Embedding Dynamic Content

You have worked hard on your course and created some excellent content pages.  Since you know that students perform better with multiple modes of content presentation, you would like to offer some alternatives to text.  Today there are several options for including dynamic content from the web.  You could link to these sites, however, you would rather have the students have a streamlined learning experience.  You know that people are more likely to review the video before reading the text.




Besides, when you link to another site like Youtube, the students are taken out of their learning environment and subject to distractions, such as by videos of adorable cats. It is in the interest of these hosting sites to drive traffic to their site and retain it.  This is not in your interest as an instructor.

This is exactly why embedding the video in your content page better meets your pedagogical goals.  Embedding keeps students in the course and focused on learning.  Simply, embedding protects students from being distracted by those adorable cat videos. Moreover, you reduce the number of clicks to get to the content, and it common web developing knowledge that this encourages engagement.

In Blackboard, you already have the Mashup tool and it does embed the content at one level. This does not give you the same flexibility that you can enjoy when you opt to embed material by using the HTML button from the content editor.  Further, inside the content editor there is an option to access the Mashup tool. This offers the option of embedding video from Youtube, or offering a link, or providing a mashup.  While the tool does work, there is an even easier way.  Skipping this for an old-school way that will allow the freedom to select more web 2.0 options.  

Simply follow these steps to embed an object into Blackboard:

1. find object's embed code (note: When working with YouTube deselect the option to show related videos)
2. copy the embed code
3. go into Blackboard (it is best to use another tab)
4. create a 1 X 1 table and right align it – or chose the alignment you want.
5. add a little buffer, say 5 spaces horizontal and vertical
6. type a large number of the same digit (222222222222222222222)
7. Select the HTML button (third row down on the toolbars)
8. Scroll and find the large number (222222222222222222222)
9. highlight it and the paste the embed code in over it
10. Select “update”
11. Select “submit” and you are done.

Now let’s take a look at embedding a different dynamic content.  Look for the Share option, and then copy the embed code.  If you follow the same instructions – creating a table with only one cell, using a string of digits, entering HTML editing mode and replacing the string of digits with the code, you will have the same effect.

Using this technique will benefit your students with seamless access to many various engaging presentations and web tools.  Minimally you can use it for YouTube videos, but you should feel free to adopt this to take advantage of the several Open Educational Resources that exist and offer embed code.