How Can I Share My Video?
About Video Delivery
So, you just created a video that you would like others to view. There are a few questions you should ask yourself to determine the best way of making this happen.
Should it be publicly available on the internet?
If the answer is yes, then we can upload the video file to a video delivery platform and provide you a link or embed code to post to your website, facebook, twitter, etc., or email out.
If the answer is no, it should be more restricted than publicly available (and potentially sharable), consider what the the restrictions should be.
- If it only needs to viewed by a small group of people, the link can be emailed to individuals.
- Remember that this email can also be shared to others by the original recipients, so if there is sensitive content that should be restricted to the original group, consider adding a note to the original email to the effect that they shouldn't share the link; an unpublish date can also be set for the video so if it does get shared, there is a date after which it will no longer be viewable
- A password can also be set for the video, but a password can also be shared.
- If the video can be publicly available on your website, but you don't want it posted elsewhere, we can provided an embed code that will ensure that it cannot be posted on a domain outside of yours (eg, we can lock it down to utoronto.ca).
- If the video is for a course, we can add it to the Elentra course and only those enrolled in the course can view it. Course videos in Elentra are downloadable, but students have been made aware that any downloads are for their own use and are not be shared.
Delivery Platforms
Unless a video is very small (in terms of Mb), a video delivery platform is required to host the video and make it available for viewing by others.
MedIT manages three platforms for videos associated with the Temerty Faculty of Medicine: Stream, Vimeo and Panopto. We can add your video to the appropriate delivery platform and provide you the embed code or link.
Stream, which is part of the O365 suite, was used for MD Program videos from August, 2019 to December, 2021. Changes to and ongoing issues with that platform necessitated a change, and as of December 2021, MD Program videos are going onto Panopto. (Older MD Program videos remain, and can continue to be viewed, on Stream.) Panopto integrates with Elentra, so that when a video is added to an Elentra course, anyone enrolled in that course can view the video. Vimeo is our platform for TFoM videos that are not associated with an MD Program course. Vimeo also provides a review function: clients can comment on the video while it is in the editing stage.
Youtube is used by some departments in TFoM. If Youtube is the platform of choice, MedIT will provide the video file, and the client uploads to Youtube, copies the link or embed code, and manages the settings.
Links vs Embeds
Both links and embed codes will provide access to the video; however, there are times when one is more appropriate than the other.
A link is usually used when only text (as opposed to code) can be added, such as in an email. This is an example of a link to a video in Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/339377939; as you see, it is only text, and gives no indication of the video content, duration, etc. Clicking the link takes one to the video platform to view the video.
An embed code is used in websites; it can show an image (thumbnail) from the video, the duration, title, etc. Below is an example of adding an embed code to a website. If desired, the size of the video on the page can be adjusted, and it will respond depending the device used (ie, phone, tablet, PC, etc). Videos embedded in sites can be viewed on the site in the size provided, or can be enlarged to fill your screen.