Docent - Teacher

How do I add videos to my course with Kaltura?

Updated on

If you want to add a video to a course in Brightspace, you can use Kaltura.

Kaltura consists of the My Media page and the Add Kaltura Media tools which can be used to add your media to the content of a course. Additionally, each course has their own Course Gallery.

  • Kaltura My Media is your personal media gallery. This is where you can
    • upload media files to Kaltura;
    • create video recordings of your screen and/or with your webcam;
    • add questions to your video;
    • change, edit or delete media.
  • The Kaltura Course Gallery allows you to collect media and put it in one place so students and other lecturers can see them and post responses.

Add a video to Kaltura My Media

  • Go to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click on Kaltura My Media.
  1. Click Add New. The drop down menu enables you to choose which kind of media file you want to upload:
    • Click Media Upload to upload a file from your computer.
    • Click Webcam Recording to record and upload a video with your webcam.
    • Click YouTube top upload a video from YouTube.
    • Click Kaltura Capture to make a recording of your screen, possibly in combination with your webcam or an external video camera.
    • Click Video Quiz if you want to turn a previously uploaded or new file into a video quiz.

When you upload a media file to My Media, you have to fill in some information about the media. Below, you will find an example about uploading a video from your computer.

Upload Media

  • Click on Choose a file to upload and find the desired video on your computer.
  1. Name the video (the name that the video uses on YouTube is added automatically).
  2. Add a description if needed.
  3. Add tags if needed.
  4. The video is automatically set to Private (only you are able to see it). 
  5. Click Save.

Click Go To Media to view and/or edit the video. Click Go To My Media to return to the My Media page.

The tags you enter will be saved in Kaltura for everyone to see and use.

Edit Media

  • Click Activities in the navbar.
  • Click Kaltura My Media.
  • Click Edit behind the video that you want to edit.
  • Below Details you are able to change the title, description, and tags.
  • Below Options you can enable/disable reactions for this video (Comments). You can also allow others to copy individual fragments from your video (Clipping).
  • Below Collaboration you can give other people the ability to edit the video. This will make someone else the co-editor (permission to edit the video) or the co-publisher (permission to post the video in a course).
  • Below Thumbnails you can choose the miniature of your video that you see before you play the video. There are three ways to do this:
    • Upload Thumbnail: upload a photo of your computer to use it as miniature.
    • Capture: use the time bar to pause the video on the moment you want to use as your miniature and click Capture.
    • Auto-Generate: choose one of the thumbnails Kaltura has selected automatically.
  • Below Captions you can upload a file containing subtitles.
  • Below Timeline you can bookmark your video to highlight important parts and add notes. You can also add slides to components of your video.

Click on Save to save your changes.
Click on Launch Editor to create a quiz or to edit the video.

Click on Delete Entry to remove the video.

If you add a video from for example YouTube, a few settings will be different:

  • The Replace Video option allows you to add a new link to a YouTube video.
  • The Thumbnails option and the Timeline options are not available.

Responses to Kaltura videos

The option to respond to videos is turned on by default. Responding works as follows: 

Play the video and pause it at the moment you want to comment on.  

Scroll down to go to the Comments.

  1. Enter your response.
  2. Select the box for Add comment at ... (07:20 in the example above) to automatically add a timestamp to your response.
  3. Click Add to add your response.

When you as lecturer click on a timestamp in a comment, you will automatically be transported to the specific moment in the video the student commented on. 

When you want to turn comments off for a video, take the follow steps: 

  • Go to Activities and then to Kaltura My Media.
  • Click Edit for the video of which you want to turn off the comments.
  1. Click Options.
  2. There are two options for turning off Comments:
    • Disable comments for this media: Select this option to turn off all comments for this video;
    • Close discussion (do not allow new comments): Select this option to keep the comments that have been posted so far, but do not allow new responses..
  3. Click Save.

Delete media

You can also remove media from Kaltura My Media.

  • Navigate to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Kaltura My Media.
  • Click on the trashcan icon behind the video you want to remove. 
  • Click Delete to confirm.

You cannot delete a published video. You can, however, make a video private again in the same screen you use to publish it.

Download a video from Kaltura

You can download videos you added to Kaltura to your computer. Navigate to Activities and then Kaltura My Media.

  • Click the pencil icon on the right of the video you want to download.
  1.  Click the Downloads tab.
  2. Select Source from the list of Available Formats.
  3.  Click Save.
  4. Click Go To Media.
  1. Click the Download tab.
  2. Click the download icon to download the video to your computer.

The video can now be found in your computer files. 


Need help with developing educational videos? Get in touch with the team Radboud Educational Clips