BUILDING BLOCK END-OF-LIFE ANNOUNCEMENT

As of September 30, 2024, the Anthology (Blackboard) Building Block will officially reach its end of life for use with EchoVideo.

Prior to the end-of-life date of September 30th, 2024, all Building Block content must be converted to LTI 1.1 Deep Links. For more information from Anthology, please see Convert Building Block Content to LTI.
For more information from us, please see Building Block to LTI Migration Overview and Converting Blackboard Building Block Content to LTI 1.1 Deep Links

Who can do this?
Blackboard users who are enrolled in and working with Ultra-enabled courses. Students may be able to embed media if Student access was enabled for the tool by the Blackboard Administrator.
For Students to embed media, the Student Library MAY need to be turned on for your institution. OR Students can embed media from any Collection where they have the Post permission.

This article provides instructions on embedding media from EchoVideo into a Blackboard Ultra-enabled course. If your course is a Learn or Original View course, see the instructions located in Embedding EchoVideo Media into Blackboard Content Windows.

If a Blackboard Admin has installed it for your institution and enabled it for courses, EchoVideo provides an EchoVideo Embed tool option in the Content Market tool list. This embed tool opens the EchoVideo embed media dialog box.

The EchoVideo Embed Media dialog box provides the ability to:

• Embed media from EchoVideo directly into your Blackboard course as described on this page
• Upload a media file then embed it as a single process
• Create new media with Universal Capture then embed it a single process
• Post a link to the media (instead of embedding it) into Blackboard

The Content Market in Blackboard Ultra can be accessed for a content window when adding an item to the course, OR you can add a Content Market item directly TO the Course list. Both methods embed the media into Blackboard for viewing, but they look a little different, both in how you access the market, and in the resulting embed.

LMS-Embedded media provide view data such as view counts and heatmap data, along with individual user viewing information, all of which is displayed in the Analytics tab of the media details page.

The steps below are for selecting media already resident in EchoVideo. The Embed Media dialog box lists all EchoVideo media you own as well as any audio, video, or interactive media in any Collection where you have the Post permission. If you need to upload or create the media first and need instructions, use the links above for more information.

PLEASE NOTE that the instructions provided here specific to the Blackboard interface are provided as a guide. Your interface may differ. Refer to the Blackboard documentation if necessary for further information.

Embedding in a Content Window

EchoVideo allows you to embed media into a content window. If, for example, you add a page or want to embed media in a discussion thread for an ultra course, you are given a content window to work with. Embed EchoVideo media via the Insert / Edit LTI Item option for adding content as shown in the below figure, which uses a Discussion content window as an example.

The resulting Embed appears when a user selects to view the course content, and the media is embedded in that page as shown below.

Embedding as Course Content

EchoVideo allows you to embed media directly as course content in Ultra-enabled courses. This is done by Content Market when adding content to a course as shown below.

The Content Market lists all the available LTI tools configured. The one for embedding EchoVideo media should be clearly labeled for selection.

The resulting Embed appears as its own page when a user selects it from the list of Course content, as shown in the figure below. 

Embedding EchoVideo Media

The steps below are for selecting media already resident in EchoVideo. The Embed Media dialog box lists all EchoVideo media you own as well as any audio, video, or interactive media in any Group where you have the Post permission. If you need to upload or create the media first and need instructions, use the links at the top of the page for more information.

To embed existing EchoVideo media into a content window

1. Log in to Blackboard and enter your Ultra-enabled course.
2. Determine where you want to add your EchoVideo media (directly to the Course page, or into a discussion or other location).
3. Access the Content Market by selecting Content Market or Insert/Edit LTI Item as is appropriate and identified in the figures above.
4. From the Content Market, find and select the EchoVideo Embed media tool created by your administrator, as shown in the figure above.
   

   A dialog box appears with a content selection screen, presenting the options available to you. Click the Launch Media Picker option to choose from your existing content and see the EchoVideo audio, video, or interactive media you own, as well as media in any Collection where you have the Post permission. If you need to upload media to embed, click the Upload Content option, and refer to the instructions in the link if necessary.
   

5. If necessary, use the Search text box and/or Filters options to find the media you want. 
6. Select the media you want to embed and click Next. 
   

   The dialog box changes to show the selected media as well as playback configuration options, all of which are described below the figure.
   If you want to post a link to the media instead of embedding it directly into the page, enable the Link toggle and if necessary see Posting a Link to EchoVideo Media in your LMS / VLE Course.
   If you want to embed multiple items together as a Playlist, see Creating Playlists in your LMS / VLE Course.
   

7. From the Player Style drop-down list, select the style you want to be applied to the player.
   

   The Player Style drop-down only appears if your institution has created custom player styles to choose from. If you have selection options, pick the one for your department or organization (or the default) that you want applied to the playback of this media.
   Selecting a style may automatically select Size, Autoplay, and Automute options for you; these can still be changed.

8. From the Select size drop-down list, select the size for the media playback. It is 640x420 by default.
   
9. If appropriate, enable the option to Autoplay the media (it will play as soon as a user opens the page you are embedding it into).
10. If you enable Autoplay, Automute is automatically enabled, to accommodate browsers that no longer allow autoplay with sound. You CAN enable Automute separately without Autoplay.
11. If appropriate, disable the option to show Discussions for the embedded content.
12. If appropriate, set a Start At time. If set, the media will begin playing at that timestamp, although viewers will be able to rewind/fast-forward the player to view any segment of the embedded media. This option is not available when embedding interactive media.
13. When finished, click INSERT. A preview of the inserted media appears.
14. Complete whatever remaining fields may be on the page, then click Save.

Once the item is added, students can open the page and view the embedded media. If you selected Autoplay or Start At configurations for the media, those are enacted for the user upon viewing.