Embed self hosted videos on CanvasLMS Server

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François LE QUEMENER

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Jun 16, 2015, 11:25:59 AM6/16/15
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Hello, 
I'm looking for a way to host and embed videos on CanvasLMS Server. All I can see is an integration of SaaS providers (such as Youtube or Kaltura), but nothing about self hosting.
Is there a (simple) way to embed these videos? I tried to play with <video> tags but it seems the uploaded files are only available for download, not for streaming.
Thanks

Becky Kinney

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Jun 17, 2015, 8:37:59 AM6/17/15
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Francois,

I'm so happy to hear that I'm not the only one waiting for a decent solution to this. I've already put in a feature request which you can vote for here: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1639. The feature request is not limited to video, and maybe it needs to be renamed so that people can understand what we want without having to read the comment thread. I'm open to suggestions.

In the meantime, there are two things you can do today. The first is to let Canvas compress your video, and store it in their video file system rather than your course or personal files. To do that, follow these instructions: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1867

That works well for low resolution video, but you really need to to test the quality of each video. If you need students to be able to see detail in your video, you aren't going to be happy.

I was very excited when I discovered the second work-around, and I even used it to create an LTI editor button for those who are afraid of tags. But, I have to say, I have seen this fail, so I don't completely trust it. For what it's worth, here is the blog post I wrote when I first learned about this trick:


Becky Kinney
Academic Technology Services

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François LE QUEMENER

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Jun 18, 2015, 8:26:39 AM6/18/15
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Thank you Becky for your answer

I must say I'm very surprised that this functionality is not already integrated in an LMS. I think it's a must have, and that depending on SaaS providers, who are generally not free, is a shame.

I tried your trick to embed a video (MP4) in a course, unfortunately it is not working. Perhaps can you advise me if you succeeded? I inserted this tag:
<video src="/courses/1/file_contents/course%20files/SDV_0256.MP4" width="300" height="150">Alternative content</video>

It displays a black square instead of the video.

Thanks again

Becky Kinney

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Jun 19, 2015, 8:25:59 AM6/19/15
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Yeah, the trick doesn't work on video files. Sorry about that. But, I did discover something quite surprising. If you go to a wiki page in edit mode, open up the files and click on an mp4 file, the link that gets dropped into your page acts like one of those embedded video links. Save the page, and you should see a thumbnail image of the video. The video plays when you click the image, and the player can be maximized. I'm not sure it that is a new behavior or not. I had certainly never seen it before this week, but you do have to wait a bit after uploading video for the thumbnail to be processed, so maybe that's why I had missed it. I certainly don't remember seeing it described as an update.

So, maybe that meets your needs? It certainly comes closer to meeting mine than anything else I've seen from Canvas.

Becky Kinney
Academic Technology Services

François LE QUEMENER

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Jun 22, 2015, 10:41:18 AM6/22/15
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What version are you on? I don't see this behaviour on my Canvas.

Becky Kinney

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Jun 22, 2015, 11:00:58 AM6/22/15
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We are on whatever Canvas released on June 6th. I don't think they use version numbers for the instances hosted by Instructure.

Becky Kinney
Academic Technology Services

François LE QUEMENER

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Jun 24, 2015, 11:35:51 AM6/24/15
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OK thanks for your replies.

I think we will reevaluate the choice of our LMS solution, as Moodle seems to be much easier to administrate.

Htxadmin

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Aug 18, 2015, 12:30:40 PM8/18/15
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Don't know if it is a viable solution for your use case, but have you thought about hosting your own kaltura instance? - https://github.com/kaltura/platform-install-packages#documentation-and-guides

François LE QUEMENER

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Aug 18, 2015, 12:58:03 PM8/18/15
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Thanks for your answer, I resolved it by migrating to Moodle, which is far more adapted to my case.
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