My Mediasite FAQ

My Mediasite is a video web portal that comes with a Desktop Recorder, replacing TechSmith Relay, that allows you to record your desktop to create screencasts and video lessons. My Mediasite will host these videos and has a Brightspace integration that allows you to embed video content directly within courses.

Log in to My Mediasite using your Algonquin College network credentials: https://mediasite.algonquincollege.com/mediasite/mymediasite
Alternatively, you can access My Mediasite via Tools in any Brightspace course.

If you have already created screencasts or video lessons in TechSmith Relay or using Zoom, you are able to upload these to My Mediasite in order to add some interactive elements to the videos (e.g. chapter markers, polls, quiz questions, time-stamped annotations). Please note that any material stored on the TechSmith web servers will be removed in the coming weeks, so you are strongly encouraged to recover your materials from there and move them to My Mediasite. 

Yes, the Mediasite Mosaic app allows you to create screen capture recordings with or without your webcam video being captured.

TechSmith Relay was the tool previously used for the individual creation of screencasts and video presentations. Please note that any material stored on the TechSmith web servers will be removed in the coming weeks, so you are strongly encouraged to recover your materials from there and move them to My Mediasite. 

Some faculty have been using Zoom to create lecture capture presentations. Those faculty are strongly encouraged to use My Mediasite for this purpose moving forward. 

You can download videos and presentations from wherever they are currently stored, log in to My Mediasite and use the upload video feature. This is intended for user generated content only (i.e. screencasts and videos that you have created).

You can provide links to students that will allow them to access your presentations directly in My Mediasite. You can also set up channels so that students are able to access everything posted within a channel. Students will need to log in to My Mediasite using their network credentials; they will be prompted to do so if using the links that you provide. 

You can also embed presentations within Brightspace, either by using Insert Stuff, in the text editor for Content or Announcements, or via the Tools menu items in the course navbar. 

Yes, My Mediasite is integrated in Brightspace allowing you to add My Mediasite presentations directly into your courses in one of two ways:

1. Using the Insert Stuff button, in the text editor for Content or Announcements.
2. Via the Tools menu item in the course navbar.
   

Once you have completed all necessary editing for your video, you are able to request the addition of closed captions. Closed captions are provided by a third party on request. You can request closed captions via the following steps:

1. In the My Mediasite portal, click on your presentation.
2. Go to Edit Details.
3. Click on the Delivery tab (underneath the video preview).
4. Check the box for Audio Transcriptions.
5. Select the option “Choose a Provider for Captioning”
6. Click where it says ‘Select a captioning profile’ and choose Automatic Captions.
7. Click Save.

Please note that if you check this box before completing your video edits, your request for captions will not be processed correctly.

Once the captions have been provided, you can view and edit them by clicking on Edit Captions after clicking on the presentation from the My Mediasite portal.

My Mediasite is intended as a portal for hosting your presentations. While you are able to download a zip file containing the edited files as a backup, please note that the servers are already backed up regularly. There is no way for you to download the edited presentation as a single mp4 file.

To download the zip file, go to Edit Details, navigate to the Delivery tab and select Publish To Go, save this, and then choose Download to Computer.

Once you have completed your recording, it will need a few moments to upload (do not turn off your computer for this part) and will then join the queue for processing on Mediasite. Videos are transcoded on a first come, first served basis and can take up to 24 hours before they are ready for editing.

Each time you complete a round of editing, the entire video needs to be transcoded again. While this should not take as long as the initial processing time, your video will be processed as part of a queue.

Presentations will be automatically removed after four semesters – one year, and an additional semester. This is so that you have the option to reuse a presentation from, for example, Fall 2020 again in the same course in Fall 2021 before having to update it for future use.

There is currently no limit in place. The College is currently monitoring the use of My Mediasite and will establish storage limits in the future if they become necessary.

My Mediasite is primarily intended for faculty and staff use. Students are able to log in to My Mediasite, download the MDR and create presentations, but please be aware that there is no dedicated support for this from the College. If you are asking your students to use the site, the expectation is that you will be supporting this use yourself.

The Mediasite Desktop Recorder (MDR) is compatible with older versions of MacOS or Windows. MacOS Catalina users will need to download and install Mediasite Mosaic from the App Store.

You will be able to find all of the key functionality from the MDR within one screen in Mediasite Mosaic. Here are some help guides from Mediasite.

You will need to ‘Activate’ the app via the My Mediasite portal – click on “Add Presentation”, then “More information” on the fourth tile, and then “Register”. This will open Mosaic and will then authenticate the app using your account details.