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Site Notes Module
Overview
Media files tend to be fairly large in size. Traditional download approaches mean than an entire media file must be downloaded before it can be played. OurTube makes use of streaming technology which enables the user to experience instant play of the media. This is true streaming not psuedo-streaming.
Some learning environments don't facilitate sharing of resources. OurTube categorises and tags all media items. These categories are broad LSC categories in the hope that users will experience a range of subject related media items. In other words, we wanted, for example, musicians to experience and be inspired by drama and dance media.
The web-based interface is ASP.NET. Additional customised software has been devised using VB.NET. It is the additional software (services and applets) which perform many of the background tasks needed for OurTube to operate the marshalling of source media files for transcoding and the handling of notifications.
Six servers work to house the web files, the database, the Flash Media Server and Sorensen Squeeze PowerPack x 3. The purpose of Squeeze is to take the uploaded media and transcode it into suitable formats i.e. Flash video, Windows Media, 3GP and MP4. This works in the background, automatically capturing each uploaded media file - all the background processing has been hand-coded by the e-learning development team. Each installation has a limit of 1500 automated transcodes per month enforced by the software vendor.
Flash Media Server (FMS) can stream media files in the .mp3 and .flv (flash video) formats.
Adobe Flash Action Script skills are required for deployment.
How to use this site
- Add to the site
- Promote a sense of sharing and community
- Rate and comment
- Use the embed code supplied to link to media in your VLE or website
- Download the MP4, WMV or 3GP formats and upload them to mobile devices
- Use the RSS feeds and iTunes links to share resources
Quality
Quality of video is adequate to good/very good and Sorensen does a good job of encoding. However, if you upload bad quality media you end up with bad quality media. We wanted to provide media that would (a) play in the web interface (b) enable users to embed the video in their own Moodle pages (c) enable users to link to a web page (d) provide customised RSS and iTunes feeds for deployment/linking (d) provide the media files for download for different mobile platforms (e) enable to majority of uploaded video to play fullscreen and, in all this, keep the file sizes reasonable without running out of disk space in the first six weeks! Further, the balance of managing all this within reasonable encoding times (converting user uploads to four formats - video and audio) and reasonable file sizes for download has been and will continue to be a fine juggling act. As time permits we will respond to user input and feedback, so please let us have your views by writing to eservices@themanchestercollege.ac.uk.
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