in collaboration with NJEDgeNet
Table of Contents 1 Requirements... 3 1.1 Shibboleth... 3 1.2 Administration Hierarchy... 3 2 Administration Hierarchy... 3 3 Manage Videos... 4 3.1 Supported Video Formats... 4 3.2 Adding your videos... 5 3.3 Video Metadata and publishing options... 6 3.3.1 Metadata... 6 3.3.2 Publishing Options... 6 3.4 Conversion Templates... 6 3.5 Adding supplementary documents... 7 3.6 Adding closed captions to your videos... 7 3.7 Adding Additional Video Formats... 7 3.8 Account Details (Storage)... 7 4 Managing Access Labels... 7 4.1 Applying labels... 8 4.2 Creating Access Labels... 8 4.2.1 Role-based labels... 8 4.2.2 User-based labels... 8 4.3 Default Labels... 9 4.4 Editing Labels... 9 5 Managing Users... 9 5.1 Adding User... 9 5.2 Requesting Access... 10 5.3 Permission set for Users... 10 5.4 Editing Users... 11 5.5 Deleting Users... 11 6 Integration with other systems... 11 6.1 Camtasia Relay Servers... 11 7 Glossary of Terms... 13 2
Merit Cloud Media allows for user-generated videos to be managed and uploaded directly by the user to the repository. Each organization can assign its own Institutional Collections Manager (ICM) [see Administration Hierarchy] who is responsible for all videos and collections pertaining to the institution. The ICM can also create individual user accounts to allow selected users to upload and manage their own videos. Through the use of authentication labels, videos can be made public or limited to a specific class or college. 1 Requirements 1.1 Shibboleth Shibboleth is a Middleware project that is used for federated identity-based authentication. It uses Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) infrastructure for authorization. Federated identity allows for information about users in one security domain to be provided to other organizations in a federation. This allows for cross-domain single sign-on and removes the need for content providers to maintain user names and passwords. Identity providers (IdPs) supply user information, while service providers (SPs) consume this information and get access to secure content. The Shibboleth Identity Provider must be installed at your Institution or it can be hosted by Merit. The IdP must release edupersonscopedaffiliation [student@institution.edu] and edupersonprincipalname which is usually [joe@institution.edu]. These attributes are required for permitting or denying access to Cloud Media. Some institutions only pass member@institution.edu as the role for all of their users. It is advisable to contact your Shibboleth Administrator and understand what access restrictions you can set using Institutional Roles. 1.2 Administration Hierarchy It is highly advisable that you think about setting up your administration hierarchy before you implement Cloud Media in your campus or Institution. 2 Administration Hierarchy 1. Super collections manager (SCM) The SCM is responsible for the following tasks Assigns and manages institutional collection managers (ICM) Monitors all encoding and repository jobs submitted by any user or institution. Assigns permissions to ICMs and/or to users (see below). Sets storage limits/institution (Data Store Size = X GB for each Institution). 3
Super collection manager duties are handled by the NJVID administrator at NJEDge.Net. 2. Institutional Collections Manager (ICM) This manager is the group administrator at the institution. Organizations can assign one or more ICMs (per department or College). The ICM is responsible for: Managing the storage and making sure the account does not exceed the storage limit. Handling User Administration. Approving or rejecting users requesting access to Cloud Media. Assigning Collections and permissions associated with the collections the user can upload to. Adding or removing users. Banning users from accessing Cloud Media. Managing user permissions. Being the point of contact for its organization and training all users within the organization. Creating access labels. (If applicable) Monitoring and approving videos that are ingested through lecture capture systems (Camtasia Relay Server). ICM accounts can be requested by sending an email to msc@merit.edu 3. Institutional User This type of user is allowed to upload videos to the system and must follow the guidelines and policies set by the organization and ICM. 3 Manage Videos In this section: Supported Video Formats Adding your videos Video Metadata and publishing options Adding supplementary documents Adding closed captions to your videos Adding Additional Video Formats Account Details (Storage) 3.1 Supported Video Formats Cloud Media currently supports the following video formats natively: MPEG-4 (H.264 video + AAC audio) - Recommended FLV (Flash) 4
Videos that are not in a format supported by Cloud Media are automatically converted to MPEG-4 or Flash (FLV). The system currently supports uploading of the following non-native video formats: Windows Media (WMV) QuickTime MOV MPEG-1, MPEG-2 AVI Note: Institutions are advised to upload videos in MPEG-4 and/or Flash (FLV) for better quality control. 3.2 Adding your videos To upload a video simply the Upload button on the main page. This will take the users to the Metadata page where the user will have to fill in the details of the video he/she wants to upload. There are two ways for users to upload their videos: 1. From your computer (Desktop/Laptop) Cloud Media provides the user an option to upload the video directly from their system. Uploads up to 2GB in size are supported. There are no constraints on the duration of the uploaded video. 2. FTP and HTTP Alternatively, the user can provide a URL of the video location. The system will download the video from this location. The video size is unlimited with this method and there are no long wait times for large video uploads. Examples of the URL format accepted: FTP or File Transfer Protocol: [ftp://username:password@host:port/path/to/video] Hypertext Transfer Protocol: [http://hostname.com/path/to/video] Video Metadata Users can fill in the details of the video they are uploading in the various fields of the Video Metadata. 5
3.3 Video Metadata and publishing options To upload a video, the user fills out a form providing information about the video. This information is then added to the repository. This metadata assists in classification and discovery of the video using the full-text based search engine. 3.3.1 Metadata Title Main title of the video. Abstract Users can type in a brief description of the video. Collection The collection to which the video will belong. Note: The ICM and general users can only upload to collections that they have been assigned. Subjects The users can choose one or more subjects that best apply to the video. These are a generic list of subjects that were generated internally by NJVid that cover most areas. Custom Subjects- If the users do not find the subject that is applicable to the video in the 'subject' field, they can use this field to type in their own subjects or choose from the already existing subjects in the repository. This field is a comma separated auto-complete field and the users can enter their subjects by separating them using commas. Contributors Users will be able to Add/Remove People or Organizations associated with the video. Choose "Add Person" to fill in the details of the person and choose "Add Institution" to fill in the details of the institution. Language The users can choose the language the video is recorded in from the list. Target Audience- The users can choose one or multiple target audience suitable for viewing this video. 3.3.2 Publishing Options Date Created - The users can choose a date on which the video was created. By clicking on the field, a calendar pops up and the users can choose a date which will get stored in the YYYY-MM-DD format. Note: Date Created is not the date the video was uploaded. Expiry Date The users can choose a date after which the video will no longer be viewable. By clicking on the field, a calendar pops up and the users can choose a date which will get stored in the YYYY-MM- DD format. Additional Owners The video can belong to more than one owner, this field is used to list the other owners of the video. They do not necessarily have to be registered in the system. The field accepts comma separated netid s. 3.4 Conversion Templates Non-native video formats can be converted to MPEG-4 or Flash. The upload tool uses a third-party encoding service called Encoding.com and the video conversion process is transparent to the user. These 6
templates specify parameter values such as video bitrate, audio bitrate etc. required for optimum conversion to native formats. After a video is uploaded, the system automatically provides conversion recommendations based on the bitrate of the video. For a URL, if automatic conversion is selected and the video requires conversion, the best conversion template will be applied to the video. However, if the user selects Keep original format for a video in a non-native format, the best conversion template will be applied automatically. Note: Institutions are advised to upload videos in MPEG-4 and/or Flash (FLV) for better quality control. 3.5 Adding supplementary documents In the menu, go to Manage Videos -> select a video and then -> Add Supplementary Documents Supplementary documents such as transcripts, additional information documents or presentations can be associated with a video. Currently, PDFs and PowerPoint (PPT) formats are supported by Cloud Media. These supplementary documents will appear, and can be accessed, on the display video screen. It is highly recommended to use PDFs instead of PPTs. 3.6 Adding closed captions to your videos Go to Manage Videos -> Click on a video -> Add subtitles Cloud supports closed captioning. You can add or remove closed captions from an already existing video. Currently, Cloud Media supports CC in the Timed Text XML format or Subrip SRT. A label associated with the closed captions can be used to optionally provide the language of the CC. The default label will be the name of uploaded CC file. 3.7 Adding Additional Video Formats Go to Manage Videos -> Click on a video -> Add New Video Format Cloud Media allows users to add additional video formats later. For example, if the user has a video in the MP4 format and later wants to upload a video in the flv format or even upload a video of a higher or lower bitrate in the MPEG-4 format itself, the user is permitted to do this using the additional video format screen. 3.8 Account Details (Storage) Click on usage in the left menu sidebar when in the administrative menu. This page shows the usage statistics to the ICM or SCM of an institution. If your organization requires more storage please contact the Merit Support Center msc@merit.edu 4 Managing Access Labels All videos uploaded to Cloud Media are by default private. This means that only the uploader and the ICM can access the video after logging in through Shibboleth. Access labels provide a mechanism to open access to a set of users based on their roles or Individuals using their Institutional userid/netids. 7
A label is a collection of user ids or roles which, when applied to a video, restricts it to only the users that are a subset of that collection. More than one label can be applied to a video In this section: Applying labels Creating Access Labels Default Labels Editing Labels 4.1 Applying labels Go to Manage Videos ->Select from Apply Label Dropdown Labels are applied to video(s) in the manage videos screen. Select one or more videos to apply label(s). Click on the drop down box that says Apply Label. Check the labels you want to apply to the selected videos. Click Apply. 4.2 Creating Access Labels Click on 'Create Labels in the 'Manage' Labels menu item. A label name is unique to an institution. Its uniqueness can be easily checked by clicking on the check availability button. 4.2.1 Role-based labels The ICM can provide access to videos based on institutional roles. The role information corresponds to edupersonscopedaffiliation of the user accessing the service. Please note that in some Institutions Shibboleth is configured to send member@institution.edu for all of an organization s users and not to specify if the user has a student, staff' affiliation. If this is the case, specify member@institution.edu instead of staff or student in this field. Please contact your Shibboleth Administrator to learn about what s available at your institution. 4.2.2 User-based labels User-based labels are a collection of one or more user ids or netids. These IDs will have to be entered line by line. In Shibboleth terms it is the edupersonprincipalname of the user accessing the service. 8
4.3 Default Labels Private When a user uploads a video, the label Private is applied to the video by default. This label indicates that the video is only accessible to the user who uploaded the video and the ICM. Access can then be expanded by applying one or more labels. Also by default, if no other label is applied to a video, the Private label is applied to it. Public When the Public label is applied to a video, it indicates no access restrictions on that video. This label if applied with any other label still maintains no access restrictions. Note: The ICM has the option to not allow some users to use the Public label. Default labels cannot be created or modified. 4.4 Editing Labels Click on Edit Labels in the Manage Labels submenu. Labels can be edited using the edit labels screen. You can change the name of the label and its type. 5 Managing Users In this section: Adding User Requesting Access Permission set for Users Editing Users Deleting Users The ICM handles the majority of user management. The SCM creates the ICM(s) upon an organization s request. The request generally takes place during implementation. The ICM then administers the registration of general users through the User Management interface. The ICM can sort users according to their respective statuses and also grant approvals through the Edit User screen. In the same way, the SCM can review and approve users for all the institutions participating in Cloud Media. 5.1 Adding User Click on "Add" in the "Users" submenu. The ICM can add users to the collections they are assigned to within an institution. The ICM first enters the netid/userid of the user. The system then checks whether the user already exists in the system. If the user already exists then his/her account details are shown. If the user does not exist then the ICM 9
can fill in all the details about the user and select the collections and the permissions the user has on those collections. For the list of permissions that can be set for a user on a per collection basis, please refer to the next section. If Camtasia Relay is configured and integrated with Cloud Media, the user will have an additional field to specify a default collection into which his Camtasia Relay videos will be deposited automatically. 5.2 Requesting Access When a new user logs in through Shibboleth, they will need permission from their ICM for access into Cloud Media. The organization can opt-in for a registration form OR they can enforce their own policies for registration by providing the necessary text to display instead of the registration form. The user fills in the form and waits for the ICM s approval. The ICM can access the requests by clicking on Requests in the Manage Users submenu. The ICM corroborates the information and sets additional permission settings for the user. Once approved, the user can start adding videos and managing their own content. 5.3 Permission set for Users Can Upload Videos: When checked, it gives the user the right to upload videos. This is checked by default. Needs ICM approval for publishing: If checked, all videos uploaded by the user will be in an unpublished state until the video is approved by the ICM. Delete Own Videos: When checked, it gives the user permission to delete videos they created. It is checked by default. Apply Access Labels: When checked, it allows users to apply access labels (except the public label) to the videos they upload. It is checked by default. Allow Public Access Label: When checked, the user is able to apply the Public access label to any video they upload. This permission can only be granted if the Apply Access Labels box is checked. Add Supplementary Documents: When checked, the user may add supplementary documents to the videos they upload. It is checked by default. Add Subtitle Documents: When checked, the user may add subtitle documents to the videos they upload. It is checked by default. Manage Users: When checked the user has the ability to add, edit and delete users. Manage Labels (per User): If yes, the user may edit and delete the labels they created. Please note that if given the correct apply labels permissions, the user will still have the ability to apply any of the labels created within an organization. 10
5.4 Editing Users Go to Manage under the Users submenu -> Click on a user The user editing screen provides two functions: the ability to edit the users information as well as to approve the user requests for access to Cloud Media. This can be done by changing the status of the user. The user resides in one of the four statuses in Cloud Media. Approved Registered user of Cloud Media. Banned User banned from Cloud Media as decided by the ICM or SCM. In Process User requested access to Cloud Media but not approved yet. Rejected User rejected access to Cloud Media as decided by the ICM or SCM. 5.5 Deleting Users In Manage Users select the users to be deleted and press the Delete button When a user is deleted from the system using the Manage Users screen, all of the videos uploaded by the user go into an 'unpublished' state. 6 Integration with other systems The open architecture of Cloud Media enables integration with Lecture Capture Systems and potential tie-ups with Learning Management Systems. Watch this space for the latest on integration with other forms of instructional content platforms. In this section: Camtasia Relay Servers 6.1 Camtasia Relay Servers Click on Camtasia Relay Server in the menu sidebar. 1. Manage Click on the Manage in the Camtasia Relay Server submenu. Documentation on how to configure the Camtasia Server to copy videos to Cloud Media will be discussed in the next version of this document. The Camtasia Relay management page is shown below. Scan: This button invokes the system to discover all of the videos waiting to be added into the repository. When the videos are first scanned, there is no collection associated with the video. The user can either click on the video and edit its metadata along with its collection, which is similar to the [Video Metadata and publishing options] or check multiple videos to be ingested and click on the ingest button. 11
Ingest: Before ingesting multiple videos the user is asked to select a collection to which all the selected videos will be deposited. The ICM can choose the desired collection from the list and click on "Yes". This option is relevant only to the videos that have not been assigned a collection through the edit metadata screen; however this option can be applied to all of the videos by clicking on the checkbox Override all assigned collections with this value. If the metadata is not edited for a video, the video will be ingested with the default metadata that the system has retrieved for it. Delete: The ICM user can delete any video from the scanned list. ChangeStatus: The ICM user can change the status of the videos to "Mark for Ingest" or "Deferred". The scanned videos are ingested automatically to the repository unless their status is changed to defer. 2. Configuration Settings Click on the Configurations Setting in the Camtasia Relay Server submenu. The configuration fields on this page define some of the important defaults for the Camtasia Relay videos. Admin User Netid Netid for the admin overlooking Camtasia videos. Enable Ingest through email confirmation If Yes is chosen, the system sends an email to the Admin User Netid (1.) with a link allowing them to ingest the video. Email Notification to admin after ingests If Yes, the system notifies the Admin User Netid (1.) after a Camtasia video is ingested. Default Collection for Ingest Select a default collection for the users that do not belong to the system. 3. Logs Click on Logs in the Camtasia Relay Server submenu Logs are a way of monitoring the scan and ingest processes. Logs will allow the ICM users to view the history of the ingested videos, history of all the users and the status of the ingest directory. 12
7 Glossary of Terms Institutional Collections Manager (ICM): This is the administrator of the organization s account within NJVid. Will also be a Cloud Media contact type in Oracle. One ICM is created at implementation but Members must contact the MSC to have more ICMs created. Institutional User: An individual from a Member organization who has been given permission by the ICM to upload videos, manage labels, videos or users within Cloud Media. Shibboleth: Open source software used in Cloud Media for the authentication piece. Identity Provider (IdP): The server that sits on the Member s side (or in the case of Merit hosting, our side on the Member s behalf) and talks to NJEdgeNet s side, which is called the Service Provider (SP) Service Provider (SP): The server that sits on NJEdgeNet s side that talks to the IdP on the Member s side during authentication. 13