Digital Education Office
bristol.ac.uk/digital-education

Re/Play videos: upload, enhance, share

This guide demonstrates the steps to upload videos on Re/Play and embed them in your Blackboard course.

Videos should be hosted on Re/Play, not Blackboard. If you have already uploaded your video to Blackboard, make sure you have it to hand (dowloading from Blackboard if necessary). Once you have uploaded the video to Re/Play and embedded the Re/Play video in Blackboard, you will need to delete the original video from Blackboard.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Go to the section or Document in Blackboard where you want the recording to appear
  3. Click + and choose Course Tools. Or click + in the document editor and choose Course Tools.
  4. Click Re/Play Content.
    • If the presentation you want to add is already on Re/Play, in this Add Video section you can select it. If you can’t find it, use the Filters box to narrow down your search. You can filter by several parameters. First check for ownership – whether you created the video or if it was shared with you. Then you can filter by how the recording was created. Mediasite recorder is the in-room box for lecture capture and Media Upload is where you have manually uploaded a file from your device.
      Click on Embed Video to add a video player box to your Blackboard page, or Link Video to add a link.
    • If you are uploading a new video or audio file, click Upload New. Here you can upload a media file, or create a new recording using the in-browser screen recorder. Leave the Blackboard editor window open. You will need to wait for the video to finish uploading and processing before adding it using Embed Video or Link Video.
  5. If you chose Embed Video, the video’s thumbnail image should appear with a play button in the Blackboard editor. If you choose the Link Video, it will appear with an orange play icon to identify it as a Re/Play video.
  6. Click on Submit to save.
  7. The video should now be playable in Blackboard.
Idea

Make sure your presentations have the right permissions, are edited appropriately and have usable captions.

Add Re/Play content to Blackboard (2 mins)

Idea

Many courses already have a Re/Play collection link under “Resources and Tools”

Once your course has a Re/Play channel, this link will show all the current academic year’s lectures recorded using automatic lecture capture. You can also add videos to this collection using the add module feature.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the right area in your course and click the + button.
  3. Choose Course Tools.
  4. Choose Re/Play Content.
  5. At the Add Content screen go to the Filter menu and tick Channel and Shared with me. Click Apply.
  6. Use the search box to search for your unit code.
  7. Click Link next to the collection channel you wish to add. If your course has a Re/Play channel, a link will be added showing all the current academic year’s recorded lectures from University lecture theatres.
  8. Click the three dots on the collection link to edit title and description.

You can add an existing Re/Play video to a unit’s collection if

  1. you have access to the video, for example, you own it or can view it in My Re/Play
  2. you are an instructor on the Blackboard unit

Add the video from the unit

This is the quickest method:

  1. Log in to Blackboard.
  2. Open the unit to which you want to add the video.
  3. Under Unit Information and Resources, select Re/Play Collections.
  4. Select Add Presentation.
  5. Find the video and select Add.

The video will be added to the unit’s Re/Play collection.

Add the unit through My Re/Play

You can also associate a video with a unit by editing its details in My Re/Play.

  1. Log in to Blackboard.
  2. On the Home page, select My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Find the video you want to add and select its name.
  4. From the right-hand menu, select Edit Details.
  5. Scroll to Modules and open the Add Module dropdown.
  6. Find and select the unit to which you want to add the video.
  7. Select Save

Use the following method when you want to upload videos to Re/Play to be added to Blackboard later, or to host presentations to share on external websites and email.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Select Add Presentation (left hand column).
  4. Select Choose file.
  5. Locate file (video or audio) on your device and select Open.
  6. You can add a name in the next box. If not, Re/Play will use the file name.
  7. Click Create Presentation.
  8. Your video will now be uploaded. You can either wait as the video uploads or leave this running in the background. You will receive an email when it is ready.

You can upload audio-only formats like MP3 and WAV in the same way - these are handled in a similar way to videos on Re/Play, including the ability to add slides and edit captions.

Caution

Your video will not be searchable or viewable when it is private. Ensure you unlock this prior to searching or embedding.

If you want to replace an existing video:

  1. Click on the recording you want to replace.
  2. Click Replace media on the top left of the video thumbnail to either upload a new file or record a new presentation.
  3. Follow the instructions to upload a new media file.
  4. Any embeds or links to the old recording will now point to the new one.

Viewing permissions

For content created by automatic lecture capture, you should not change the viewing permissions as they are automatically set to allow the appropriate access. If you have uploaded a video to share outside of Blackboard, please check the permissions in the following way.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to set permissions on.
    • Either click on the padlock symbol to unlock it and make it viewable to everyone in the organisation
    • or click on the name, scroll to the Who can view section and adjust the slider: You will normally use My Organization to show to only staff and students, Only Me to keep it private, or Everyone to allow anyone with the URL to watch. To share with individuals outside of the University, set the slider to Everyone and email the URL to each person, asking them not to give away the URL to anyone else.

If you need to change permissions later, you can do it in the same way, following the steps 1-3.

Unlocked padlock
Caution

Your video will not be searchable or viewable when it is private. Ensure you unlock this prior to searching or embedding.

Caution

Only share editing permissions with colleagues you trust, as once you do, they will have the same permissions on the video as you.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to share editing permissions for.
  4. Right-click on the title of the presentation and select Open link in new tab.
  5. Scroll down and click Edit Security on the bottom right.
  6. Ensure Inherit permissions from parent folder is not ticked.
  7. Enter your colleague's username (eg ab12345) in Add people or groups and click on it from the list.
  8. In the dropdown next to the username, select Editor
  9. Click Add and then Save.
  10. Copy the link of the tab you are on (the one starting with mediasite.bris.ac.uk...) and share it with your colleague.
  11. To access the presentation, they will need to log on to Blackboard and click/use the link you shared with them. They will have the same permissions as you, including the right to change the security and ownership.

How to give a colleague rights to edit details, video and captions (Video, 2 mins)

To request access for an external speaker, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk first.

Caution

If you make another person the owner of a presentation you have created, you will no longer be able to edit it yourself or see it in your own My Re/Play area. If you just need to give someone else rights, but keep your ownership, see Share editing permissions instead.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation and look at which folder it's in, under Owner.
    • If it's in a folder the new owner has access to (you can't change the owner of presentations in My Drafts), move to the next step.
    • If it's in My Drafts or a folder they don't have access to, move it to a folder you both have access to. This would usually be the unit's folder, or it may be a different folder you have set up with your colleagues. If there is no such folder, email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk and ask for one to be set up for you. To move the presentation to the folder, click on the presentation's title, click Move to, select Place this Presentation in a Shared folder, select the folder and click Move Presentation.
  4. Click on the presentation's title from the presentations list.
  5. Scroll down and click Edit Security on the bottom right.
  6. Under Owner enter the username (eg ab12345) of the colleague you would like to make the owner.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Mediasite may display a warning that you are not authorised, alongside one saying that the operation is a success. Return to your My Re/Play screen: if the video is no longer there, you can tell that the transfer of ownership was successful.

Overview of the video editor.

Open the editor

  1. Go to your presentation in Mediasite
  2. Select the title to open the presentation summary
  3. Select Edit Video

The Mediasite Editor opens in a new tab.

What you can do

Use the editor to make quick improvements to your recording. For trimming, cutting, removing pauses and using simple transitions, see Mediasite’s Edit videos guidance.

  • Trim the start or end of a video
  • Remove unwanted sections (for example mistakes or pauses)
    1. Use the timeline to find the section you want to remove
    2. Click and drag to select the section
    3. Select Cut
  • Adjust audio levels, to make the volume louder, quieter or more consistent
  • Insert an image (for example a watermark, logo or to hide sensitive content)
  • Add chapters to make the video easier to navigate
  • Update or replace slides
  • Apply transitions such as fade or dissolve

Repeat these steps if you need to remove more sections.

Idea
  • Adjust a cut by dragging its edges on the timeline or moving the selection handle.
  • Use Undo if you make a mistake

Save your changes

When you finish editing, use Save Video to save your changes to the current presentation, a new presentation, or an existing presentation. To compare these options, see Mediasite’s Save edited presentations guidance.

Caution

Monitor save progress using Video Save Jobs. Don't close the browser until saving is complete.

Captions are important for accessibility and good for everyone. For new content, automatic captions will be on by default. For lecture capture, the captions will be automatically requested when the video is published, and should be available within 24 hours from the time of publishing. For older content, you can request automatic captions. You can edit the captions once they are available.

Make sure you are happy with the video before requesting or editing captions, as additional video editing after captioning might mean you need to request and edit the captions again.

Using an automatic generator, it’s very difficult to have 100% accurate captions, but it is important that students aren’t misled by inaccurate captions. For important sessions, we would recommend checking and editing key terminology if possible.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to review captions.
  4. Click on the title and then click Edit Captions (right hand side).
  5. The caption editor will open. You can choose between two views:
    1. Timed captions
      • Best for detailed, methodical editing.
      • Useful when you want to correct captions precisely alongside the video timing.
    2. Transcript
      • Displays captions as continuous paragraphs.
      • Best for quick review and skim-reading.
      • Useful for spotting obvious errors from automatic captions and making fast corrections.
    Idea

    You may find it helpful to start in Transcript view to quickly clean up obvious issues then switch to Timed Captions view for more precise corrections if needed.

  6. Rather than correcting every single mistake, concentrate on words/names/urls/terms that students will need to see accurately.
  7. Note the tick boxes Track timeline while video plays and Autoplay video. Tick them and see if they are useful. On a slow network connection, they may be best turned off.
  8. You can use the Find and Find and Replace options in the editor to check specific words.
  9. If a spoken phrase is missing from the captions, you can add it: navigate to the relevant part of the video on the timeline, type in the text you wish to add and click Add transcription at video position.
  10. You can delete captions using the red dustbin icon.
  11. Make sure you click Save (at the top of the screen) often. The edits will update straight away.

Content owners will be able to download a transcript of their captions (if required) by clicking on Download to Computer then Download Captions.

User guide: Add captions to presentations.

Caution

Please note this is for automatic captions. If a disability need has been identified please contact your School Disability Coordinator.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to have captions added to.
  4. Click on the name and then Edit Details (right hand side of the screen).
  5. Click on the Delivery tab.
  6. Tick Audio Transcriptions.
  7. Select Choose a provider for captioning and click inside the white box.
  8. Select Verbit ASR from the list.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Set Who can view to Everyone, My Organization or Only Shared Users. This will trigger captions-generation. You can set it back to Only Me later if you want to make the presentation private.

The status of your captions can be checked on the Delivery tab of the recording although you will receive an email once complete. Automatic captions are not 100% accurate, but captions can be edited.

Caution

Users will not see the captions automatically but will need to click the CC icon to the right of the volume control at the bottom of the player.

  1. Locate your video in My Re/Play, click the title and choose Download to Computer (bottom right of the screen)
  2. Choose Download Captions or Download Transcript

Transcripts download as a plain text file. Captions download as a .dfxp text file. It can be edited in text-only editors like Windows Notepad or Notepad++ (available from the Company Portal). Or you can use a specific subtitle editor such as Subtitle Edit (free to install). Subtitle Edit lets you convert the caption file to plain text and also provides language translations.

If you’ve downloaded captions to edit offline, or have chosen to create captions in a different software, you’ll need to upload them to your presentation.

  1. Locate your video, click the title and choose Edit Details.
  2. Click the Delivery tab.
  3. Tick Manually Upload an Audio Caption File.
  4. Click Select a File and browse to your .dfxp, .sami, .srt, .smi or .vtt caption file.
  5. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.

The Interactions feature allows you to overlay interactive elements onto your presentation. You can add and customise Text, Buttons, and Hotspots to engage your students, control the flow of your presentation, and link to other content.

  1. Locate the presentation and click on the title.
  2. Click Edit Interactions. This will take you to the editor.
  3. The interactive editor displays a grid over your presentation. Use this grid to align and position your interactive elements accurately.
  4. All elements are moveable. Text and Hotspot elements can be resized.
Idea

Hold down the Shift key to disable the resizing feature if you only wish to move the element.

Caution

If an interaction is created on a dual feed (camera and slides) capture, it will only appear when playback is in dual-screen mode, so might be missed by students.

Adding and Customising Elements

  1. When adding a text interaction, provide a name for the interaction and enter your example text.
  2. Choose from three preset sizes: Small, Medium, or Large.
  3. Select your desired text colour by using the colour picker or entering a hexadecimal value.
  4. Choose how the text is aligned within the window: Left, Centre, or Right.
Idea

Text interactions do not include features such as an opacity slider, colour fill, or shape controls. To make text more readable you can add visual enhancements by overlaying your text onto an inactive hotspot or button.

  1. Provide a name and sample text for the button interaction.
  2. Choose from the same size options as text: Small, Medium, or Large.
  3. You can reposition the button using your mouse.
  4. Use the colour picker or hexadecimal format to set the button’s colour.
  5. Enable the "Pause on interaction start" feature by ticking the corresponding checkbox.
  6. Provide a link to either a New Presentation, Time Within this Presentation or to an External URL:
    • To link to another presentation, select New Presentation and enter the Presentation ID. This is a 34-character alphanumeric code found at the end of a Re/Play presentation URL. Viewing permissions should be set accordingly.
    • Link to a Specific Timestamp: Specify the minutes and seconds within the current presentation.
    • Link to an External URL: Provide the full URL.

  1. Provide a name for the hotspot interaction. A textbox is not automatically included, but you can add a Text Interaction seperately as a label.
  2. Choose between a Circle or Rectangle shape.
  3. Drag the hotspot to move it or resize it directly with your mouse.
  4. Set the hotspot colour using the colour picker or entering a hexadecimal value.
  5. Tick the checkbox to remove the fill if desired.
  6. Adjust the hotspot’s opacity via a slider in 10% intervals.
  7. Tick Pause on interaction start if you want playback to stop when the hotspot appears.
  8. Provide a link to either a New Presentation, Time Within this Presentation or to an External URL:
    • To link to another presentation, select New Presentation and enter the Presentation ID. This is a 34-character alphanumeric code found at the end of a Re/Play presentation URL. Viewing permissions should be set accordingly.
    • Link to a Specific Timestamp: Specify the minutes and seconds within the current presentation.
    • Link to an External URL: Provide the full URL.

General Interaction Controls

  • Timing Controls: Set the start and end times for your interactions using input fields. Enter hours, minutes, seconds (and milliseconds for precision if required) eg 00:10:05.500
  • Timeline Control: Adjust the position, start, and end times directly on a horizontal bar in the preview editor.
  • Zoom Functionality: Use the plus and minus zoom icons at the bottom for precise control over the timing of your interactions.

Tips for Effective Use

  • Plan Your Layout: Use the grid to plan and align interactions with your presentation content.
  • Test Links and Timing: Always preview your presentation to ensure that timing and linking work as expected.
  • Accessibility: Add an “Interactive” tag (via Edit Details) to increase visibility in Re/Play Collections and use Chapters (via Edit Video) to highlight the start points of interactive elements, making them more visible along the timeline.

Considerations

  • If you plan to include quizzes in your resource, leave a few seconds of silence in the right places to make it easy to insert the quizzes.
  • The quiz player limits editing capability so make sure you do any edits prior to adding the quizzes.
  • Re/Play quizzes don't currently integrate with the Blackboard Grade Centre, so these quizzes are best used for self-study as a formative tool. You can, however, view the results through the My Re/Play Tab or the My Mediasite link under Course Tools.
  • Once you have created a quiz you can add it to any recording in Re/Play.

1. Enable Quizzes in video

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the video you wish to add a quiz in to and select the Title.
  4. From the options on the right select Edit Quizzes.

2. Select your quiz type

There are three types of quiz within Re/Play. Each has a general set of settings:

  • Study Guide - Formative Test (most open) - Recommended
  • Assessment
  • Scored - Summative (locked down)

You can change settings for all three, but we recommend using the study guide as this gives the most feedback for students and allows them to have several attempts at the quiz.

  1. Select the quiz type you wish to use.
  2. Name the presentation for the introduction screen.
  3. Give the presentation a description so students know what to expect from the video and information on the quiz.
  4. Select Next.

Add Quizzes to your video

Re/Play allows you to add any number of quizzes to your presentation. Each quiz appears at the time you set within the presentation.

  1. Using the preview window play the video and pause where you want to add a quiz.
  2. Select Add Quiz.
  3. Give the quiz a name - students will see this, so it needs to be meaningful.
  4. Give the quiz a description if you wish.
  5. While the quiz has a grey box around it you can add questions.
  6. Select Add Question.
  7. Add the question text.
  8. Select the question type.
  9. Provide answers, adding more if necessary.
  10. Ensure the question has a correct answer.
  11. When you are done either repeat steps 6 - 10 to add further questions to the current quiz or repeat steps 1 - 10 to add another quiz to the video.
  12. Click Save.

Preview and Publish

The quizzes will not be visible to students unless you publish the quiz. Prior to publishing it will continue to play as a normal Re/Play presentation.

  1. Before publishing you can preview how the recording will look for your students - Select Preview above the preview window.
  2. You can make edits to any element of the quiz prior to publishing.
  3. If you are happy select the green Publish button - you can unpublish at anytime.
  4. Select OK to confirm you are happy to switch to the quiz player.

You can now add the quiz video to any Blackboard content area.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Locate the video with the quiz and select the title
  3. Select View Analytics.
  4. Select Quiz from the options at the top.

The default settings on Re/Play prevent recordings from being downloaded. The UoB policy for recording educational activities protects staff copyright by blocking downloads of recorded lectures.

Before you and your students can download a video, you will need to make it downloadable. You can make a Vodcast (video version) and/or a Podcast (audio only version) downloadable.

  1. Locate the presentation and click on the title.
  2. Click Edit Details.
  3. Click Delivery and tick Vodcast (for video version) and/or Podcast (for audio only version).
    • (For Vodcast only): Click the box that says Select a Vodcast Project and choose all streams responsive.
  4. Click Save at the bottom of the screen.
  5. You will need to wait for the file to be created. Return to the Delivery tab periodically and look in the Vodcast/Podcast section: if it displays a URL ending in ".mp4" the video file is ready to download - ".mp3" for audio. The video may take approximately three-quarters the time of the presentation itself.
  6. When the URL is displayed, click Download to Computer at the bottom right of the screen and choose Download Vodcast/Podcast. You can also cut and paste the URL into a browser.
  7. Students can download the file by clicking the … icon at the bottom right of the Mediasite Player.

To disable downloads, go to the Delivery tab again and untick Vodcast/Podcast.

Caution

To add Re/Play content to Blackboard courses, use the approved method above.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to embed and click on the name.
  4. On the right-hand side, in the Who Can View section, adjust the slider to Everyone.
  5. From the right-hand menu select Share Presentation.
  6. Select Embed (below the share link).
  7. Select the Embed size (we recommend medium) and then Copy.
  8. Choose HTML mode in the editor for the external site
  9. Paste the code you just copied from Re/Play and save the item.

  1. Log on to Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Staff Tools.
  3. Locate the presentation you wish to embed and click on the name.
  4. On the right-hand side, in the Who Can View section, adjust the slider to Everyone.
  5. From the right-hand menu select Share Presentation.
  6. Under Quick Link choose Copy.
  7. The URL you have copied can be pasted into emails and elsewhere and should play back the presentation.

If you have uploaded videos on Replay, you can see how people have engaged with them.

  1. Log into Blackboard.
  2. Navigate to the Home page and click My Re/Play under Tools for Staff.
  3. Locate the video you are interested in.
  4. Under the video thumbnail, on the left, there is an eye icon. The number next to it shows the number of views the video has gotten. By itself, this number does not imply engagement, as it doesn't show how much of the video students have actually watched.
  5. If you want to see more information, click on the video thumbnail or its title.
  6. From the menu on the right, select View Analytics.
  7. The Dashboard tab contains various types of information about the video's views (they may take a few seconds to appear).
    Screenshot showing the dashboard of a lecture.
    • The Total Views graph will show you when your video has gotten views, or when it hasn't. Hovering over points in the graph will show you the exact number of views it got on that date.
    • Date of First View and Date of Last View show you when the video was first and last viewed.
    • Average Time Watched can give you a sense of how engaged students are with your video, if you compare it to the total duration of the video.
    • The Trends graph can show you which parts of your video students are focusing on the most and the least. This can give you an idea of which parts students may find more important, interesting, or difficult.
    • The Users table shows you the usernames of your viewers and how many times each one has viewed the video. Time watched will give you a sense of whether they actually watched it - if it's 0:00:00 they may not have watched any of it. Keep in mind this could be due to connection issues.
    • Top Browsers and Top Operating Systems pie charts show you statistics about the browsers and operating systems your video has been viewed in most often.
    • Clicking the Download Report button at the top right will give you a more detailed report in Excel or XML format. If you are simply trying to get a sense of whether your students are seeing the video, this report isn't necessary.
  8. The Who's Watching tab will display information about people that are watching your video at the exact time you are looking at this tab.