What we see is the use of streaming mostly in live events or broadcast services like Ustream.TV and mostly progressive downloads for pre-recorded videos. In terms of popularity, progressive download is very popular, mainly because the increasing use of shared video services, such as, YouTube, Yahoo Video, Google Video, among others. These services are growing each month and are been used for all types of users, including individuals, politicians, government programs and companies. More About Progressive Download Protocols: A Web server (HTTP Server) uses the HTTP protocol to deliver web content, initially designed to deliver small files like, HTML files. HTTP protocol operates on the top of TCP protocol, which is optimized to guarantee data delivery. If the player realizes that some data packet is missing when using HTTP/TCP, it requests the server to resend the package, a task that can delay the video presentation. More About Streaming Video Protocols: A Streaming Server uses protocols more suited to streaming like RTSP and UDP. Adobe Media Server, for instance developed a protocol called RTMP. The difference between these protocols and the TCP (used by HTTP) is that they were designed to deliver media, regardless of whether your connection loses some data packages. This approach causes fewer delays in video and audio presentation, giving to the user a better video experience. The problem of using these protocols is that many firewalls block them, forcing the server to wrap the RTSP/UDP/RTMP packages into HTML, an approach called tunneling. This delivers the video using HTTP connections, yet strongly decreases the quality and end-user experience. More About Converging Both Technologies: There are some initiatives aimed at overcoming firewall restrictions for videos streaming protocols. Move Networks, for instance, developed a proprietary technology to stream videos over HTTP/TCP with impressing quality. This technology is being used by some TV channels and networks, like ABC, Fox and ESPN.
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| Benefits of YouTube | Drawbacks/Limitations of YouTube |
| Ease to use. | It is public and anyone can see the videos. |
| Any employee can upload his videos. | You will be restricted to videos that can be shared. |
| Employees can comment and rate the videos. | You have no control of who can see the videos. |
| Videos are linked by similar topics, making it easy to find related videos. | You will need to allow complete access to YouTube into your Intranet. |
| You can create and customize your company channel. | YouTube doesn’t allow you to restrict the access to more than 25 people. |
While YouTube and similar shared video services have Web 2.0 features that can be very useful for organizations, the openness of this and other services like it, may make it difficult to use in your organization. Below are some YouTube alternatives to consider that allow restricted access to internal audiences:
- Google Apps & Video: Google Video is now a part of Google Apps for Business allowing you to create your own corporate videos secure and private, while getting the same features you get in YouTube or Google Video Site. Its use is not widespread like YouTube and requires a fee.
- Social Networking Services: Feature blogs, groups, discussion forums and shared videos without needing for installing any software. Many services let you customize everything and allow your organization to create its own private social network service, which means also your own private shared video service.
- Open Source Social Networking Softwares: Feature
blogs, groups, discussion forums and shared videos that can be installed and
managed my employees. It requires to be set up and managed by your IT team,
using available servers.
- Mahara: Allows your company employees to create their own e-portfolio, which is a space to share documents, files, videos, thoughts, etc. You can create your corporate communities using groups, blogs and forums, among other features.
- Boonex Dolphin: Allows you to build and manage your social network site. It allows you to set groups, blogs, shared video sites, among others social network features.
- Others: Each day, new services and new open source software are available on the Internet, giving you other choices to share corporate and training videos in a secure way.
What About User Created Content?
Using corporate shared-video services, you can go beyond produced training videos. Employees can participate with user-created videos which can support, guide and empower employees. To illustrate some uses of corporate user-created videos, consider the situations below:
- An employee that is planning to retire could create some small videos about his area of expertise.
- A senior executive could create mentoring videos, giving advices to newcomers.
- A technical employee could create a step by step video to explain a procedural task.
- The Learning team can ask employees to contribute creating their own videos about some subject, which can be incorporated into a learning program or course.
- Trainers can record a web conferencing training meeting.
These videos could be delivered by hosting them on a web server without the use of a sharing video service, as we suggested earlier. However, if you choose to host user-created videos in a web server you lose the user friendly interface of a Web 2.0 application like YouTube. By creating a corporate shared-video service, employees can rate these videos and add their comments, perhaps contextualizing the video’s content or referencing another video or document. These videos start to become a live knowledge base and video library.
More About Shared-Video Services & FLV Format: YouTube and its competitors work mainly using Flash technology, with FLV videos using progressive download. There have been many added improvements, like a new interface, high definition videos, and download features. Others are currently being tested like video indexing.
Embedding Video Into SCORM Content
What about LMS and SCORM integration?
To integrate videos into your e-learning initiatives using your existing authoring tools, LMS and/or LCMS you have two options: You can:
- Upload or reference your Videos into your LMS:Many LMS have libraries or course portfolios that you can upload a video file or reference a hosted or shared video.
- Embed your video into SCORM content: Any good LMS supports and manages SCORM content. So you can create SCORM content that embeds your videos.
Why Should I Use SCORM?
There is a lot of buzz about SCORM among Learning professionals. If you’re wondering why you should consider using SCORM for your videos, especially if you already have an LMS or a social network service running, we drafted the table below to help you evaluate your options:
| Benefits of Using SCORM for Videos | Challenges Associated with Using SCORM for Videos |
| SCORM provides portability, independence of LMS platforms. | The process necessary for making SCORM content available takes time. |
| You will be able to track how many times and for how long employees watched videos. | It requires a SCORM authoring tool or SCORM expertise to package the content. |
| You can embed shared videos without the having to take them out of your web sites or shared services. | Some authoring tools don’t allow you to use certain video formats or servers when embedding videos. |
| You can use different tools to create your content and embed your videos. | Lack of integration with LMS or Social Network user contributions. |
Integrating video and SCORM content is a good way to enrich e-learning content while also giving you the ability to track the learners’ access. You’ll need to assess whether all the benefits SCORM provides warrants the cost of publishing and managing them on your LMS instead of simply publishing them on your web site. If you want to use your LMS as a portal for training resources, and it is important for your company to know if some employees are watching those videos, maybe SCORM is a worthwhile investment of time and resources.
How Can I Embed My Videos into SCORM Content?
There are many ways to go about this. In terms of SCORM, you can use any video that is delivered over the Internet and use the same resources that you normally use in your web pages. Once on the Internet, in your local drive or in a server, you can embed a video into a SCORM package in one of four ways.
- Uploading it as a local file into the SCORM package.
- Using your web server.
- Using a shared video service.
- Using a streaming server.
All the four methods can be done by coding HTML, coding Flash or using an authoring tool.
Uploading Video As A Local File Into the SCORM package
Embedding videos by uploading them into the SCORM content package proved to be the easiest way to upload videos. You can insert the video in the same way as you insert images and other media assets, and it will be uploaded and published with the SCORM package. As the video will be hosted on the web server with other SCORM assets, the browser will perform a progressive download to present the video.
Most of the authoring tools allow you to do this easily. This, however, is not recommended for videos longer than 5 minutes because of the file size. As the video is packed with the content, the SCORM package gets larger, increasing the package upload time or even surpassing the upload file size limit of the LMS.
More About Tools & FLV: Some tools use or convert uploaded video to FLV files so that you only need a Flash plug-in to view videos. A Flash plug-in is already installed in more than 95% of the PCs around the world. Other formats like WMV, MOV and RM require players like Windows Media Player, QuickTime and Real Player.
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of use. | The SCORM file sizeincreases. |
| It doesn’t need to host the file in a web server or streaming server. | It is not useful for longer videos. |
| Almost all tools support this feature. | The video will be replicated if it is included in other SCORM content. |
| If you update the video, you will need to upload it again in all SCORM packages which use it. |
Using Your Web Server
When you need to embed videos longer than 5 minutes into your SCORM content or you want to use the same video in different content without replicating it, you might consider hosting your video in your web server and refer to it in your page. The easiest way to embed large files into your SCORM content is to upload the file in a web server folder and embed the video into the content page referencing its URL instead of uploading it. If you use video formats developed to be streamed or delivered over the Internet, the player will automatically perform a progressive download.
More About Players and Video Formats: If you reference files that require a player to be watched (WMV, MOV, RM), the user’s machine must have this player installed for the video to properly display the e-learning content. Ultimately, because of Flash player popularity, an FLV file may be the best video format to choose.
TIP: If you are developing your content in HTML, without a help of an authoring tool, and are planning to use FLV files, you will be required to use or create SWF player. Some HTML editing tools already have SWF players available. Flash CS4 also can be used to create a SWF player that plays video files.
| Pros | Cons |
| Reutilization. | Need access to the Web server to upload the video files. |
| Easy implementation. | Some authoring tools don’t allow uploading to Web server in some video formats. |
| No need of a Streaming Server. | If the administrator moves the files to another folder the contents need to be updated and republished. |
| Use of existent infrastructure. | |
| Every format performs progressive downloads with good quality. |
Using A Shared Video Service
Normally, shared video services or social network services provide an HTML code of the published videos that can be copied into your own web page. If you are familiar with the HTML coding, or you’re using an authoring tool, it can be a very easy task. Many authoring tools already have specific features that can be used to embed shared videos the same way you upload videos. These tools also have ways to allow inserting pieces of HTML code, which works well to copy the embed HTML code provided.
| Pros | Cons |
| Ease to use. | Need access to the Web server to upload the video files. |
| It doesn’t require additional investments. | If the administrator moves the files to another folder, the contents need to be updated and republished. |
| Get the best of two worlds (SCORM & video sharing). | |
| Content tracking and Web 2.0 features. | |
| Support your social learning efforts. |
Using a Streaming Server
Embedding videos in SCORM content by using a streaming server is almost the same as using a shared video service, except that you will be using a video streaming technology instead of a progressive download. Consider embedding video streaming when planning to publish and deliver videos continuously, wanting complete control of video or planning to embed live videos.
Many authoring tools allow you to reference streaming servers. Even if your authoring tool doesn’t have this specific feature, you can use the option to insert an HTML code, including the required code to embed videos into the web pages.
| Pros | Cons |
| You have complete control of video presentation. | Network security policies many times restrict real time video protocols (RTSP, RTMP, UDP). |
| You can forward the video without waiting for the entire file to download. | Video over HTTP server is becoming more popular than Streaming server. |
| The user doesn’t download the video. | |
| You can control and manage who is watching the videos. |
TIP: Assuming that you have already pre-recorded and uploaded your video into the Streaming Server or you are embedding a continuous broadcasted channel, you just need to reference the streaming server URL (i.e.: mms://any_directory/directory/file_name.wmv or rtsp://any_directory/directory/media_filename.rm).
Using Authoring Tools To Embed
Videos Into SCORM Content
Which Tools Are Available And How Do They Work?
To test the ease and effectiveness of using some authoring tools available at the time this book was published; we experimented with using Articulate Presenter, Trivantis Lectora, and ExE Learning to publish videos. Below you’ll find a summary of what we found as well as instructions for how to use these tools to embed your videos into SCORM content.
Articulate Presenter is a popular tool originally developed to convert PowerPoint slides into flash animations, so they could be published either on a CD, a website or an LMS. The updated version, beyond being a mere conversion tool, now has numerous useful features. Lectora can be used to develop e-learning content with features for both beginners and advanced e-learning content developers. ExE learning is a very easy to use open source XHTML editor, which can publish SCORM 1.2 content.
Embedding Videos as a Local File into the SCORM Package
Using ArticulateArticulate Presenter only works with FLV files and it does it by always uploading the file into the package. To embed by uploading an FLV file into Articulate, published presentations, and also into the SCORM package, follow the steps below:
1. In the PowerPoint select the menu ‘Articulate’.2. Click on the item “Flash Movie” to upload the file. The PowerPoint will open the ‘File’ window.
3. Choose the FLV movie to be used. The PowerPoint will open an ‘Insert Flash Movie window.
4. Leave the selected options and click on the button ‘OK’.
5. Publish the file as SCORM 1.2 clicking on the item ‘Publish’ in the menu Articulate.
Using Lectora
Lectora allows you to import many formats of video, like WMV, AVI, MOV, RM, FLV, etc. converting them to FLV files at the moment of publishing. So, you need not be concerned about video formats. You do, however, need to be aware that all videos will be converted to an FLV format.
1. Go to the page in which you want to insert the video.2. Click on the menu item “Add”, then item “Object”, sub-item “Video”.
3. Insert the name of your video in the “Video Name” field.
4. Choose “Standard Video (…) in the “Video Type” list.
5. Click on the button “Import” and this will open a panel to choose the file.
6. Select the folder and the file to be imported and click in “Open”.
7. Configure the other video settings if you want.
Using ExE Learning
Using ExE Learning you can create web pages by importing videos of the following formats: MOV, WMV, MP4 and FLV. Just follow the steps below:
1. Create the page to import the video clicking in the “Add Page”, just above the content structure.2. Create a new activity on the page, clicking in “Activity” on the iDevice panel.
3. Inside the activity (page) on the formatting panel, click on the button “Insert/Edit Embedded Media”.
4. Choose the video type in the type list.
5. Click the button “Browse” on the “File/URL” field.
6. Choose the file to insert and click on the button “Open”.
7. Customize the dimensions.
8. Click in the button “Insert”.
Embedding the Video Referencing a File in a Web Server
Using ArticulateWhen embedding video files by referencing it in a Web server using its Web Object function, Articulate downloads the whole file first, before presenting it. Also, the ‘Flash Movie’ option only allows you to insert the video in the package. Even if you type the URL in the Flash Movie file window, it uploads the file instead of just referencing it. You can overcome this by creating a web page that calls and plays the FLV file and reference it using the Web Object option. To do that, just follow the steps below:
1. Create a web page (HTML or flash) that embeds and plays the remote FLV video.2. Host this page in a Web server.
3. In the PowerPoint select the menu “Articulate”.
4. Click on the item “Insert Web Object”.
5. Type the web page URL in the field “Address”.
6. Click on the button “OK”.
7. Publish the file as SCORM 1.2 clicking on the item ‘Publish’ in the menu Articulate.
Using Lectora
Lectora doesn’t allow embedding video files by referencing them in a Web server using its Video add function. It only allows you to insert videos in the package or reference videos in a streaming server. You can, however, use the External HTML option and insert the required HTML (and sometimes JavaScript) code for the video to be downloaded and ‘streamed’ from a web server. Steps for doing this are outlined below:
1. Create a HMTL that reference the video to be presented.2. Go to the page in which you want to insert the video.
3. Click on menu item “Add”, then item “Object”, and sub-item “External Html”.
4. Insert the name of your video in the “Object Name” field.
5. Choose “Other” in the “Object Type” list.
6. Click on the checkbox “Use External Text File Custom HTML”.
7. Click on the button Import. This will open the “Add an external object to the…” title window.
8. Choose HTML file that you just created.
9. Configure the other object settings (if desired).
10. Publish in SCORM choosing the menu “Publish” item “Publish to SCORM/Web-Based”.
TIP: When using the ‘Preview Mode’ you will not be able to see the video. Instead, you must use the ‘Preview in Browser’ feature.
Using Exe LearningExE Learning allows you easily embed video files that can either be uploaded to the package or be referenced to a Web Server. To embed the video referencing it in a Web Server follow the steps below:
1. Create the page to embed the video clicking in the “Add Page”, just above the content structure.2. Create a new activity on the page, clicking in “Activity” on iDevice panel.
3. Inside the activity (page) on the formatting panel, click on the button “Insert/Edit Embedded Media.
4. Choose the video type in the type list.
5. Type the video URL on the “File/URL” field.
6. Customize the dimensions.
7. Click in the button “Insert”.
TIP: When you choose the FLV option, ExE Learning automatically load its player, because the FLV itself doesn’t play automatically. An FLV file always needs a player to be presented (either a SWF file or a JavaScript code).
Embedding Videos Using a Shared Video Services
Using Articulate PresenterTo embed shared videos in Articulate you need to insert web objects to a PowerPoint slide, which allows you to insert web pages, or other web assets by simply referring to its URL address.
The use of this feature allows you to embed a video into a slide in two different ways. On the one hand, you can embed an entire HTML page into the slide. This can be done following the steps below:
1. In the PowerPoint select the menu “Articulate”.2. Click on the item “Insert Web Object”.
3. Type the YouTube video URL in the field “Address”.
4. Click on the button “OK”.
5. Publish the file as SCORM 1.2 by clicking on the item “Publish” in the menu “Articulate”.
Alternatively, you can embed only the video part into the slide by following the same steps described above. Note that you will need the URL of the YouTube video instead of the YouTube’s webpage URL.
To find out the Flash SWF’s URL, you need to look for the “embed src” URL address inside the HTML code that YouTube (and other services) provides you to embed videos into web pages. See the example below:
More About…: Sometimes in the Articulate’s preview mode you cannot see the video and the page shows an error message, but this error will not appear in the published content.
More About…: There are other ways to insert the movie into an Articulate Presenter slide or Articulate Engage interaction without having to upload it. You can see more about this on the Articulate community forum http://www.articulate.com/forums/articulate-presenter/4616-youtube-videos-into-articulate.HTML
Using Trivantis LectoraLectora 2009 has a feature that allows you to insert YouTube videos to your webpage. The feature is the same one used to insert other types of videos, but they have now added a new category, “YouTube Streaming Video”. To insert YouTube videos with Lectora follow the steps below:
1. Go to the page in which you want to insert the video.2. Click on the menu item “Add”, then item “Object”, sub-item “Video”.
3. Insert the name of your video in the “Video Name” field.
4. Choose “YouTube Streaming Video” in the “Video Type” list.
5. Insert the URL address of the YouTube page in the URL field.
6. Configure the other video settings (if desired).
This specific feature does not work with Google Video and other shared video services. To embed videos in HTML pages, insert the HTML code provided by your shared video service following the steps below:
1. Go to the page in which you want to insert the video.2. Click on menu item “Add”, then item “Object”, and sub-item “External HTML”.
3. Insert the name of your video in the “Object Name” field.
4. Choose “Other” in the “Object Type” list.
5. Insert the HTML embed code provided by the Google Video webpage (by pressing the ‘Embed Video” button) in the “Custom HTML” field.
6. Configure the other object settings (if desired).
TIP: When using the preview mode you will not be able to see the video. Instead, you must use the ‘Preview in Browser’ feature to get a preview before publishing the content.
Using ExE LearningExe Learning also has a function to easily embed YouTube and Google Video files. To do this, follow the steps below:
1. Create the page to embed the video clicking in the “Add Page”, just above the content structure.2. Create a new activity on the page, clicking in “Activity” on iDevice panel.
3. Inside the activity (page) on the editing toolbar, click on the button “Insert/Edit Embedded Media”.
4. Copy the appropriate URL for the video clip and paste it into the media dialog box's File/URL field and press [ENTER].
If the base URL is recognized as one of these, the media type ShockWave Flash SWF will be selected automatically.
While the above media types are the only ones supported through the “Insert Embed Media” feature, you may use some advanced HTML embedding techniques to include the HTML embed code for just about any other media type or shared service. This can be done following the steps below:
1. Locate the video you wish to include and select the embed HTML from the shared video site page.2. Create the page to embed the shared video clicking in the “Add Page”, just above the content structure.
3. Create either an Activity or any iDevice option on the page, selecting the desired option on iDevice panel.
4. Click the HTML button from the editing toolbar.
5. Paste the code you have copied from shared video site into the HTML editing window.
6. Click on the Update button to insert the video code into eXe.
Embedding the Video Using a Streaming Server
Using Articulate PresenterArticulate presenter doesn’t allow you to embed files hosted in Streaming Server, even if you are using a FLV file hosted in a Flash Media Server. To embed streamed files follow the steps below :
1. Create a HTML page that embeds the streamed video.2. Host this page in a Web server.
3. In the PowerPoint select the menu “articulate”.
4. Click on item “Insert Web Object”.
5. Type the HTML URL address in the field “Address”.
6. Click on the button “OK”.
7. Publish the file as SCORM 1.2 clicking on the item ‘Publish’ in the menu Articulate.
Using Lectora
Lectora allows you to embed files hosted in Streaming Servers, but only Real Network and Windows Media services streaming video. It is the same feature used to insert other types of videos. To embed a streaming video into a Lectora page follow the steps below:
1. Go to the page in which you want to insert the video.2. Click on the menu item “Add”, then item “Object”, sub-item “Video”.
3. Type the name of your video in the “Video Name” field.
4. Choose “RealNetworks Streaming video” or “Windows Media Services Streaming Video” in the “Video Type” list.
5. Insert the URL address of the streaming video in the URL field.
6. Configure the other video settings (if desired).
Using ExE Learning
ExE Learning didn’t appear to accept streaming server URL (rtps:\\.., mms:\\.., etc) in the ‘Insert Embedded Media. You might use some HTML embedding techniques to include the HTML embed code for presenting the streaming video. This can be done using the following the steps:
1. Locate the video you wish to include and select the embed HTML from the shared video site page.2. Create the page to embed the shared video clicking in the “Add Page”, just above the content structure.
3. Create either an Activity or any iDevice option on the page, selecting the desired option on iDevice panel.
4. Click the HTML button from the editing toolbar.
5. Type the HMTL code needed to embed streaming videos into the HTML editing window.
6. Click on the Update button to insert the video code into eXe.
Glossary
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources led to the establishment of the World Wide Web (Source: Wikipedia).
Protocols: In the field of telecommunications and computer networks, a protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation, signaling, authentication and error detection required to send information over a communications channel (Source: Wikipedia).
RTMP: Real Time Messaging Protocol is a proprietary protocol developed by Adobe Systems for streaming audio, video and data over the Internet, between a Flash player and a server (Souce: Wikipedia).
TCP: The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is so central that the entire suite is often referred to as "TCP/IP". Whereas IP handles lower-level transmissions from computer to computer as a message makes its way across the Internet, TCP operates at a higher level, concerned only with the two end systems, for example a Web browser and a Web server (Source: Wikipedia).
UDP: The User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one of the core members of the Internet Protocol Suite, the set of network protocols used for the Internet. UDP uses a simple transmission model without implicit hand-shaking dialogues for guaranteeing reliability, ordering, or data integrity. Time-sensitive applications often use UDP because dropping packets is preferable to using delayed packets (Source: Wikipedia).