Video size

Why?

Working in Distance Education it may be a great idea to add video to increase depth of content coverage and provide a different opportunity for interaction for students. The size of the video will be the deciding factor as to whether you will want to include it directly into your course or want to link to it from another site that hosts the video. When we say host the video, the term is really saying I want to store or save my video on the host site.  If I host the video in my Blackboard course, I am storing or saving the video on the Blackboard server for students to access. If I choose to link to where the video originates from, possibly another website or video hosting site, then those sites store my video and the students access it outside of the Blackboard server.

How does size help me to make the decision of where to store the video? We already have many demands on the Blackboard servers and, if at all possible, the best practice is to store large video files off of our servers. So, what constitutes a large file? A 1 MB word document is considered extremely large for a text document but a 1 MB video is tiny in comparison. So let's say I have created an introduction video that is 1.5 MB. Since it is so small (and if the file extension matches my default media player*), I would insert the file directly into my Blackboard course. If my file size exceeds 5 MB, I would link to the file directly if it came from an outside web site, or, if I created it, I would have the video hosted in an outside server such as TeacherTube or YouTube.

Download times.

Another consideration for adding video to your online course is the time it takes to download the file to the media player for your students. Not all students have access to a high speed Internet connection. (A good way to find out what technology limitations your students have is to add this question into the introductions portion of your course.) Typical technology today has the capacity to download video from 56 KB a second for the dial-up Internet connection to 1 MB a second for high speed Internet connections. For example, let's look at the download time for a small video file of 2.6 MB (new intro .wmv).  For the student with the 56 KB dial-up connection it would take around 6 minutes. For the student with the high speed internet connection at TWU or at home it would take 2 - 14 seconds to download and start to view the same 2.6 MB file. So if you have multiple large videos for your students to view, you may want to create CD's and have them available for the students to cut down on the download frustration.  

File size can change by the quality and camera used for the video, I recorded the same introduction with the following cameras.

The first video (webcam intro) was with my webcam at my desk. The second (new intro) was with a  small "point and shoot" hand held recorder I bought from eBay. The third (M2U00012) was with a Sony HandyCam. Take a look at the quality of the picture in the three videos. Considering the download time, and cost of the camera, which would you choose for a quick commentary for your class? 

The purpose of the video is the deciding factor in quality vs. size. My introduction is just a quick and informal invitation for students. I don't need to spend a lot of resources to create this video or use large amounts of server space to store the video in Blackboard. So, a webcam or low-end handheld recorder will produce a small file and achieve my pupose for the video. If I am concentrating on small details or a more polished video (maybe I have a demonstration that I want to show students) I will look to a better quality recorder to create my video. The output will be a higher quality video and, depending on the length of the video, a larger file size.

Here is a link to a video conversion calculator that will show download time for various internet options: http://www.onlineconversion.com/downloadspeed.htm

* See Video Formats

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