Adding external content (YouTube, etc.)

Integrating external media (such as YouTube, TED, or other reputable platforms) into your subject site can enhance student engagement when used purposefully. Evaluating the suitability of selected materials and making intentional design decisions about how and where they are embedded in your subject site helps ensure that external content remains accessible, pedagogically aligned and supportive of your overall learning design. 

Why?

There are many potential reasons to embed external content into your subject site, and these will vary depending on your context. For example, in a journalism subject, it can be difficult to explore concepts of decentralisation and democratisation of news production without relevant examples from contemporary digital platforms such as YouTube or other public media channels. You may be aware of an effective short video on TED.com that introduces a module’s content clearly and succinctly. Once you have checked the clip's authorship, copyright and sharing permissions, you can embed it into your site, providing rich, multimodal content that extends student understanding. 

It is crucial to consider the quality of the resources embedded in your content, consider:

What is its purpose?

The resources you use should be appropriate for the context where they will be embedded. Some helpful questions to ask include:

• What is the purpose of the content?
• Does it provide clarity?
• Does it show a contrary opinion or alternate viewpoint?
• Does it add additional data?

Is the content from a reputable & reliable source?

When adding external content, there is an inherent risk that the resource may be removed at any time, and you may not know this until you use it. To mitigate these risks, prefer content from reputable sources. Consider the following questions:

• Are the author and the uploader of the content the same?
• Does it pass the CRAAP test?

These are important factors to be mindful of, as they may affect the longevity of the resource.
In the example below, the BBC Earth channel has uploaded a clip from a BBC nature documentary. This source is considered reputable, and the video is unlikely to have copyright issues.

The same video uploaded to an individual's YouTube channel has a much higher risk profile for copyright infringement. You should avoid resources where the authorship and uploader are inconsistent.

When using external resources in your teaching, always adhere to the guidance in the UOW Library resource Copyright guidance for teaching staff.

How?

When adding external resources to your site, consider how your design choices will affect students' experience. For example, if you embed a video on the main page, students will need to load and view it each time they access the site. Is this necessary, or could it slow down page loading and impact their experience? In many cases, it can be more effective to place the video on a separate page or within an activity, where it is contextually relevant and less intrusive.

Adding content to your subject site

1. Ensure Edit mode is on.
   
2. Navigate to where you would like to embed the external content in your subject site. 
3. Using the Atto editor, click Show/hide advanced and click the HTML icon (viewed as </>).
   
   Using the TinyMCE editor, click the View button, then select <> Source code from the dropdown menu. 
   
   
   Note: For more information on what editor you’re using and how to change, refer to the Using the Moodle text editors article. 
4. Paste the HTML code from your clipboard. The code will look like this:
   
   <iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BtN-goy9VOY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
   Many content hosting platforms (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter) make it easy to find the HTML embed code. More information about sourcing the embed code is available in the section below.
5. Add the relevant Copyright Notices. 
6. Click the Save button.

Your embedded content should now display where it was added. 

Sourcing the HTML embed code

Many sites that host content that you might consider embedding into your subject site have built-in sharing and embedding functionality. Where possible, use these as they are designed to maximise the compatibility of the content being embedded.

• Youtube - Embed videos and playlists
  • TED - uses the YouTube player, and by extension the same process as YouTube above.
• X (formerly Twitter) - Embed a post
  
  Note: This allows you to customise and preview the embed code.