Digital teaching resources

Minerva. Leeds' teaching system - the student's first contact with the module module. Can be used to email students, return grades...

Lectures Video Recording Mediasite: live lectures are recorded onto this automatically. Here you can edit, (un)publish, download and manage the lecture video recordings. Lectures are recorded by default, you will be emailed a link after your lecture (to make it accessible click the padlock icon), otherwise they become accessible to your students after 72 hours (change this behaviour).

• It is possible (but not easy) to download the videos.
• Doesn't work behind GFW/China.
• Doesn't accept some video files, such as the default output by OBS.

Collaborate Ultra has never worked well for me. Students complained about bitrates for live streams. Sending slides down the video channel (which works well in every other streaming system) produced very poor results - required some custom slide setup which barfed when exposed to lots of video. Poor integration with desktop and China. Avoid if possible.

OBS Opensource software which allows you to combine multiple video source (powerpoint, video, screen capture, multiple cameras) and stream at the same time as recording (i.e. to upload to MS Stream).

• I ended up sidestepping the usability issues of Mediasite/uni-capture hardware. I use an approach which touches Leeds' infrastructure as little as possible:
  • record the live session using something like OBS (finer grain video and audio controls, higher framerates, better CDN, and resolutions over Mediasite)
  • host on MS Streams. (sign in with UoL account).
  • create a channel for your Teams group on MS Stream (better & faster encoding, better UI for students, AI subtitles, works in China)
  • upload the video to the new channel
  • check that the video is shared with the channel as "Display" and not "Owner" - otherwise the students can edit
  • add a link in the Minerva sidebar to the new channel (in place of the Mediasite one).
  • add a link in the Teams tabs (top of the chat) to the channel.
• The virtual cam addon allows you to add a virtual webcam to you pc - so Zoom/Teams can see the OBS output
• Here's an animated logo and regular official logo files
• I have to transcode the video saved by OBS before it would be accepted by Mediasite. IT aware and dismissed (INC0414157).

        ffmpeg -i "2020-09-28 08-57-35.mkv" -vcodec h264_nvenc out.mp4
        

The omnipresent MS Teams works as advertised, but becomes difficult with our class sizes.

• Computing sets up teams for first and second year tutorials, as well as all taught modules. You can use these lists to controll access to MS Stream groups and channels
• Add a big obvious link from your Minerva module to Teams channel if it is your chosen discussion channel.
• I ended up using links to Zoom chats to run tutorials so that I could avoid calling 400 students from the main module channel. Had to switch between Zoom (didn't work in India) and Teams (didn't always work into China) to talk to people in different countries.
• Having 400 students try to PM you is untenable. The "module chat" degraded into noise because Teams re-orders posts based on last-edited thread (so it is hard-to-impossible to ensure all questions are answered. Interface will jump whenver a new post is made (even if you are in the middle of replying to an earlier one).
• During Covid the school used Teams as both a phone service and student communication channel. This failed when all staff stopped leaving Team-on-by-default because they were swamped by undergrads.
• Integrates well with MS Stream and Forms.
• Next year I will try Yammer for teaching. This will hobble the social-interaction side, but will make dealing with student numbers manageable

Zoom is available for staff here. Click sign-in. I used this to run tutorials to avoid calling the entire MS Teams channel.

Useful Stream Channels with tutorials on tools and technology:

• TALENT Workshops.
• EPS Technology Training
• DES Minerva set up
• TIPS (Teaching Innovation and Practice in Student education)

Youtube downloader to embed youtube videos in slides etc... Make sure you have permission!

Gradescope. Useful tool for online exams/weekly pop-quizes, excellent smart exam grading UI (more automated/faster than Minerva).