In a recent article, Jenni discussed Echo360’s “collections” function which allows you to organize videos in your library, a repository that may become gargantuan and without rhyme or reason unless structured with appropriate labeling.
This week I want to expound on another organization tip, though not of your entire Echo360 library; instead, of videos, presentations & materials for a single course. As you may be aware, anytime you activate Echo360 in one of your Blackboard shells, a separate space is created in your Echo360 dashboard just for that course and is labeled with that course’s section #, term, etc. This way, when your students navigate to or are given links to view videos, they see only those that are relevant to the course they are taking, not the instructor’s entire video repertoire.
The problem is that you may have a lot of videos even within a single course, and organization is needed there too. You may wish to have collapsible topics rather than a long, seemingly never-ending litany of content. This makes a lot of sense, as the sheer volume of videos, even if labeled clearly, could become overwhelming to you and your students alike if some of it is not collapsed.
A solution is to create topics and place within each topic whatever videos, PowerPoint slides, or other materials go with that topic. On the screen, the students would see the materials under the topic, but they are also contained within the topic. Users (either you or your students) can toggle on the topic to, as needed, collapse the related video list out of view and un-collapse it back in view. Doing this imitates a LinkedIn Learning style navigation, which many people find visually appealing and easy to use.
Here’s what you should do for the desired effect. Once you are logged into the main screen of your Echo360 account, you should see these items on the top menu: Library, Courses, Collections, and Create (the latter is in blue). Click on Courses. Then, choose the course you want to organize.
This week I want to expound on another organization tip, though not of your entire Echo360 library; instead, of videos, presentations & materials for a single course. As you may be aware, anytime you activate Echo360 in one of your Blackboard shells, a separate space is created in your Echo360 dashboard just for that course and is labeled with that course’s section #, term, etc. This way, when your students navigate to or are given links to view videos, they see only those that are relevant to the course they are taking, not the instructor’s entire video repertoire.
The problem is that you may have a lot of videos even within a single course, and organization is needed there too. You may wish to have collapsible topics rather than a long, seemingly never-ending litany of content. This makes a lot of sense, as the sheer volume of videos, even if labeled clearly, could become overwhelming to you and your students alike if some of it is not collapsed.
A solution is to create topics and place within each topic whatever videos, PowerPoint slides, or other materials go with that topic. On the screen, the students would see the materials under the topic, but they are also contained within the topic. Users (either you or your students) can toggle on the topic to, as needed, collapse the related video list out of view and un-collapse it back in view. Doing this imitates a LinkedIn Learning style navigation, which many people find visually appealing and easy to use.
Here’s what you should do for the desired effect. Once you are logged into the main screen of your Echo360 account, you should see these items on the top menu: Library, Courses, Collections, and Create (the latter is in blue). Click on Courses. Then, choose the course you want to organize.
Once you are in the course you want to organize the content for, notice the two blue buttons on the top right: New Class Group and New Class.
- New Class Group is what you will click to create a topic, which Echo360 describes as: “a container to group classes/lessons in Echo360. These groups are designed to allow instructors or teaching assistants to organize lectures with similar subject matter, or to group several pieces of media (contained in classes) together that pertain to a single topic.”
- New Class can be kind of confusing in that it actually means a single lesson, lecture video, presentation, or material. It is not a whole course.
So, to create a topic, click on New Class Group and call the topic whatever you want to (it could be something like “Lesson 1: Emerging Technologies” [or whatever is appropriate to your course). Contained in that topic (and appearing under it) would be videos, presentations, and materials related to Emerging Technologies. As mentioned previously, New Class refers to the actual videos, presentations, and materials that you add.
What is described above is your starting point. I would recommend watching this short how-to video for a few additional steps that are better demonstrated visually than described in written words: Creating Collapsible Topics in a Course Section of Echo360. In the end, you will have organized your content for a single course in a way that lets your students review material quickly and efficiently in the “LinkedIn Learning” format that many people find intuitive and convenient.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of the IDT team. We are happy to assist.
What is described above is your starting point. I would recommend watching this short how-to video for a few additional steps that are better demonstrated visually than described in written words: Creating Collapsible Topics in a Course Section of Echo360. In the end, you will have organized your content for a single course in a way that lets your students review material quickly and efficiently in the “LinkedIn Learning” format that many people find intuitive and convenient.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of the IDT team. We are happy to assist.
