The FCCN Unit's service for recording, editing and publishing educational videos integrates new features in the Video Manager and Editor.
After presenting a new HTML5 editor at the end of 2020, completely abandoning Flash technology, Educast has been implementing new features in its editor throughout this year. Since then, several improvements in accessibility and usability, namely through the inclusion of tooltips.
Likewise, it is now possible include customizable descriptions (through text formatting and inclusion of hyperlinks) and ensure the enrichment of metadata thanks to the inclusion of tags. “These new features bring new potential to the user, making it possible to provide additional information associated with each video”, explains the service manager, Nelson Schäller.
Another new feature regarding the Educast editor is related to the possibility of branding of the published videos, since it became possible to customize the input video (video pre-roll) and the banner for each video clip. This way, institutions that publish videos on Educast can customize them with their brand, explains Nelson Schäller: "This is a way to give greater prominence to institutions that use Educast, reinforcing their institutional image in the audiovisual content they create."
Educast Manager News
The new features don't stop with the video editor for this FCCN service. Educast Manager also presents presentation layout improvements of the video clip details (image and metadata), now also allowing the publishing a video without it being removed from the manager. On the other hand, a new presentation for the video boxes sharing and carried out accessibility improvements in the integration of iframes on external websites.
Another of the main new features of Gestor Educast is the creation of the possibility of reserved access via password to the content of a channel. Through this innovation, explains the Educast manager, it is now possible "restrict access to a group of users, via password, such as a class of students or a workgroup. The logic is to ensure controlled access to a channel's content.", reinforces Nelson Schäller.
Educast with new landing page in September
The opening of the new school year will bring with it another important milestone for Educast – the launch of a new landing page for this portal. This new page, launched during the month of September, will facilitate access to videos produced by the national academic and scientific community, with the main focus on improving content search on the platform, namely through the tag system.
The contents, moreover, will be more prominent in the new version of the landing page, reveals Nelson Schäller, adding that the new page will include “a dark mode and a look and feel more modern and bold”, and is also responsive on all smartphones, tablets and desktop devices.
In 2021, Educast records about 7,580 educational videos published, for a total of 446,394 minutes produced. Compared to 2020, there has been an increase in its use with 9,312 new users and 725 new channels created by these.
We would like to remind you that this service aims to provide the academic community with a platform dedicated to the production of audiovisual and multimedia content for educational and non-commercial purposes. It has been an essential tool throughout the pandemic, with the shift from in-person to online classes.
Its central system ensures the necessary post-processing so that recordings are available online in multiple formats: streaming, desktop, and mobile, which are increasingly used by everyone in their daily lives, thus keeping up with community trends.
Recorded classes can be easily integrated into e-Learning systems, portals, and websites of higher education institutions, and the videos are available through the portal to students and the general public.
To learn more about the Educast visit the FCCN website.
