Re/Play developments summer 2021

This summer, for security reasons, there will be an important change to the way Re/Play videos are embedded in Blackboard. If you wish to embed any new video content in Blackboard, please use the Mash-up Tool.

The DEO will also be working with IT Services over the summer to improve Re/Play for the coming academic year. The improvements will include:

– New manual recording app – we are updating the manual recording functionality in our equipped rooms (replacing the old Ad Hoc app), this will allow for full use of in- room camera equipment.
– Enabling live streaming – to support a move to hybrid teaching, we will be enabling a service for live streaming from our equipped rooms.
– Replacement of the Desktop Recorder – the current recorder is no longer supported, so we will be deploying the new recorder, ‘Mosaic’.
– An improved user interface for browsing and selecting recordings – videos will be displayed in Blackboard as screenshot tiles rather than in a list.

Further details and user guides will follow soon. If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Re/Play links in Blackboard

Following on from the work completed last week to restore the Re/Play service we are currently seeing links in the left hand menu and the tools in content areas being unavailable. We will be working to restore these across all courses but this will not be completed until later today.

If you or your students need access before this these can be switched on a course by course basis –

  • Navigate to the course and open the course management menu
  • Select Customisation and tool availability
  • Scroll down until you see the Mediasite settings and tick boxes as shown in the image below
  • Submit

NB if you have a link in the left hand menu you will need to select hide link from the contextual menu and then show link for this to become visible to students.

 

Mediasite Blackboard settings

My Re/Play connection issues – 21 May

Further to yesterday’s post about connectivity issues to My Re/Play via Blackboard, we have added a temporary link for staff to access their Re/Play materials onto the My Re/Play tab.  

When you click on the My Re/Play tab, you will now see a link which should give access to Mediasite (the software for Re/Play).  

If prompted to, click on the grey ‘Authenticate’ button. You will be taken to the University’s Single Sign On page where you can log on using your normal UoB credentials. Once you have located the presentation you wish to share, click the ‘title’, then ‘share presentation’ and then the green ‘copy’ button next to ‘quick link’. You can then share this via email or as a direct link in Blackboard. 

We are working with Blackboard and Mediasite to fix this issue and will provide updates via this blog. 

Re/Play connection issues – 20 May update

We are now experiencing problems with staff accessing the ‘My Re/Play’ tab in Blackboard. We would like to confirm that this has not further affected student playback – students can still view content embedded into Blackboard, but not content added using Blackboard tools.

If you need to share recordings with your students urgently, it is possible to log directly in to Re/Play

If you are not logged directly in to the Re/Play (Mediasite) Service, click on the grey ‘Authenticate’ button. You will be taken to the University’s Single Sign On page where you can log on using your normal UoB credentials. Once you have located the presentation you wish to share, click the ‘title’, then ‘share presentation’ and then the green ‘copy’ button next to ‘quick link’. You can then share this via email or as a direct link in Blackboard.

We are working with Blackboard to fix this issue overnight tonight, and we will be testing to check the fix has worked before 9 am tomorrow.

Re/Play connection issues – how to make video materials available to students

Due to technical problems, some Re/Play presentations that were added to Blackboard courses using Blackboard’s  “Link to Presentations” tool cannot currently be viewed by students.

If you need to give students access to materials which have become unavailable, you can share Quick Links (URLs) for important presentations. To get a Quick Link, follow the embedding guidance through to step 6, then copy the Quick Link. This can be emailed directly to students or added to your course content.

Interruptions to key University online services, 5.30-9.00 pm Mon 22 March

IT Services will be completing their emergency upgrades to the University network on Monday 22 March between 5.30 pm and 9 pm. This will affect access to some of the services that the Digital Education Office manages, including Blackboard and Re/Play. Further information can be found in the IT Services status item about this work.

Interruptions to key University online services, evenings Fri 19 & Sat 20 March

IT Services will be making emergency upgrades to the University network on Friday 19 March between 6 pm and 9 pm and on Saturday 20 March between 6 pm and 9 pm. This will affect access to some of the services that the Digital Education Office manages, including Blackboard and Re/Play. Further information can be found in the IT Services news item about this work.