Hi,
Does anyone have any advice about the best way to put video into an Evolve course that’s going to be delivered via LMS?
My strong hunch is that I should always be using Video Stream to embed media from a dedicated video server. Using Media means putting a video file into a SCORM and then serving that from the LMS, and I can’t see how that’s going to stream the video efficiently.
But maybe my understanding is out of date? Does it actually make any difference?
thanks
So long as you encode your video appropriately for the target audience it should be fine. The main advantage you get from using a streaming service is that they have advanced functionality such as the ability to be able to serve up different versions of the same video based on the end user’s bandwidth.
One common point of confusion with MP4 video is that people often think that because the overall file size is quite large this will impact the end-user, but that’s not the case. The file size is basically irrelevant, the key thing to look at is the is the ‘bit rate’ (sometimes called ‘data rate’). MP4 files make use of something called ‘progressive download’ which means it will download as it plays - so as long as the video’s bit rate is less than their total available bandwidth, it will play back without issue. So let’s say I’m assuming all users will have a minimum connection speed of 1Mbps I would encode my video to a total bit rate of 800Kbps.
I’ve used both. I prefer to embed my videos, but our LMS provider has a max size limitation for a course and embedding a bunch of videos can get me close to that limit pretty fast. So for courses that I know might have a lot of video, I tend to use streaming. Quality and performance aren’t noticeably affected. Though I agree with the previous comment about a streaming site being able to auto adjust based on the user’s bandwidth. That’s a potential big benefit.
Host videos elsewhere, e.g., Vimeo, YouTube, etc., use the Video Stream component, select the supported Streaming Service, and then paste in the Streaming Service Embed Code.
This reduces the overall size of the SCORM file and maintains high-quality videos for users when they reach each of the Video Stream components in the course. It also maintains the video controls from each of the supported Streaming Services, e.g., Volume, Quality, Speed, and possibly CC/Subtitles and/or Transcript (if you have made them available for your videos on the supported Streaming Service site).
Positives are smaller SCORM file size for you, and better quality video and video controls for the learner. Negative is that you might have to pay for a license to host videos on whichever supported Streaming Service you choose.