What are the advantages of using Kaltura to host my course content?

Advantages of using Kaltura for students accessing course content

1. Providing all content on bCourses makes it easier for students to find course videos.
   
   • Students do not need to reference an external link that can be easily forgotten or lost; all videos are on the bCourses site.
   • Videos in the Media Gallery are only for a specific class for a semester. Students will not get confused about which videos were assigned to them, as opposed to YouTube where content is not separated by years.
   • Videos can be watched in succession more easily with playlists rather than a list of links to scroll through or video files to download.
2. Kaltura videos are all within bCourses, leading to fewer login and/or permission errors than unlisted YouTube videos or other external locations of videos.
3. Students can search through video transcripts (and, if you add them, through Chapters and slides) to easily jump to the parts of the lecture they did not understand.
4. Incorporating Kaltura videos in bCourses modules makes assignment instructions more clear (e.g. students understand that they are to watch a video first before completing a worksheet), as opposed to just having a video file and a worksheet pdf in the same folder.

Advantages of using Kaltura for instructors sharing video course content

The Zoom to Kaltura integration

The Zoom to Kaltura integration automatically copies all UC Berkeley Zoom Cloud recordings for all users who have enabled the integration to the user's My Media. (This is particularly valuable since Zoom retains Cloud recordings for only 30 days.)

Through this integration, instructors can share Zoom meetings recorded to the Cloud without having to download video files locally and re-upload them.

Please see How do I enable the Zoom to Kaltura integration” to learn how to enable the integration, and FAQs about the Zoom to Kaltura integration for more information.

Access to a video editor in browser

The Kaltura video editor allows users to edit their Kaltura videos within bCourses without downloading any software. The editor, while limited, supports removing parts of a video, changing the starts and end times, and adding fade in and out effects.

Please see How do I use the Kaltura video editor? for more information on the Kaltura video editor.

Please note that the editor cannot be used on YouTube videos added to Kaltura (as described in How do I Add YouTube Video Links to My Media?)

Easily embed Kaltura media in bCourses using the Rich Content Editor

Media in Kaltura can be easily embedded anywhere on any of your bCourses sites where the Rich Content Editor is available.

For more information, see How do I embed Kaltura media in bCourses using the Rich Content Editor? 

Embed Kaltura videos as module items

Kaltura videos can be incorporated into bCourses Modules by either embedding them onto a page or adding the video as a module item by itself. This allows you to sequence video viewing activities with other course activities. 

See How do I share Kaltura media in a bCourses Module? for more information.

Add time-based metadata to your videos to help viewers get to specific content

There are a number of mechanisms you can use to make your video content more finely navigable and searchable: you can add Chapters that allow users to jump to specific segments of your video, as well as additional time-based metadata (from slide content or manually added text) that can be found via Kaltura's search feature. For more about the ways in which you can do this, see How do I add chapters to my Kaltura videos?

In-Depth video analytics designed for educational videos

Every published Kaltura video has an in-depth video analytics page which summarizes data about both viewers as a whole and individual viewers, allowing you to gauge how much your class in interacting with your course video content. You can also get analytics on your Media Gallery as a whole.

For more information on Kaltura Analytics, see How do I use Analytics for my Kaltura media or for a bCourses site Media Gallery?

Campus contract and campus support

The campus has a contract with Kaltura and we are committed to supporting it. (YouTube, in contrast, is a Google Consumer App, which is governed by a contract between you and Google, which campus does not support. For more info, see the bConnected page, Consumer apps and Add-ons.)

Also, the Security Office has reviewed and approved Kaltura to hold P3 (FERPA-protected) data, unlike YouTube. See the Data Classification Standard for more information about campus data classification levels.