Although it is summer, it is never too early to begin
thinking about the fall!
If you have already taken Blackboard Learn training at MCC,
you might remember that Blackboard Learn has a built-in plugin that allows faculty
to embed YouTube videos right inside their course. The benefit of embedding a
video, as opposed to posting a link for students to follow, is that it ensures
a student remains in their Blackboard Learn course rather than navigating to a
new webpage, where they might become
distracted. However, YouTube videos have some of their own problems, especially when
it comes to searching for educational material. From questionable
content and limited results, in both content and copyright laws, YouTube might not always be the best place to find educational resources.
The MCC Library is now providing a more reliable service, in the way of video content, to all faculty and staff with Films on Demand (FOD). FOD has hundreds of educational videos, which can be easily embedded within a Blackboard Learn course or projected in the classroom and is free to faculty and staff. What is great about FOD is that it allows a user to search for videos through a standard search bar function, but also by subject topic or through FOD’s Special Collections series, which organizes videos by a wide range of publishers from NBC, The History Channel, PBS, TED Talks, and others. Don’t want to embed or show a whole half an hour video to your students? Unlike Blackboard’s YouTube plug-in, FOD allows for the embedding of videos to play by segment chapters, which starts the video directly at the chapter segment you want students to view.
If you would like to know more about Films On Demand please contact the MCC Sandbox
