My VR Spot: TCS s New Video Management System

Transcription

1 URL for this tutorial My VR Spot: TCS s New Video Management System User Guide compiled & created by Cathy Zandecki and Vera Cubero What is my VR Spot? This is an overview of the system copied from their webpage: The online solution provides administrators, teachers and students a place to upload, share, archive, and collaborate on their various digital files including; videos, images, audio files, documents, and more. Uploaded content to your MyVRSpot account can be shared with other users within the school or district, and as such, becomes a part of the district's new and ever expanding digital repository. The MyVRSpot system is designed as a closed network environment, making sure that the district always has complete control over how uploaded content is shared. This is a graphic, also from their website, explaining how My VR Spot works: This is a link to the MyVRSpot Video Walkthrough video which demonstrates all the features in less than 5 minutes: MyVRSpot Video Walkthrough Using myvrspot is easy and there are several great short tutorial videos on the site under the Help tab. This document also has some instructions for a few of the basic functions you will need to know.

2 Session 1- Introducing MyVRSpot Session 1 Learning Objectives: Session 1 will feature the webinar video in the featured section of My VR Spot called My VRSpot Webinar. This 30 minute video will enable you to do all of the following Understand the purpose and functionality of My VR Spot navigate the home page login and change password and profile image set notifications for your videos upload media (videos, audio files, images, & documents) from your computer or from a URL add bookmarks and discussion to videos categorize videos and add trackers create folders to organize content manage video settings create groups and have students join them For consistency, please name your groups according to these naming conventions Middle and High School- Year-long classes- Teacher name, class block, year ex-- Jones Block Quarter or Semester-long classes- Teacher name, class block, qtr/sem, year ex-- Jones Block 1 Spring 2014 Elementary- Teacher Name, grade, year (subject optional) ex-- Jones 5th Grade adjust group settings (privacy etc) share content with groups approve pending media embed media from My VR Spot into Moodle or other web pages

3 After the introduction Please refer to these how to s and take advantage of the quick tutorial videos in the help tab of MyVRSpot. As always, contact us if you still need help! I. Accessing Transylvania County s MyVR Spot System To access Transylvania County s my VR Spot system go to Your log in will be your tcs username (first part of address) and Your password when you first log in will be changeme. Directions on how to change it follow Students logins will be their usernames (grad year, first initial, last name) and their passwords will be their student number and initials II. Change your password in MyVR Spot 1. Click My Account on left 2. Type in new password and verify password 3. Click Update at bottom III. Creating Groups in MyVR Spot Click My Groups and then +Create a Group Name the group and set access (Open to all or Approval to Join) Upload an icon if you like and save HINT: FAST and EASY way to enroll students in your groups: Start by setting at Open to All and have students join your group by clicking Search for groups After students have enrolled, open group, click settings and change to Approval to Join IV. Adding students to your groups in MyVR Spot If you need to add students later, you can add students individually by following these steps: 1. Click the name of the group 2. Click the 4th tab manage members 3. Type the student s name and click search 4. When the student appears in pop up click their name and click submit 5. Repeat for all students you need to add to group

4 V. Uploading Videos in MyVR Spot 1. To upload a video to your account, click on the "Upload" icon on the left side menu. 2. Then, click the "Select a File" box and locate your file. 3. Once your file appears listed on the screen, click "Continue." You'll then be taken to a form to fill out. Not all fields are required. 4. You may upload a video from your computer or from a URL by pasting the URL in the field labeled Paste URL here NOTE when uploading YouTube videos, it is recommended to use the URL from the URL line rather than the one provided when clicking the share button NOTE My VR Spot strips the code of the video so that it will not be blocked by our filter, allowing You Tube etc to be viewed by students on the MyVRSpot website, embedded in Moodle, etc. All types of video files are supported. Below is an explanation of the different fields: Content Details Title: This is the only required field. Please do not use any special characters in this field or it won t save. Description: A description is recommended for your video and can be however long you desire. Please do not use any special characters in this field or it won t save. Folder: You can add your video to any folders you've created for better organization. High Definition: If your video was shot in HD and you wish to preserve the quality of the video, you can check this box. Please note that HD videos may take longer to process and will use more of your allowed storage. Video Tracker: Teachers and above can assign a video tracker to their video by checking this box. Then, you can generate customized reports to determine which users watched your video and how long they watched it for. This is an excellent tool for a classroom teacher or for Professional Development Content. Permissions: This menu has to do with visibility of your content. Additional Fields Tags: Tags are keywords or phrases used to describe your video. Tags are helpful for narrowing down search criteria. For example, if I was uploading a video on "Aristotle," I could use the tag of philosophy. Related Content: If you want users to look elsewhere after viewing your video, perhaps referencing textbook pages, this is a good place to do that. Related Websites: Add any related websites to this field. Once you've filled out the form, click "Submit"

5 After the video has uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message and will be redirected to your home page. A green processing icon will appear under your "Gallery" tab as a placeholder until your video has been converted to an MP4 format. Once the video is processed (which can take up to 30 minutes), the green processing icon will be replaced with your video. Assessment Related Fields Grade Level: Grade levels can be added to your video to specify what grade that subject aligns to. This might help when other users in your district are searching for videos that are only related to a specific age. Standards: Currently, the Common Core Standards and NETS are built in. You can navigate down the drop down menus to find a standard that aligns to the content that you are uploading. Once you've filled out the form, click "Submit" After the video has uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message and will be redirected to your home page. A green processing icon will appear under your "Gallery" tab as a placeholder until your video has been converted to an MP4 format. Once the video is processed (which can take up to 30 minutes), the green processing icon will be replaced with your video. VI. Uploading Images & Audio to My VR Spot To upload an image or an audio track to your account, click on the "Upload" icon on the left side menu. Then, click the "Select a File" box and locate your image. Once your file appears listed on the screen, click "Continue." You'll then be taken to a form to fill out. Not all fields are required. Below is an explanation of the different fields: Content Details Title: This is the only required field. Please do not use any special characters in this field. Description: A description is recommended for your video. There is no character limit. Folder: You can add your image to any folders you've created for better organization. Permissions: This menu has to do with visibility of your content. For more information on these permission levels,click here. Once you've filled out the form, click "Submit"

6 After the image has been uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message and will be redirected to your home page. Your image will then appear under your "My Gallery tab of your home page. JPEG, GIF, PNG, JPG, and more image files are supported. MP3 audio files are supported. Additional Fields Tags: Tags are keywords or phrases used to describe your image. Tags are helpful for narrowing down search criteria. For example, if I was uploading a picture of "Aristotle," I could use the tag of philosophy. Related Content: If you want users to look elsewhere after viewing your image, perhaps referencing textbook pages, this is a good place to do that. Related Websites: Add any related websites to this field. Once you've filled out the form, click "Submit" After the image has been uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message and will be redirected to your home page. Your image will then appear under your "My Gallery tab of your home page. Assessment Related Fields Grade Level: Grade levels can be added to your image to specify what grade that subject aligns to. This might help when other users in your district are searching for images that are only related to a specific grade. Standards: Currently, the Common Core Standards and NETS are built in. You can navigate down the drop down menus to add a standard. Once you've filled out the form, click "Submit" After the image has been uploaded, you will receive a confirmation message and will be redirected to your home page. Your image will then appear under your "My Gallery tab of your home page.

7 Session 2 My VR Spot as a media creation tool Session 2 Objectives: Learn My VR Spot: Media Spot Media Spot is a project creation portal within My VR Spot. It allows the user to create a pre formatted project using media in his or her gallery and pull the media into an editable template. Currently, there are 4 project templates from which to to choose. While the choices and design capabilities are somewhat limited, this could be a great time saving option for teachers to create informational materials to share with students or for students to create multi media research projects without having to take time to format and create templates in some other program. In order to use the Media Spot, media must first be uploaded into the user s gallery. Once media is uploaded, the user chooses one of the four templates that will best suit his or her needs. Each has a summary of what media can be included below it. Note while these choices can be lessened by deleting the space for an image, video, etc, there is currently no way to add more of a certain type of media to a template. Step 1 Select Media Spot from the left side menu. Select the appropriate template.

8 Step 2 Add your media from the gallery and edit text as desired When clicking the pencil icon next to a certain type of media, a box will open with all of that type of media in your gallery available. Select the desired item and click the save icon in the upper right corner to add it to your project.

9 Clicking the pencil icon next to a text box brings up this simple text editing toolbox. Add your text and format it as desired. Note that you can add links to other URL s by clicking the link icon. Note that you can access the html code. If you are proficient at editing code, this would allow you more flexibility in formatting. If you are not proficient at coding, it is best not to mess with this. Step 5 Use the menu on the left to Give the project a title & description, edit the template color, background color, text color etc, set expiration date if desired, and set permissions (private, password protected, or public)

10 VERY IMPORTANT TIP for our Google Apps students who are not accustomed to saving their work they MUST click save as new (first time only) or Save and Close before closing the editing window (or even hitting back button) or they will lose their work. This will add the project to the user s gallery where he or she can then continue editing it at a later time. My VR Spot: Multi media Workspot The Multimedia Workspot within My VR Spot is a place to upload media that you intend to edit before publishing to your gallery. You can create mashups by adding audio, video, images, text, effects, transitions, and themes. This is essentially a simple video creation tool. However, at this time, you can not pull media from your gallery or from a URL. You must have the media stored on your computer and upload it directly into the Multimedia Workspot to edit it or include it in a video or mashup. Hopefully, this may change in the near future.