Kaltura Guide for Faculty
Kaltura is a tool that you and your students can use to record, store, and share audio and video. It’s fully integrated with Brightspace and supported by the University of Maine system. This page will help guide you through the basics of using Kaltura from within Brightspace.
Need additional assistance or not sure where to start? Contact the Center for Technology Enhance Learning (CTEL) at ctelhelp@maine.edu.
Contents
What can I do with Kaltura?
Both you and your students have full access to Kaltura, so you can use it to create audio and video clips to share with your students, plus you can have your students use it to create media as part of an assignment.
Lecture Capture
Record videos of yourself delivering lectures or giving feedback or updates.
Podcasting
Record podcasts as lectures or have students create them as an assignment.
Screencasting
Record tutorials, narrate presentations, or give a “tour” of your course site.
How does Kaltura Work?
Kaltura is integrated with Brightspace. You can access it in any course by clicking the Tools link on the Course Navbar and selecting My Media. Also, you can log in to your Kaltura account at video.maine.edu using your maine.edu credentials.
Kaltura has three main components that you can use to add audio and video to your Brightspace course.
My Media allows you to access, add, edit, and share media in your Kaltura account. Also, if you’ve already created video or audio files for your students, you can upload them to My Media for easier sharing within your courses.
Kaltura Personal Capture is Kaltura’s desktop recorder. It allows you to record new audio and video files from your computer and/or capture documents or websites open on your desktop.
How do I start using Kaltura?
These tutorials cover the basics of accessing Kaltura and creating, adding, and sharing media in your Brightspace courses and other parts of the web.
Accessing Kaltura
Kaltura can be accessed directly from the nav bar in Brightspace. To find it,
Log in to your Brightspace account. The system’s home page will be displayed.
On the nav bar, look for "My Media"
If you're in a course's page, click on "Tools," and then My Media will appear in the drop down menu
Click the My Media link to open a list of videos you've uploaded to Kaltura.
Adding Media to Kaltura
If you have media files on your computer, you can upload them to Kaltura, or you can use it to record new video or audio. To get started with either task,
Click the Add New button on the My Media page. Its dropdown menu will open.
Select one of these options:
a. Media Upload: Add media files to Kaltura (i.e., ones you have saved on your computer).
b. Kaltura Personal Capture: Create new video or audio files using Kaltura Capture. Once you’ve finished creating new media, Kaltura will upload it directly to your My Media account.
c. YouTube: Add YouTube videos to your collection of media by selecting this option and entering the URL of the video.
Install Kaltura Personal Capture
Kaltura Personal Capture is Kaltura’s application for recording video or audio. To install it,
Go to Kaltura’s My Media tool.
Click the Add New button.
Select Kaltura Personal Capture from the dropdown menu.
If Kaltura Personal Capture has not already been set up on your computer, you’ll automatically be taken to a page to download and install it. Once you’ve installed Kaltura Personal Capture, it’ll open automatically whenever you select it in the Add New menu’s options.
NOTE: If you are unable to install Kaltura Capture on your computer, contact the Technology Support Center at 1-800-696-4357 or support@maine.edu.
Installing Kaltura Personal Captpure
Creating Your First Recording
This short video from Kaltura walks you through the basics of recording a video using Kaltura Capture and uploading it to your My Media account.
If you want to create a podcast (i.e., an audio recording) instead of a video or screencast, the process is nearly the same. Just select the Voice option when Kaltura Capture (rather than Screen or Webcam).
You can view this video and many others on the Kaltura Learning website.
Note: Zoom Cloud recordings are automatically copied to Kaltura, and can be found in "My Media." More information on this can be found in our Zoom guide.
NOTE: If the video's Full Screen button doesn't work, try this alternate link: Kaltura Capture Tutorial.
Adding Video and Audio to Your Course
This video demonstrates how to add media to your Brightspace course. It shows several methods, including embedding YouTube videos, and how to add video and audio you’ve added to Kaltura’s My Media tool.
See the following link for text instructions on using the Existing Activities button in Brightspace to embed Kaltura video in your course
Embed Kaltura Media on the Web
Kaltura provides you with unique HTML code (called an “embed code”) for each of your media files, which allows you to embed it in other parts of the web, like Google Sites, webpages, social media posts, etc. To find the embed code for one of your media files in Kaltura,
Click on My Media in the nav bar of your Brightspace homepage. If within a course, you'll first need to click on Tools in the nav bar, then click My Media in the drop-down menu.
Click the thumbnail of the video you would like to embed. The video’s information page will open.
Click the Share tab. It’s below the video, so you might need to scroll to the bottom of the page to find it. (If your browser window is small, the tabs will instead appear in a dropdown menu under the “Details” button.)
Copy the text that appears in the “Embed” textbox. This is your embed code; it starts and ends with “<iframe”.
Paste the embed code into the new site where you want your media to be viewable.
Note: Different sites manage embed code in different ways. If your media doesn’t appear in a site after you paste your embed code from Kaltura, check its user guide for help.
STEPS 3 & 4: FINDING THE EMBED CODE FOR A VIDEO OR PODCAST IN KALTURA
Edit Captions in Kaltura
Captions can be added/edited in Kaltura all from within Brightspace. The following instructions will walk you through this process:
Record your video or audio (and follow your script as closely as possible).
Upload your completed video or audio to the My Media tool in Brightspace (or at video.maine.edu). After your file is uploaded, Kaltura will add machine captions to the media (usually within 90 minutes). A “captioning complete” tag will appear on your media when the captioning process is done.
Click the pencil icon to the right of the video’s title in My Media once your video has been captioned. A page with the video’s editing options will open.
Click the Captions tab to show the list of caption files available for your video.
Click the Edit Captions button to open the Closed Caption Editor. A list of your video’s captions will appear in its left column, and the video will appear in its right column.
Examine the captions in the left column, and make corrections to the text and timing as appropriate. You can also copy and paste text from your script if you have one.
Use the Find and Replace fields above the left-hand column to quickly fix reoccurring errors in your captions.
Click the Save button when you’re finished editing your captions. It’ll appear above the captions column once you’ve made changes.
Click the Back link on the top-right side of the page to return to your video’s editing options page, or click your name in the top-right menu to navigate back to your My Media page.
Caveats
Videos imported into Kaltura using the YouTube import tool do not get machine captions; however, if the video has captions in YouTube, they will be viewable in Kaltura’s player as well.
Trimming & Saving Zoom or Kaltura Videos
The following will walk you through editing a Zoom or Kaltura video to change the length. In the instructions, I will use an example in which I have a 30 minute video, and I'd like to delete the last 2 minutes of it.
Click on My Media from the navbar in Brightspace. If you don't see "My Media," click on "Tools" in the navbar, and My Media will be in the drop-down menu. This will load all your Kaltura videos, including Zoom video recordings.
Once you find the video you'd like to edit, click on the little pencil icon to the right of the video to edit it.
Once on the next page, click on the blue "Launch Editor" button on the right side of the video. In here, you can see a timeline of the video.
Click a spot in that timeline where you'd like to make the cut. Let's say you want to delete the last 2 minutes of a 30 minute video. Click to 28 minutes in.
Right above the spot you clicked, you'll see a little scissors icon. Click this to "split" the video in that spot. Following the example above, now you will have a 28 minute clip, and a 2 minute clip.
Click on the clip you'd like to remove, and click the little trash can icon (this can be found just above the video timeline on the left side). Continuing with the example, you would click the 2 minute clip, and then click on the little trash can icon (this can be found just above the video timeline on the left side). You've now deleted the last 2 minutes of your video!
Now be sure to save your work by either clicking the "Save" button in the upper right, or the blue "Save a Copy" button right next to the save button.
Note: The save button will permanently save the edit you made to that video. The Save a Copy button will save a new copy of the video with the changes you've made, as well as keep the original, unedited video intact. I recommend "Save a Copy" if you want to play it safe, you'll just have to be able to distinguish between the newly edited copy, and the original.
Want to turn your Kaltura video into an interactive quiz?
You can add multiple choice questions at specific points in a video to create a quiz. To do this, Go to My Media, click the Add New button and select Video Quiz. Once students take the quiz, it will be automatically graded, and their scores will be added to your course’s Grade Center.
Where can I learn more about Kaltura?
Kaltura provides a wealth of online information that you can consult if you want to learn more about its features. You can also meet with one of CTEL’s learning designers if you’d like more personalized assistance.
Visit the Kaltura Learning site to view a series of short videos on its features.
If you prefer reading text tutorials, visit the Kaltura Knowledge site.
Visit Kaltura’s Privacy Notices page to learn how it manages users’ data.
Visit Kaltura’s Video Accessibility page to review features for diverse users.