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Kaltura - Alternatives for Media Recording, Hosting, and Sharing [UW-Madison]

This document describes temporary alternatives that can be considered if Kaltura MediaSpace is unavailable or does not meet your video needs.
Kaltura MediaSpace is the recommended tool for media hosting at UW-Madison. It is managed by the Learn@UW-Madison service, integrated with Canvas and supports captioning, which is critical to ensuring content is accessible for all learners. However, there are alternative UW-Madison enterprise tools that can be used for the following: 
  • Uploading and sharing a lecture, presentation, demonstration, screencast, etc. 
  • Uploading and hosting media for storage and sharing purposes 

Unlike other tools like YouTube, these enterprise tools have been vetted for privacy and security considerations by the university. Below are some instructions on how to use the alternative solutions if you encounter issues uploading media to Kaltura.

 
Closed captions (CC), accessibility, and accommodations: If you are considering temporarily switching to a different platform for media, consider the implications for any accommodation needs in your class. This is particularly important if you have a request for media captioning in your course, as the workflow options will change.

Webex and Zoom

Webex can be used as a temporary alternative to Kaltura if you need to record and then host media. It does not allow you to upload and share a video or audio file developed outside of the platform. In addition, the automated captioning is not editable to ensure accuracy. 

Webex not only delivers live online meetings, webinars, and lectures but it can also be used to record, save, and share content. Recordings in Webex are saved in Mp4 format and are saved for five years. Please note that when sharing recordings in Webex that you are always required to create a password that users will need to provide in order to access it. 

For information on how to record and share Webex sessions, please refer to Record a meeting on your computer and Share a Webex recording, from the Webex Help Center

Zoom is another recommended, temporary alternative that allows you to capture and share recordings. Recordings are saved in Mp4 format. For more information on using Zoom to record, please refer to this Starting a Cloud Recording guide from Zoom.

Canvas and Google Drive

Canvas and Google Drive are two recommended alternatives for uploading and sharing media files if Kaltura is not an option. Although Canvas allows instructors limited recording capabilities, Google Drive does not. Google Drive does offer a manual way to caption media whereas there’s no captioning ability in Canvas. 

To upload media to Canvas, you can either add it to a module or use the Rich Content Editor. The maximum file size for each uploaded media item is 500MB, but if you upload using this method the file will not count against your Canvas course storage quota. (Please note that if you upload media files to your Canvas Files area, the space will count against your Canvas course storage quota.) 

Google Drive is another option for uploading and sharing media. Media can be uploaded to Google Drive and then linked to in your Canvas course.

Getting help

For help with any of the tools described above, please contact the DoIT Help Desk.



Keywords:
kaltura, media, host, hosting, Canvas, share, stream, zoom, webex, youtube, google drive, Gsuite, outages, lecture capture, lectures, videos, video, multimedia, presentation, screencast, screen share, security 
Doc ID:
105722
Owned by:
Learn@UW Madison in Learn@UW-Madison
Created:
2020-09-09
Updated:
2024-01-30
Sites:
DoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW-Madison