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EchoVideo: Collections - Overview

Echo360
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Collections (formerly called "groups") 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 that is 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 endow Students, Teaching Assistants, or Instructors with collection-creation powers separately. Collection creators (who are automatically Managers) can add any EchoVideo user to their collections.

To access any collection

  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

ALTERNATELY...

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

The Media tab of the collection 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 in the collection media details page, each media tile has a menu button or "quick action" button, as shown in the below figure. The commands available correspond to the permissions you have for media in this collection. NOTE that 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 above.

Click on a media tile from the Media tab to open the collection media player.

The below figures show the collection media player 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 collections playback panel has the same navigation as you'd expect in any player. The play/pause, fast-forward/rewind, and timestamps (current location/duration) are on the left. Playback controls such as volume, closed captioning, and speed/quality 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 below figure.

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 all 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 below figure. If the Remove command appears and is active, you can remove media from this collection. This is shown in the below figure. If NO menu button appears on hover or keyboard navigation, you have viewing permissions (Reviewer access) only 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.

NOTE: 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.