How do I set up a video or audio assignment using Media Gallery?

You can create assignments for student video or audio uploads using multiple tools in your site.  Submissions can be private (between student and instructors) or made available to the entire class.

Private:

  • Assignments: In an assignment that accepts Inline submissions, students use the Rich-Text Editor to embed a video or audio file in their submission.
  • Tests & Quizzes: Students embed a video or audio file in a response to a short answer/essay question.

Shared with class:

  • Media Gallery: Students upload their video or audio files directly to the Media Gallery tool in the site.
  • Lessons: Add Student content in Lessons for students to embed their video or audio files in their lesson pages.
  • Discussions: Students embed media in discussion posts.

This article describes how to set up private assignments in the Assignments tool and assignments that can be shared with the class in Media Gallery. The setup process is similar in other tools.

Set up a video or audio assignment in Assignments.

Unlike many assignments, where students upload files as attachments, students should embed their uploaded audio or video files using the Rich-Text Editor.  This is because Assignments limits the size of file attachments to 250 MB, smaller than most audio and video files.

So students are not confused by how to submit a video or audio assignment, using the Inline only option for Student Submissions is recommended.

For complete steps to add an assignment, see How do I add an assignment?

In the Assignment Instructions, you may also want to include a link to steps for students to submit the assignment. The steps they need to take may differ slightly depending on whether they will be using the Personal Capture feature to record, and/or whether they choose to upload their video or audio file to My Media and edit the file before embedding it. You can find steps for different types of submissions in the following articles:

Recording or uploading a file at the same time as embedding it in a submission:

Recording or uploading a file first, then embedding it in a submission:

Tip: If you need students to upload additional files with their submission (for example, a script as a Word document), use the default Inline and Attachments option.  In this case, it would be helpful to clarify in the assignment instructions that the audio or video file should be embedded in the editor, while the other files should be uploaded as attachments.

Add Media Gallery to your site (if not already present).

If the Media Gallery tool is not already in your site, follow the steps in How do I add a tool to my site? At the step Select your set of tools, select Media Gallery.

By default, student uploads to Media Gallery are moderated.  This means that an instructor must approve each video or audio file before it is released to the rest of the class.  If you prefer to have students' uploaded files available to everyone in the site immediately when they are uploaded, you can disable the Moderate Content setting in your site's Media Gallery.

Select the Media Gallery tool from the Tool Menu in your site.

Select the Actions menu (three bars icon), then Edit.

Disable Moderate content.

  1. Scroll down on the page to the Options section, and uncheck the Moderate Content box.
  2. Select Save.

The page will refresh with a message indicating The information was saved successfully.  To return to the main page of Media Gallery, either:

  1. Select the Media Gallery link at the top of the page to refresh the tool,
  2. Or select the Back to Media Gallery link at the bottom of the page (next to the Save button).

Provide instructions to students.

Students can upload files directly to Media Gallery by following the steps in How do I upload a video or audio file to Media Gallery?

Alternatively, students can take the steps in the following articles to upload files to My Media first, and then publish the files in Media Gallery:

As Media Gallery is a repository for all of a site's video and audio files, it does not include a specific location to give students assignment instructions. You might post your instructions in another tool in your site, such as Assignments, Announcements, Syllabus, or a page in Lessons.

Tip: Including guidelines for file names in the instructions can make each student's submission(s) easier to identify. For example, you might require students to include their first name, last name, and a title in the name of their file: Student One's Video Introduction.