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EchoVideo: Collections - Overview

Echo360
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Collections are designed to be collaborative spaces where specific people (members) are brought together to view, post, or otherwise work with the media in the collection.

Collections can be formalized, such as a collection created by an instructor who wants to provide video media related to but outside of the scope of the classes in a course.

Collections can be very informal, such as a bunch of senior students forming a Help collection, with presentations or interactive media designed to provide new students with information and help on a variety of campus resources or topics.

EchoVideo Administrators control who can create collections, with the ability to separately endow Students, Teaching Assistants, or Instructors with collection-creation powers. Collection creators (who are automatically Managers) can add any EchoVideo user to their collections.

EchoVideo Administrators can also be added as members of Collections directly, but since they always have admin access to collections, they can only be added as Managers.

To access a collection from the main menu

  1. Click Collections from the main menu bar.
  2. Click on any collection tile to enter the collection.
    Collections page showing several collections tiles for selection and entry as described with the Collections option in the main menu also identified

To access a collection from the Library

Your library has a Collections panel, containing a subset of your collections, identified in the below figure.

  1. Click on a collection tile from your library page to enter the collection.
    Library page with library option in main menu identified and collections panel of library page outlined containing tiles for selection as described
  2. Click the + X more button to navigate to the main Collections tab.

After accessing a collection, the Media tab appears, showing the media in the collection.

Media tab of a collection showing media tiles to select for viewing media as described

Click on any media tile to open the media details page and view the media.

What you can do beyond just viewing the media depends on the permissions you have in the collection. The commands available below the playback panel will vary, depending on your permissions. If a command is grayed out and not selectable, you cannot perform that action.
Collection media details page showing media playback panel with media action commands identified for use by member with appropriate permissions as described

In addition to the commands on the collection media details page, each media tile has a menu button or quick action button, as shown in the figure below. The commands available correspond to the permissions you have for media in this collection. If no menu button appears when you focus on or hover over a media tile, you can only view this media; you have no other media permissions.
Media tab of a collection with media tile menu identified and menu open showing available media commands for use by member with approrpriate permissions as described

Collection managers can manage collections (hence the name), controlling ALL aspects of the collection, including what media permissions the members do or do not have.

Media permissions for non-manager members are provided via pre-configured Access Levels or can be customized if necessary. Collection media permissions include:

The below sections of this page briefly discuss the basics of viewing, adding, and removing collection media, as well as an overview of Managing Collections.

Viewing Collection Media

All collection members can view the media in the collection. By default, the collection opens on the Media tab, as shown in the section above. Collection media also appears in your Library amidst other content that you own or has been shared with you.

When accessing the media details page for content, where you access it will impact your experience:

  • Opening the media details page for content from the Media tab within a collection will show you only the options available to you (based on your permissions / access level) in that collection.
  • Opening the media details page for content from the Library will show you the full media details page with the most permissive set of options available to you across not only the collection but also other locations where you may have access to that content.

Click on a media tile to open the media details page.

The below figures show the collection media details page for a video and for a presentation. Collections can contain audio, interactive media, and polls as well.
Collection media player for a video with player control locations identified as described

The playback panel in the media details page has the same navigation as you would expect in any player. The play / pause, fast-forward / rewind, volume, and timestamp (current location / duration) are on the left. Playback controls such as closed captioning, speed, and settings are on the right.

The presentation view has slide navigation controls that appear when you hover your mouse over the presentation, as shown in the figure below.
Collection media player for a presentation identifying slide navigation control buttons as described

Adding and Removing Collection Media

If you have Add Media permissions in the collection, you may see an Add Media button on the collection Media page, shown below. All collection members can view any media added to the collection.
Collection media page with Add Media button identified as described

You may also have been given Remove privileges in the collection, which allows you to remove media from the collection. This is sometimes conferred along with the Add & Upload permission, but Add and Remove permissions are given separately. So you may be able to add media to the collection but not remove it.

Hover over a media tile and click on the Menu button, identified in the figure below. If the Remove command appears and is active, you can remove media from this collection. This is shown in the figure below. If no menu button appears on hover or keyboard navigation, you have Reviewer access and can only view media in this collection.
Media tab for a collection with media tile menu identified and open and Remove command identified for use as described

Managing Collections

If you created the collection, you are automatically a Collection Manager. Collection managers have full administrative rights over the collection, including the ability to:

Managers also have all media control permissions, which include:

Managers can add other managers to the collection. Managers cannot remove other managers or change their access level (demote them from full manager permissions). Only an EchoVideo administrator can change a collection's manager access level to something less, or remove managers from a collection.

If an Administrator has disabled the Library for students, students can still participate fully in collections, including creating collections, managing collections, and posting media from the collection into their LMS / VLE. However they cannot add or upload media to the collection, nor can they make copies of collection media, as doing so requires access to their Library (anything a user uploads or copies goes to their library; EchoVideo accesses it from there). If a student is a collection manager, the add / upload and copy permissions are assumed, but the student has no method of adding media to the collection.