Kaltura Overview

Kaltura is an open-source cloud based web service which facilitates the conversion and distribution of audio and video content. OSU faculty, staff and students may upload media content and determine whether to share their media publicly, within a Canvas course, or keep it restricted. Kaltura can be accessed through Canvas as well as through MediaSpace, Kaltura’s front-end interface for uploading and accessing media.

Canvas is closely integrated with Kaltura. Below is a guide for instructors on three ways to access and create Kaltura content within Canvas course sites: My Media, Media Gallery, and Embedding Media.

My Media

My Media is your personal media collection. You can access My Media in Canvas by clicking My Media in the Canvas Global Navigation Menu (far left menu). If you have never uploaded any media into MediaSpace or Canvas, you won’t see anything in My Media. My Media is directly tied to your ONID account whether you are an instructor or a student. In My Media, you will only see media that you have uploaded to Kaltura or that others have added you as a co-editor, co-publisher, or co-viewer. My Media offers a convenient way to add and manage your media content, e.g., you can upload media files, change the name, and make media public or private. You can upload content or create new content using OSU Zoom, the Kaltura Webcam Recorder or Kaltura Capture. Learn more about the Kaltura Recording Tools and Kaltura Media Usage Analytics, or check out our online guide for creating a media upload assignment in Canvas.

Media Gallery

Media Gallery is a dedicated place in a Canvas course site to display media content to everyone enrolled in a Canvas course site. By default, both instructors and students can add their selected My Media content to the Media Gallery. If faculty have media assignments in Canvas, they should consider disabling the Media Gallery or enabling the Moderate Content option for Media Gallery to prevent students from accidentally submitting work to the Media Gallery instead of the Canvas media assignment. We recommend that faculty embed media into Canvas content (see Embedding Media section below) to help students know when it is appropriate to watch a specific video in the context of the course, but the Media Gallery can provide a convenient one-stop location for course videos. Both embedded media and media in the Media Gallery provide in-depth analytics on your media content pertaining to who has watched your media and how much of your media they have watched.

Embedding Media

The Canvas Rich Content Editor (RCE) has a small "Embed My Media" filmstrip button that allows users to embed media directly into Canvas content. This button is directly linked to your My Media collection and appears on any content creation page in Canvas, including assignments, discussions, pages, quizzes, discussion posts, text entry assignment submissions, and quiz essay questions. We recommend creating and uploading your media to My Media before using the RCE "Embed My Media" button.

Video and Audio Feedback in SpeedGrader and Messages

Instructors may also use a web camera to attach video or audio comments to Comments in SpeedGrader or to Messages in the Canvas Inbox. However, media files created with these tools are not added to your My Media collection and will not be available to students or instructors once the course is over.