Kaltura is Oregon State University's video platform. While similar to other publicly accessible video platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo, it carries with it numerous additional tools and features specific to the academic world that make it essential to modern online education and video delivery.
Environment
Issue/Question
- Why should I upload my videos to Kaltura instead of (YouTube/Vimeo/etc.)?
Resolution
Kaltura carries numerous features essential to academia. These can be broadly grouped into four categories:
Privacy
Kaltura affords faculty a place to upload and share video in a way that is inaccessible to anyone but those who are intended to see it. The content cannot be viewed or downloaded without the person who uploaded the video intentionally making this possible.
In Kaltura, students have a place to share and submit their video assignments securely without privacy concerns and without anyone seeing their videos beyond the intended audience. FERPA is essential when it comes to videos. Videos with personally identifiable information related to a student - which may include their name, voice, or face - should not be shared in a public forum or unsupported platform.
Administration and Support
Kaltura is integrated into Oregon State University's tools. It has been vetted and tested. This means you can access and operate Kaltura directly from within OSU's secure environment without ever having to navigate to an outside website.
Integration with Oregon State University's single-sign-on platform (ONID) means that Kaltura doesn't require any special account management. It allows you to use OSU's accounts to share your videos with others, grant others the same editor rights as yourself, create access lists, or hand off your videos entirely to someone else. It also means that administrative units such as Disability Access Services can access your videos and add captioning to those videos when necessary.
As a service vendor, Kaltura carries service level agreements with obligations to the University. Platforms such as YouTube have no such obligations. They can arbitrarily choose to remove videos or disable accounts with no recourse.
Platforms such as YouTube operate on a revenue generating model, so there's no guarantee that advertising won't appear on your video, and you will have no control over what "related videos" appear next to or after your video.
Oregon State University has no administrative access to outside platforms such as YouTube. Should a faculty member depart the institution, the University has no means of obtaining their media content from outside platforms and recovering that content or re-allocating it to others in the department.
Kaltura follows the University's rigorous change management rules. Any changes are tested and communicated before they are deployed. This can't be said for outside platforms such as YouTube that may arbitrarily change things that can impact your videos with no recourse.
Kaltura is supported by Oregon State University's Information Technology units. Anyone who needs guidance or runs into trouble with Kaltura can reach out for support and get help.
Copyright and Ownership
Kaltura affords us the publishing restrictions that are often demanded by copyright holders when distributing 3rd party materials. In numerous cases, producers of video content have allowed the distribution of their media only in a way that is restricted. Kaltura meets this obligation by allowing the publication of videos in classes only to students enrolled in a class.
Kaltura also makes it possible to keep your content - as well as the University's content - secure and out of reach from those who may choose to violate your copyright.
Analytics
Kaltura's integration into the University's systems means that it provides us analytics which help us to see how students are interacting with videos. With Kaltura, we can determine what videos have been viewed, by whom, and how much of it they have watched. Not only does this help us assess the effectiveness of specific videos, but also helps us identify where we can focus further in order to improve student success and learning outcomes.
For assistance, contact the IS Service Desk.