The look and feel of the Player is changing! Upcoming changes are identified in this article by providing screenshots labeled "Old UI" and "New UI".

The information in this article does not apply to the legacy Classroom media player for video, audio, and presentation media. See Using Legacy Classroom Tools for those instructions if necessary.

When viewing content in the EchoVideo Media Player, you can simply play the media and be done with it. The tools available for all users for playback, viewing, and downloading transcripts are discussed in that linked article.

This article provides information on the tools available to authenticated users through an LMS / VLE or an EchoVideo course class (for interactive media). What tools or options you see may depend on your role and which features have been enabled for your course or institution.

Discussions

If the media is embedded in a frame in an LMS / VLE page, you will see a Discussions link in the bottom left of the frame, identified in the below figure. The small number icon you see next to the link provides a count of any new posts created within the last 24 hours.

Old UI
New UI

Clicking the Discussions link opens the media in the Full Tab player with the Discussion panel appearing to the right, as shown below.

The Discussions panel allows you to View and Participate in discussions with other members of your course. Instructors or Teaching Assistants can also use the panel to Monitor Discussion. Note that Discussions / Q&A can be disabled for your institution or your EchoVideo course. In this case, you will not see a discussion panel or option.

If you select the Transcript button, the Discussion panel moves to BELOW the player, with the Transcripts appearing on the right. This is shown in the below figure. For more information on transcripts, see the Transcript Panel section later on this page.

Media Details

The Media Details button, identified below, only appears for instructors and administrators. The button opens the Analytics tab of the Media Details page in a new browser tab. It provides easy access to the user viewing data for this media, including who has viewed it and for how long.

The Details button appears in both the Full-Tab player (shown above) as well as in the Embed options bar of the embedded media frame (shown below). This is shown in the below figure.

NOTE: If they happen to be currently authenticated in EchoVideo, Administrators will see a Details button for public media links. This allows Administrators to easily see viewing data for linked media that may be posted to a university website or other external location. Instructors will never see a Details button for public media links. 

Downloads

The Download button, as discussed in Viewing EchoVideo Media, appears for all users in all locations unless the media does not have a transcript or the student has not yet answered all the polls in posted interactive media. Transcripts are always downloadable for all media by any viewer.

See the What can you download section immediately below for more details.

Click the Download button located below the right side of the playback panel, to see your options. You can also press Cmd + D for Mac or Ctrl + D for Windows.

The Download Assets modal, shown below, can have one, two, or three tabs, with the Transcript tab appearing by default. For students, this is often the only tab they will see.

Each tab contains links for the download available to you. The Audio file download is the MP3 file for the media. The Video file download tab will typically have multiple MP4 options, including the higher definition (larger) and standard definition (smaller) files, as shown in the below figure. Pick the one you prefer. If the media has dual visual feeds, you can select the video files for each feed.

The file is downloaded immediately upon selection. The file gets saved to the location specified in your browser settings but typically goes to the Downloads folder.

Interactive media downloads only include the video / audio portion of the media, NOT the polling activities. You cannot download the polls themselves. In addition, students cannot download anything for interactive media (including transcripts) until they respond to all of the polling questions.

What can you download?

Administrators, Instructors, and the owner of the media (regardless of role) can (nearly) always download all assets of any posted media, regardless of where they are viewing it from. We say "nearly" because the exception occurs for instructors, where the media is shared with them, and the Shared content downloads feature is disabled.

This applies to all "authenticated" users - meaning we know who you are.

If your institution has opted INTO the external media download feature, then all authenticated viewers of media posted outside of EchoVideo can download the audio and video portions of the media. Transcripts can always be downloaded. Contact support@echo360.com if you need more information on the external media download feature.

The ability to download media viewed from inside of EchoVideo, such as in a classroom, in a group, or through your Library, obeys the institution and course feature settings, and individual collection permissions. 

How do we know who you are?

If you log directly into EchoVideo or you pass into an EchoVideo course or your library from an LMS / VLE or your university portal, we get your user information and we know who you are. 

Suppose you view media embedded into your LMS / VLE course using an updated embedding tool (what we often call a "secure-link embed"). In that case, your username is passed into EchoVideo. This allows for responding to interactive media polls and participating in Discussions. We know who you are.

If you view publicly posted media (a public media link) OR an older non-secure embed in an LMS / VLE, BUT you recently authenticated into EchoVideo using one of the above methods, you have what we call an "active session" and we know who you are. Viewing the media may not require you to be authenticated, but since you are, we can acknowledge that, log your views of the media, and provide you with the appropriate download options and other features.

In all of these cases, you are an "authenticated" user and are provided the appropriate download media options.

Public media links, however, are typically viewed by "unauthenticated" users, or anonymous users. As stated several times above, these users will see a Download button but can ONLY download the transcript file for the media. Even if the external media download feature is enabled for your institution, anonymous users will never get the video / audio file download option.

Transcript Panel

As noted in Using the EchoVideo Media Player, the Transcript button on the playback bar works as a toggle to show/hide the Transcript panel. If you are initially viewing the media inside of a frame on a webpage or an LMS content page, showing transcripts opens the media into its own tab, also called the Full Tab player.

If you are a student viewing Interactive Media, know that you will ONLY see the portion of the transcript up to any unanswered polls. Responding to polls "opens up" the next segment of the transcript in the same way it opens up the next segment of the video or audio.

For OLDER embeds, there are some differences in what you may see. These are outlined below, in case you come across any of these instances.

Transcripts for legacy "Tall" Embeds

When viewing embedded content created before the November 2-3, 2020 deployment, the Transcript's availability depends on whether a transcript was available at the time the Embed code was generated.

• When the embed code is created, if a transcript exists, any embedded content using that code will show the transcript (with the option to Hide it if desired).
• When the embed code is created, if there is no transcript, no transcript panel is displayed for any embedded content using that code.
• If an embed code already exists and has been used to create embedded content, and then a transcript is generated, the embedded content is not updated.
  In order to see a transcript that was created after the media was embedded:
  • Click the Expand button.
  • Re-generate the embed code and update the page where the content is embedded.