The ELMS-Canvas Media Recorder tool enables faculty (and students) to establish greater “presence” in their communications in order to increase the level of engagement in a course.  The Media Recorder is found in any ELMS-Canvas environment in which the Rich Content Editor is present, i.e., Conversations, Announcements, Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes and Pages. Audio comments can be recorded using a built-in microphone (or a connected headset); video comments can be recorded using your computer’s built-in camera. 

Alternatively, the Media Recorder tool can also be used to import a media file (up to 500 MB) created external to ELMS -Canvas in order to embed it in an ELMS-Canvas tool environment (see end of document for a list of acceptable file types).

Imagine welcoming your students to the course space through a brief, embedded video on the home page, or adding your voice to the announcements or messages you create, or enabling your students to create media responses to discussion posts, or providing personalized media commentary via your grade book entries. 

1. Select any ELMS-Canvas environment in which you would like to insert a Media Recording. In this case, the Discussion tool will be used.

   

2. Click the Discussion link or click on a Discussion topic link to open a current Discussion to post a recording.

   

3. Select the Media Recorder icon that is available in the Rich Content Editor toolbar.
   
4. The Media Recorder will give you the option of choosing to record a video or audio recording.
   

Record media option

• You can engage or disengage your computer’s mic and Webcam by clicking on the icons bearing those names. When you click on the Start Recording button you will get a three second countdown before recording begins.
• Once a video has been recorded, the video file will appear in the Description box. 
• Type a name for the discussion post in the Title field before clicking Submit.

  

Upload media option

• The second option is to click the Computer link.
• This enables you to drag and drop or search your local computer for an audio or video file.
• Once you select the file from your local computer, the file will appear in the description box. Click Submit.

Supported video formats 

• Windows Media (asf) and (wmf).
• Apple Quick time  (aqt) and (mov).
• Digital Video Formats: (mpg), (mpeg), (mp4), (avi), (wav), (m4v).
• Multimedia Mobile Format (3gp).

Supported audio formats 

• Digital Audio Format (mp3).
• Windows Media (wmf).
• Windows Media Audio (mwa).