Supporting and enabling the use of video at the University of York Julie Allinson Anthony Leonard Wayne Britcliffe Digital Library Manager System Integrator Digital Learning Resources Manager

Video in learning and teaching at York Wayne Britcliffe (Digital Learning Resources Manager) E-Learning Development Team, University of York

Video in learning and teaching Cardiac Heart Disease Prevention Online (Health Sciences) PGCE Whole School Issues (Educational Studies) Worldscape Practical Project (Music) Critical Viewing Resource (Electronics) MA in Teaching English to Young Learners (Educational Studies) Ecological Sampling Techniques (Biology) Pure & Applied Microbiology (Biology) Interview Skills (Professional & Organisational Development)

Example Cardiac Heart Disease Prevention Key video resources were shot especially for the project Other externally sourced video clips also cleared for use First academic module to use York’s streaming server pilot project Access to the module is through the institutional VLE (all students off site) First fully online module delivered by the Health Sciences Department Students are generally from a professional background (practicing nurses etc.)

Some issues of video deployment If video is key resource it HAS to be engaged with regardless of access location Video provided in multiple formats If video is key resource it needs to be fully accessible Transcripts provided Audio only versions provided Academic staff have to be suitably trained and supported to effectively use video resources Students also need to be supported properly if they are required to manipulate video Access control important for academic content Effective, easy and transparent management of the content is very important

Media delivery & integrated access control Anthony Leonard (System Integrator) Computing Service, University of York

Advent of “Media Servers” separate project – try out media servers useful for: long, high quality media better viewing experience more inspiring! designed for: heavy downloads media streaming demo

Media delivery - challenges large file size high filestore needs high bandwidth required licensing restrictions high-value sensitive images proliferating formats/codecs support production, encoding, (delivery,) playback

Media servers on York Flash Media Interactive Server 3 RTMP streaming to Flash players..flv,.mp3,.mov,.mp4,.aac RealNetworks Helix Universal Server 11 RTSP/MMS streaming to Windows Media/Quicktime/Real Player.wmv,.wma,.rv,.ra,.mov,,mp3,.wav Apache 2.0 specially configured for large HTTP downloads shared filestore (quotas per department)

Where to put my large video? deciding factorsVLE media server simple, video “like any other content”  access control  content management  configured for media serving  streaming possible  separate filestore quotas 

Problem links to content on media server bypass access control e.g. “rtsp://stream.york.ac.uk/video.mov” security by obscurity breaks licence terms single-sign-on with groups set up on media server? too cumbersome set up firewall ip-based rules? too inflexible

solution? Solution

Golden Tickets appended to media link “rtsp://stream.york.ac.uk/video.mov? ” short lifetime (30 seconds) unmodifiable (hashed with shared secret) validated and accepted by media server created on-the-fly by VLE using its own access rules trust relationship - “admit the bearer” no authorisation or authentication required on the media server

Publishing process instructor uploads video to media server instructor adds a video player to a VLE course area specifies location of video on the media server functionality is provided via a custom VLE plugin VLE enforces access control only enrolled students can reach the video player in the course on access, a new golden ticket is created on-the-fly appended to the media link used by the video player media server plugin validates and accepts golden ticket on success, the video is streamed/served to the player

Implementation VLE plugin Blackboard Building Block (developed in-house) media server plugins Flash Media Interactive Server Application (developed in-house ) RealNetworks Helix Security Manager (covers Helix Universal Server and Apache)

Where to put my large video? deciding factorsVLE media server simple, video “like any other content”  access control  content management  configured for media serving  streaming possible  separate filestore quotas 

Where to put my large video? deciding factorsVLE media server simple, video “like any other content”  access control  content management  configured for media serving  streaming possible  separate filestore quotas 

Where to put my large video? deciding factorsVLE media server simple, video “like any other content”  access control  content management  configured for media serving  streaming possible  separate filestore quotas 

Considering a home for our content Julie Allinson (Digital Library Manager) Library & Archives, University of York

Considering a home for our content we’ve seen some of the things users want to ‘do’ with content here at York and the range of content – externally and internally produced content, interviews, animations, feature films, tv programmes, performance pieces, training videos and some ways that York is supporting these … but where does that content live?

A Digital Library for York A multimedia digital library for resources produced and/or used in teaching, learning and research To complement and enhance the existing York infrastructure, including White Rose Research Online (research paper repository) and Yorkshare (virtual learning environment) In development by the Library & Archives … working closely with the VLE team, streaming service, computing service It’s a new project, so there isn’t much to *show* yet …

Flexibility with Fedora The digital library will be underpinned by the Fedora open source digital repository software Fedora is a digital library architecture which can store any kind of data or metadata Fedora performs a small yet significant function and acts as the application that communicates and manages the storage layer (networked filestore) On top of Fedora we can layer services to do other things, such as search, access control, providing a user interface, exposing content to external services and tools

What the Digital Library will do accept deposits from users or machine-agents* facilitate the description of those deposits, or accept metadata in standard formats check and validate the content store, manage and preserve content enable discovery* enable access* Can’t an existing system do this? VLE Content Management System, Web CMS? …fit for a different purpose SERVICESSERVICES

So, why is this a good thing? Storing digital versions of inaccessible physical material Promoting good practice in creation Avoiding ad-hoc (illegal!) activities, and duplication of effort Taking away the management responsibility from (busy) collection owners Promoting greater use, re-use and sharing … in more places Discoverability … it’s all very well to store it, but how can I find it? Integrating with the right tools for the job … streaming service, VLE etc.

Working in synergy at an organisational level Of course there are challenge(s) delivering external content and managing access enabling best practice and legal use of resources; educating others to do the same, without unnecessary restriction engaging users effectively – why should I put my stuff here? Encouraging and enabling innovation by our users is at the core of all these services By working in a joined up way, we are able to support this (hopefully) avoiding the confusion of disconnected services

Discussion

End of Presentation