on this page.
- From the Select size drop-down list, select the size you want for the embedded video.
- After selecting a size, you have the option to Autoplay the video (it will play as soon as a user opens the page you are embedding it into).
- If you enable Autoplay, Automute is automatically enabled, to accommodate browsers that no longer allow autoplay with sound. You CAN enable Automute separately without Autoplay.
- If appropriate, set a Start At time. If set, the video will begin playing at that timestamp, although viewers will be able to rewind/fast-forward the player to view any segment of the embedded video.
- When finished, click INSERT.
- The embedded video appears in the Preview window as shown below. It will likely show as Processing, depending on the size of the video. Click Insert.
- The content window holding the video appears with the video showing in the main portion of the window. Complete the remaining fields or other configuration items for the thing you are creating, and click Publish.
While the newly created/uploaded video is still processing, users will receive a message noting this (it is the same as if you simply uploaded a video and it is still processing). Once the item has finished processing, it will appear for users in the content window. If you selected Autoplay or Start At configurations for the video, those will be enacted for the viewer on playback.
Posting a Video Link into a Content Window
The below procedure inserts a URL link for the video into the content window instead of embedding the video. A URL Link (also referred to as a Public Link or a Video Link) opens the video in a player outside of the LMS page where it resides (often in a new browser tab).
Most of the procedural steps are identical to embedding an existing Echo360 video, with the exception of selecting the Link option instead of the available embedding options (Size, Autoplay, Start At).
LMS-posted public links, like LMS-embedded videos provide view data such as view counts and heatmap data, as shown in the Analytics tab of the media details page of the video. Furthermore, as long as the user is logged into the LMS, the views can be attributed to unique viewers and as such are counted as Unique Views in the analytics data provided.
To insert a URL link to an Echo360 video into a content window
- Log in to Brightspace.
- Open the Course in Brightspace where you want to post the video.
- Add a module or discussion post or other content item where you want to add the video.
- Click the Insert Stuff button, identified by the arrow in the below figure.
- If necessary, scroll through the Insert Stuff list to find and select the Echo360 plugin. It should be clearly named.
A dialog box appears with the Choose From My Home tab active, listing the videos you own, or for admins, the videos you have access to.
If you need to upload a video to link to, click the Upload Existing Media tab, and refer to the instructions above on this page.
- If necessary, use the Search Content text box and/or Filters options to find the video whose link you want to place in the window.
- Click Reset to clear any search/filters as needed.
- Select the video you want to link. The row expands to show additional options.
- Enable the Link toggle, located below the Size drop-down list, as shown in the below figure.
Notice that the embed options are grayed out once the Link toggle is enabled.
- Click INSERT.
The URL Video link is entered into the content window. The link posted uses the Video title as the text for the link; it does not post the full URL.
- If this is the video link you want to post, click Insert.
- Complete the remaining fields or other configuration items for the thing you are creating, and click Publish.
The URL Video link is entered into the content window. The link posted uses the Video title as the text for the link; it does not post the full URL. Once the item is published, users can click the video link, and playback will open in a new browser tab or window.