Uploading and Posting Media Content to a Bb Course using Illumira

Illumira is a video storage and streaming service York purchased for instructional purposes. Illumira was previously called "NJVID." Instructors can post instructional videos using the service and collect students’ video assignments. The latter will be described in another tutorial. In this tutorial you will learn how to enable the tool and post your videos in Blackboard.

Enabling Illumira tool in Blackboard

Make sure all three check buttons are enabled in the Course Tools section.

1. Go to your Blackboard course site and click Customization, then “Tool Availability.”
2. On the Tool Availability page, check the check-boxes for “NJVID Integration Tools,” “NJVID Media Player” and “Video (Illumira Repository)." The tool names on this page are listed alphabetically.
3. Click Submit.

Now the Illumira tool is enabled.

Adding Illumira Repository to post videos

1. To access the tool within the course, click on any appropriate content area such as Information, Course Documents, Etc.
2. On the top action buttons hover your mouse over the "Build Content" button and click the “Video (illumira Repository)” link.
3. This will bring you to the “Configure Tool: Video (illumira Repository)" window. Under “Name,” delete the title “Video (illumira Repository)” from the content item title box.
4. Enter a unique name for the media you will be uploading. Every time you upload a piece of media, you must give it a unique name. This allows for the tracking of usage.
   
5. Below the Name field, there is a box in which you can write a description of the selected media or instruction.
   
6. Additionally, in the "Options" section you can refine when a particular clip of media can be viewed by students.
   
7. Click "Submit" on the bottom-right of the page.
8. Once you’ve clicked "Submit," you will be taken back to the Bb content window. Allow the page to load and finish scrolling. The newly created media player will appear in the Content window.
   
9. If you encounter an error message, click refresh at the top of the Course Menu.
   

Posting a Video from your computer

If this is your first time uploading a video to Illumira, please follow these steps:

1. In the newly created media player click on “Upload media" button.
   
2. You will be taken to the Upload Media window. Click on “Upload from Device.”
   
3. You will be taken to a browser window. Select the MP4 video file you want and click “Open.”
   
4. The selected video file will upload to Blackboard. You will be notified once the upload is complete.
   
5. While the video is uploading, you will need to have a "Title" and "Abstract/Summary." Optionally, you can upload Closed Captions if you have one.
6. Once the file has uploaded, click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
   
7. You will be taken back to the Bb content window. It will take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes for you video to show up in the player. Blackboard will alert you to the progress.
   
8. Once your media finishes processing, it will be ready for viewing in the player.
   

Posting a Video from the Illumira Repository

If you uploaded a video into an Illumira Repository in the past, you do not need to re-upload from your computer. 

1. Click on “Pick media” button in the media player.
   
2. Under “Pick Media,” a list of all previously uploaded media will appear. Click the "Select" button under the video clip you want to post.
   

You will be taken back to the “Content Page.” Your media is now available for viewing.