Using Kaltura (My Media) for Video Recording, Storage, and Sharing

My Media is part of a suite of Kaltura video tools that can be used to add multimedia content to courses in Canvas. My Media is your personal library of everything you’ve created or collected with Kaltura video tools. Your My Media library can include media uploads, webcam recordings, Kaltura Capture recordings, Kaltura Video Quizzes, and curated YouTube videos. Content in My Media can be easily embedded into Canvas pages through the My Media (rainbow pinwheel) button on the Rich Content Editor’s toolbar.

Why Use My Media?

  • My Media enables you to create, upload, and publish videos without worrying about storage limits or quotas. Your use of My Media is essentially unlimited.
  • My Media is a place to store your videos that is university-controlled and advertisement-free.
  • My Media can allow you to limit access to your videos to only authenticated users in specific courses.
  • The associated Kaltura Capture application is an easy-to-use tool that you can use to make recordings that consist of computer screen capture, webcam video, and microphone audio–all at once or in any combination.
  • Videos in My Media can be quickly added to content items in Canvas and/or published to Course Galleries via integrated tools.
  • For accessibility, My Media adds free, editable machine-generated captions to your videos. Human-generated captions can also be ordered whenever you receive a notice of official accommodations from Student Accessibility Services.

Screenshot of the Kaltura video player with the closed captioning button highlighted

Accessing My Media From Canvas

There are two primary methods for accessing My Media from within Canvas:

  1. In the Global Navigation Menu that is located along the left-edge of the screen in Canvas, click Account to open up the Account menu, then click My Media.
  2. While editing a Canvas item with the Rich Content Editor, click the My Media (rainbow pinwheel) icon in the editor toolbar or click Tools > Apps > View All, then click My Media.

More information on accessing My Media and basic in-Canvas workflows can be found in the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura My Media and Canvas.

Adding Videos to My Media

There are five options for adding media to your My Media library. All of the options are accessed by clicking on the + Add New button in the My Media window.

The add new button in kaltura

Media Upload

Use the Media Upload option to upload any video or audio file from your computer to your My Media library. Please see the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura (Canvas) – Uploading Videos for instructions.

Webcam Recorder

The Webcam Recorder can be used to quickly make recordings consisting of your webcam video and microphone audio. The Webcam Recorder runs right in your internet browser and there is no software to download. After you have finished recording, you can upload the recording directly to your My Media library. Please see the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura – Recording Video with Webcam Recorder for instructions.

Kaltura Capture

Kaltura Capture is the robust video recording software tool that is integrated with My Media. It is the recommended tool for making screen capture recordings. Your recordings can include any combination of screen recording, webcam video, and audio–including all three at once. The Kaltura Capture software also has tools for creating screen annotations while recording. The first time you use Kaltura Capture on a computer, you’ll be guided through a software download and installation procedure that should only take a few minutes. You can find more information on using Kaltura Capture in the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura – Using the Kaltura Capture Desktop Recorder.

YouTube

The YouTube option allows you to list public YouTube videos as entries in your My Media library for quick access to frequently used YouTube videos. Adding YouTube videos to My Media will allow you to include them in Course Galleries and playlists. You can also use this feature to leverage Kaltura’s analytics feature to track the viewership statistics of a YouTube video shared and accessed as a My Media video. Please see the Kaltura Knowledge Center guide page Add a YouTube Video for more information on this feature.

Video Quiz

The Video Quiz feature allows you to take an existing video from your My Media library and turn it into an engaging, interactive video quiz with questions that interrupt video playback at specified times. Once you create a Video Quiz, it will show up as a separate entry in your My Media library and can be shared and embedded like any other video. For more information on the use and benefits of this feature, please see our resource page dedicated to this tool here: Video Quizzes.

For improved setup flexibility and more robust reporting, CATL recommends using PlayPosit to turn your My Media videos into interactive video quizzes instead of using My Media’s built-in Video Quiz feature.

Inserting My Media Videos in Canvas

After uploading your video to My Media, you can embed it into your Canvas course(s) in a few simple steps:

  1. Go to any Canvas Page, Assignment, Discussion, etc. which allows you to edit text. Click Edit or Reply to open the editing view.
  2. In the Rich Content Editor, click to position your text entry curser in the location where you would like your video to appear.
  3. In the Rich Content Editor’s toolbar, click the My Media icon.
    The button to add kaltura to a rich content area in Canvas
  4. A My Media window will open. Locate the desired video from the list of videos and click the corresponding </> Embed button.

For complete documentation on inserting My Media videos in Canvas, please see the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura – Inserting a Video in Canvas with the Rich Content Editor.

When embedding a My Media video in Canvas, you can click the gear icon in the My Media window to access advanced embed options to control the size of the player and customize whether the embedded video player allows downloads or includes the text transcript (for captioned videos). You can learn more about the advanced embed options in the KnowledgeBase guide Kaltura – Advanced Video Embed Options.

Accessing My Media From Outside of Canvas

There is a method for accessing My Media from outside of Canvas. You can login to the Kaltura Mediaspace at https://mediaspace.wisconsin.edu. Please see the guide Kaltura – Mediaspace Service Overview for instructions on logging in. The My Media link can be found in a menu that is opened by clicking on your name in the top-right corner of the screen after logging in. The options for adding new media to your library are accessed by clicking the + ADD NEW link that is located next to your name.

My Media videos can be freely shared outside of Canvas by following the instructions in the guide Kaltura – Getting a Shareable Link for a My Media Video to copy a link to your video that can work for anyone.