ShareStream Unveils New Video Building Block for the Blackboard Learn Platform

Latest Release of ShareStream’s Blackboard Building Blocks™ and Video Platform for Education Includes Integration with the Blackboard Learn™ Assignment Tool and Enhanced Support for Third-Party Lecture Capture Files

 

April 17, 2012 07:14 AM Eastern Daylight Time

 

GAITHERSBURG, Md.–ShareStream, provider of the ShareStream Media Platform, a leading video solution for education, announced today the availability of a new Video Building Block for Blackboard Learn 9.1. ShareStream’s Video Building Blocks provide educational institutions with an easy-to-use video solution for teaching and learning that is available seamlessly within the Blackboard Learn platform. Utilizing ShareStream’s new Video Building Block, faculty, staff and students (if granted the required privileges) are able to easily upload video; perform online video editing; tag content with metadata; submit video assignments for assessment; search and browse course media collections for the courses in which they are enrolled; and deliver rich media securely via a robust and scalable video streaming server.

 

ShareStream Video Building Blocks are compatible with Blackboard Learn 9.1 as well as earlier versions of Blackboard Learn. ShareStream is available as a software solution installed on a campus server, or as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution with secure video hosting, offsite media storage, and video streaming services.

 

ShareStream, a Blackboard Signature Partner™, designed and implemented the new Video Building Block to provide ShareStream and Blackboard customers with a tightly integrated and state-of-the-art video solution for instructional technology. As with previous releases of ShareStream’s Video Building Blocks, the new Building Block provides API-level integration with the Blackboard Learn platform, as well as single sign-on complete with role-mapping between Blackboard Learn and the ShareStream Video Platform.

 

Building Block integration points between the ShareStream Video Platform and the Blackboard Learn platform include:

 

Pick-n-Play™, the faculty and student-facing application of the ShareStream Video Platform for Education:
Pick-n-Play provides nontechnical end-users with an easy-to-use video application for uploading, tagging, browsing, playing and searching for media. Pick-n-Play, which is available directly from Blackboard Learn, includes ShareStream’s Media Dropbox for User-Generated Content and the “My Workspace” Media Page, a personal media gallery and video repository for faculty and, if assigned the required privileges, for students and administrators.

 

MediaManager and MediaMigrator, the core administrative components of the ShareStream Media Platform:
MediaManager, ShareStream’s video content management system, and MediaMigrator, an application that automates batch video uploads and provides automated server-side transcoding, are both seamlessly accessible from Blackboard Learn.

 

ShareStream’s Video Mashup Tool for Blackboard Learn:
ShareStream’s Mashup Tool, which leverages ShareStream’s open web service API, provides faculty with an easy-to-use tool for searching for, browsing and adding ShareStream media to Blackboard course pages directly from the “Content” tool in Blackboard Learn.

 

Some of the new features included in ShareStream’s latest Video Building Block are:

 

Integration with the Blackboard Learn Assignment Tool for Student-submitted Media:
Instructors are now able to create video assignments in their Blackboard Learn courses, and students can easily upload and submit videos to instructors for assessment.

 

Integration with the Blackboard Learn Grade Center:
ShareStream student-media submissions are also tied to the Blackboard Grade Center. When students utilize ShareStream services to submit video assignments, their media submissions populate in the Blackboard Learn Grade Center.

 

New Features for ShareStream’s Video Mashup Tool for Blackboard Learn:
The new Building Block includes multiple enhancements to ShareStream’s Media Mashup Tool. For example, the new Mashup Tool provides enhanced content-filtering options for efficient searching, browsing and publishing of ShareStream media collections directly from Blackboard Learn.

 

Enhanced Support for Ingesting Lecture Capture Files Generated from Third-Party Capture Solutions:
The new ShareStream Building Block includes new backend capabilities that facilitate the ingestion and playback of special, composite media file types, such as files generated by third-party lecture-capture solutions.

 

In addition to providing a solution for instructional media, ShareStream provides the educational-technology community with a campus-wide video platform that services a wide variety of user groups and departments across campuses.

 

Some of the most common use cases for ShareStream include:

 

— Enabling library staff to centrally store, manage, and preserve media collections and reserves through ShareStream’s digital asset management software

 

— Empowering distance-learning programs to better cater to the lifestyles and learning preferences of remote and hybrid learners by providing cutting-edge media management and video streaming services

 

— Providing higher education’s marketing and communications groups with an online video marketing solution and media publishing tool for universities’ and colleges’ public web presences.

 

About ShareStream:

 

ShareStream provides secure, enterprise-wide rich-media management platforms and online video solutions designed specifically for the unique needs of educational institutions. The ShareStream Media Platform for Education, developed in collaboration with higher education at Georgetown University, provides educational institutions with the technological tools specific to their workflow to allow them to operate as state-of-the-art educational media organizations to achieve the maximum benefit from their content, on campus and beyond. For more information, please visit www.sharestream.com or follow ShareStream on Twitter at @ShareStreamVid to receive the latest company updates.

 

Blackboard, the Blackboard Alliance Program, the Blackboard Developers Network, and Blackboard Building Blocks are the trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. All rights reserved.

 

Contacts
ShareStream
Gayraud Townsend, 917-658-3845
gayraud.townsend@sharestream.com

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