Quizzing Improvements

When Mediasite 7.2.2 was initially released one of the new features was the ability to add quizzes directly to a video. This allows instructors to check for understanding and attention while the video is in progress rather than having to wait until the video has completed. While quizzing itself is a relatively new feature there are already several additions to it that improve how quizzes can be administered and conducted within a video. The first of those new features is the ability to add images to a question.

Quiz Images

When creating a quiz, you’ll need to follow the typical process to add a quiz and question. Adding an image comes in when you are entering the details of the question. The new button available is ‘Add Image’. Choosing this will prompt you to select an image file to upload along with the question.

From the perspective of the viewer, not much has changed. While watching the video, the quiz will still display at the indicated time. They will see the question image below the question text.

Posting Quiz Results to Your LMS Gradebook

One of the most exciting updates to quizzing is the ability to push quiz results from Mediasite back to an integrated LMS (Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard and Brightspace). The ability to post results back to the LMS effects not only the instructor but also the student. From the instructor perspective they need to:

1. Post the video to the LMS using Deep Linking. The steps to do this vary by LMS. Please review the Documentation for the full details on Deep linking.

2. Open the quiz results page within My Mediasite. My Mediasite > Presentation > View Analytics > Quiz

3. Instructors can select the Quiz results they would like to post to the LMS individually or select all and click Post Scores to Gradebook

4. Once Post Scores to Gradebook is clicked, Mediasite will push the scores to the LMS Gradebook.

From the perspective of a student, not much will change. They will need to open the video from the LMS and complete the included quiz. Once the instructor posts the results, they would be able to see their grade in the LMS gradebook.

Captioning Improvements

Captioning and accessibility have been high priority features for Mediasite 7.2.2 with the release of the Caption editor and many improvements to captioning as well as Mediasite’s ability to be read by screen readers. In this update there are further improvement to the captioning of videos.

IBM Watson Threshold

Prior to Hotfix 6 IBM Watson speech to text could be toggled to display as captions or not. Now however there is a confidence score to ensure that the speech to text provided by IBM Watson is accurate before displaying it as captions on a video. The confidence score within Mediasite determines what percentage of words IBM Watson has determined to be accurate. As an example, if the confidence score is 90%, that means at least 90% of the words must be accurately provided by IBM Watson for the speech to text display as captions.

To set this confidence score navigate to the Management Portal.

1. Settings > Audio Transcription Profiles
2. Choose the profile for IBM Watson
3. Click the Edit Tab
4. Change the value in the Minimum confidence score field.

Caption Editor

If the purpose of IBM Watson Speech to Text is to provide captioning on a video, the Caption Editor can be used to view the threshold score, Edit the captions, and toggle display.

1. Confidence Score. In this example 82.1% of the words met an acceptable accuracy.
2. Edit Captions
3. Toggle to show captions

Delay Captions

An optional setting that can be changed within Mediasite System Manage is the ability to delay the captioning until the presentation has been marked viewable. This internal setting will prevent videos from being sent to the captioning provide until the video has been marked viewable. By changing this setting, instructors will have the opportunity to edit the video before captions are applied.

Once the captions are provided then, the additional setting that has been added is support for a notification to the content owner to receive an email when the captions are complete.

In My Mediasite go to

1. User Icon > My Settings
2. Notifications
3. Select Captioning completed on my presentations

Presentation Download

While it may not have the impact and gravity of features like captioning and quizzing, a highly requested feature has been the ability to download a presentation that is not part of a collection. This ability is available with hotfix 6. In the past the only way to download a presentation podcast or vodcast was through the use of a Channel, Catalog or Showcase. This inhibited users from downloading content that was a standalone video. Within the player tools, viewers will now see a download icon where they would be able to download the video for offline viewing. To download the file the view will need to

1. Click the download icon in the Player Tools
2. Select type of download, Audio(Podcast) or Video (Composite Video)

To enable this feature you’ll need to use My Mediasite

1. Open the presentation in My Mediasite
2. Select Edit Details > Delivery
3. Choose Podcast and/or Vodcast
4. Click Save

Moderation App

Another feature that can be found in My Mediasite is the new Moderation App which will allow presenters or instructors to moderate not only the Q&A but also the Comments and Annotations on a video within a Channel.

To access the Moderator portal:

1. Open a presentation in My Mediasite
2. Choose Moderate

The moderation App includes several features that are going to make it easier to manage some of the engagement of Mediasite Presentations. First of all, for Q&A, the same functionality has been pulled from the Q&A moderation portal. This means that questions can be answered, filtered and followed up on via email. On the Comments tab of the Moderation App the most obvious feature is the ability to reply to comments. The other feature that was added is the ability to hide or delete comments based on date. By doing so, you can promote the reuse of content because current viewers will not see the comments from a past semester or class.

Annotations, like comments, have the ability to be hidden and also reply to any annotations.

To hide or delete either comments or annotations navigate to the Moderation portal in My Mediastie:

1. Select the Comments or Annotations Tab
2. Choose Hide or Delete radio button
3. Enter the cutoff date. Any comments or annotations prior to this date will be hidden or deleted
4. Click Submit

My Mediasite General Updates

Missed and Upcoming Presentations

The last of the updates that will affect My Mediasite are minor updates to the improvement of the navigation. This is most noticeable in the area of upcoming and missed presentations. Rather than listing presentations in the accordion list, they will be listed in a grid list. The other change on Missed and upcoming presentations is the moving of the buttons to being recording. Rather than placed on the presentation list where they can easily be clicked by mistake, the ability to recorder with MDR or upload is moved to the Presentation details page. This is consistent with the current method of recording or uploading to a blank presentation in My Mediasite

Presentation Details

You should also notice some changes to the placement of information on the presentation details page in My Mediastie.

Everything on the right-hand column is an action where as some of the details of the presentation have been moved to the information tab below the video.

Updated Mediasite Deliver

We have improved the performance of Mediasite deliver to allow you to stream to even larger audiences with your on-prem Mediasite deployment with less impact to your current server infrastructure.  For more details, please check out the release notes.

Launch Multiple Recorders

As we move through the updates that are all part of Mediasite 7.2.2 Hotfix 6 we are brought into the management portal with a change to recorder management and remote viewing. While Mediasite Monitor is a great tool to manage and view recorders in real time it is currently only available on Windows. One of the solutions for users on Mac, outlined in this KBA, is to open several windows with the recorder interface and use Mac’s built in Mission Control. To make this easier you can select multiple recorders in the management portal and use the new Recorder Interface button to open the selected recorders in a new window.

Direct Upload in Brightspace

If you have been following the updates to 7.2.2, you have probably seen the direct upload to an LMS get added to Canvas, then Moodle followed by Blackboard. In Hotfix 6, directly adding media to Brightspace has been added. This allows instructors to add presentations either via upload or Mediasite Desktop recorder directly to the LMS without the need to create the video presentation in My Mediasite before-hand.

Here’s how it works:

1. The instructor will use Insert Stuff button within the LMS and select the Mediasite icon
2. They would choose the Upload button

This will launch My Mediasite to the Add Media page.

3. In My Mediasite they would have to follow the process to upload or record a new video
4. Once the upload is complete, they can click the Add video to course name

This will return the user to the LMS course to complete the addition of stuff to the course.

5. On the LMS page the instructor needs to update the item to save the video to the course.

Convert Catalogs to Channels

Another feature that came out with the initial release of Mediasite version 7.2.2 was the new content collections, Channels. Channels offer a more modern navigation and look as well as engaging features. To promote the use of channels there is a workflow in the management portal to convert your existing catalogs to Channels.

1. Select the catalog you would like to convert to a channel
2. On the Summary Tab choose Convert this catalog to a Mediasite Channel
3. Click OK
4. The channels page will load

Any user that has the link to the catalog would be redirected to the Channel once it is converted.