Technology | Education | University of Iowa
Summary. This page describes how to add video content to a Deisre2Learn online course. The instructions and example provided below use the Iowa Courses Online system (ICON) as an example.
Deisre2Learn is a company best known for their content management system (CMS) that is especially designed to serve as a course management system for educators and educational institutions.
Their virtual learning environment is in use by clients in K-12, Higher Education, corporate environments, as well as healthcare and government. In any situation where there’s a need to simplify and automate education and training, Desire2Learn provides solutions to help. Other providers of similar online courseware management systems are Blackboard.com and Moodle.org.
Uploading Video. The instructions below describe how to upload short video clip to a Desire2Learn course. The example below is using ICON (Iowa Courses Online). Click any image to enlarge it.
Note: Uploaded video clips should be a few minutes (under ten minutes). Longer videos, or large video files, should be hosted elsewhere such as Vimeo or YouTube. Some institutions have video hosting servers, such as the Digital Media Hosting and Delivery service at the University of Iowa. If you’re using an external host, then insert the appropriate HTML to have a player for your video inside of the new ICON page.
1. Begin at your Course Home page as shown below.
2. Click on the Content link to arrive at the screen shown below.
3. Click the Manage Files link to arrive at the page shown below.
4. You could go immediately to Upload to get your video uploaded. However, for presentation purposes, it’s better to create an actual web page that contains the video. So, click on the New File link to produce the window shown below.
5. Type in a title for your new page. In this example, we’re using a video about American Sign Language. The title is CODA Deaf Club.
6. You can begin typing a description for the video or instructions in the editing area. When you’re ready to insert the video, click on the icon to the far right. If you hover over that icon, the title Insert Stuff should appear as shown above. When you click on it, you’ll be taken to a page for choosing and uploading your video file as shown below.
7. Click on the Choose File button shown above and this will allow you to navigate your computer to find the file and choose it as shown below. The example image below is from an Apple computer. A Windows computer browsing window will look slightly different.
8. Once you find your file and click the Choose button, your file will be listed next to the Choose File button as shown below.
9. Next, click the Upload button. You’ll be asked to provide a Title and Alternate Text for the video that you’re uploading as shown below.
10. Click the Insert button once you’ve typed a title for your video. This will return you to the new file/page you were editing as shown below.
11. When completed with editing the page that contains your uploaded video, click the Create button to exit the editing window and return to Manage Files as shown below.
12. Click the Content button to return to the Manage Content page as shown below.
13. It’s helpful to have modules (like chapters) to categorize and group content, or to provide a visual guide to the chronology of information to be presented in a course. Click on New Module to create a new module. The screen shown below will appear.
14. Provide a Title and Short Title for your module. In this example, the module will be called Videos as shown below.
15. Click Save and then click Content to return to the Manage Content page. Your new module should show up as seen below.
16. Click the New Topic link to add the video page and make it viewable to others. This will produce the following options.
17. For this example, you’ll choose Course File from the options because you’ve already created a page with the embedded video. This will result in the screen below.
18. Choose the desired Parent Module, and then provide a Title and Short Title for the New Topic link. In this example, the title will be CODA Deaf Club as shown below.
19. Click the Browse button next to Course File to display the list of available files as shown below.
20. You’ll notice the HTML page you created as well as the actual video file that was uploaded. Click next to the HTML page to select it as shown below.
21. Click Select File and you’ll return to the New Topic – Course File editing page as shown below.
22. Click the Save button and then click the Content link to return to your Manage Content page where the new topic will be listed under the Module you created for it as shown below.
23. When you click on the New Topic link that you’ve created, the HTML page that includes your video should appear. Any text, links, or other content you want included with the video can be modified as shown in step #5 or #10 above. Below is the simple page with embedded video that was used in this example.
