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Canvas and the Kaltura Streaming Media Collection

Posted on by Gray, David
Kaltura Logo

For this installment of “How to Canvas” let’s go though the process of adding a piece of media from the Palomar Kaltura streaming media system onto a page within your Canvas course.

First off, to be clear, this “Kaltura Streaming Media Collection” refers to the shared repository of videos which have been requested by faculty for use (under the auspices of the TEACH Act), and in many cases these videos were created thanks to individual faculty donating their media to Palomar for this use. (If there are titles that YOU would like to request, this can be done online at the ATRC Streaming Media page.) If instead you have a video file you wish to add for your own use, the Canvas Streaming Media Upload post may be useful.

To begin adding the video, go to the Edit screen for a Page (though this also works in Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions; anywhere you have the Rich Text Editor).

  1. On the second toolbar at the top of the rich text editor, use the More External Tools menu (visually this is the light blue down-pointing chevron button).
    Showing the "More External Tools" menu button, with the "Embed Kaltura Media" option pointed out
  2. Select the Embed Kaltura Media entry, and on the resulting screen choose the Shared Repository link.
    Screen showing the Shared Repository link, the Search box, and Select button to choose a piece of media
  3. After a short wait you should have a listing of videos, though not in any particular order. To find the specific video you want, use the Search Media box, type in the full name of the video, and hit Enter.
  4. Use the Select button, and a moment later you will return to the edit screen, with a video embedded into the rich text editor.
  5. At this point you can save (or save and publish) the page. Only then can you test the video, since it will NOT play back while you are on the edit screen.

If you aren’t looking for a specific video from the shared repository, and just want to browse the titles, I’m sorry to say there is no better method than scrolling through the list of all videos. (Well, random searches, I suppose, but that’s not what I’d call a GOOD method.) On the other hand, if you are looking for a particular kind of video, but don’t have a specific title in mind, this might be a good chance to contact a Librarian for Reference Help and work with somebody to see if the extensive Palomar Library database collection might already contain what you’re looking for!