Best practice guidance: library skills videos

When looking to share a video with viewers, you should select a platform on which to host your video from which you can then generate links or embed code to share via other channels. This means you keep your video in a single place, you only have to update it in one place and you can get analytics on views from one location, but can include it in any number of locations on the web, in tutorials or in communications.

We have two preferred platforms for hosting videos:

Note: LCCOS does not currently have an active YouTube account. Please use preferred platforms.

Consider the following when choosing where to host your video (UCL Mediacentral or OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint):

• Who will you be sharing your videos with?
  • If your video is for public viewing, the preferred platform for hosting is UCL Mediacentral, although it is possible to share videos from OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) publicly using a link only (not embed code).
  • If your video is for a particular UCL cohort, such as embedded in an academic Moodle course, either platform is fine.
  • If sharing your video with LCCOS or wider-UCL colleagues, you might prefer to share your video from your OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint).
• Where will you be sharing your video?
  • If your video will be shared on public websites or platforms, e.g. a UCL webpage, a LibGuide (LibrarySkills@UCL or Subject Guides) or within a skills tutorial available publicly, the preferred platform is UCL MediaCentral.
• Do you want to embed your video? Embedded videos are visually appealing and more likely to be viewed than videos shared using only a link, but note the following:
  • The embed code for videos in OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) only allows UCL users to view the embedded video when logged into their Microsoft 365 account, and is not publicly viewable. For any videos appearing on publicly available web content, e.g. webpages, LibGuides or publicly available skills tutorials, you should use UCL Mediacentral.
  • Both platforms allow you to embed videos in LibGuides, Drupal, Moodle, Articulate Storyline, Articulate Rise and LibWizard tutorials. (Videos embedded from OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) are only viewable by the UCL community).
  • Sway causes complications for embedding videos:
    • Embed code from UCL MediaCentral does not work in Sway. You can provide a link only.
    • Embed code from OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) is only viewable by the UCL community when logged in to Microsoft 365. If embedding videos from OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) in a Sway, you are therefore advised to also include a link allowing anyone to view the video.
• How will you make captions available?
  • In OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) you can automatically generate captions, and can edit them in the platform, or download the captions file, edit it and re-upload it, to ensure accuracy.
  • To add captions to UCL Mediacentral videos you need to upload a separate captions file. You can use OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) to generate the captions file by first uploading your video to OneDrive, generating the captions file and then downloading it.
  • In UCL Mediacentral you can also upload associated files, such as a transcript.
• Viewing permissions:
  • In UCL Mediacentral there are multiple 'categories' available for different viewing permissions, so you can choose to make the video completely private, viewable only by UCL people, or publicly viewable. These settings are then carried across when sharing by a link or embed code. Note: As of August 2024, new categories are now available for LCCOS within UCL Mediacentral - guidance on these categories will be issued by colleagues soon.
  • In OneDrive / Stream (on Sharepoint) you can share a link to view your video with specified UCL individuals, anyone in UCL or the public. Embed code will make the embedded video available only to the UCL community when they are logged in to Microsoft 365. This is a security measure within OneDrive for Business / Education. It is possible to create embed code viewable by anyone in a personal OneDrive account, but we do not recommend hosting work-related content on a personal OneDrive account. 
• Storage quota:
  • Both platforms have generous storage quotas. OneDrive allows 100GB for all your files, so large videos will eat into your storage quota for other files.

If you are producing a video for an externally hosted platform, such as a conference, you may need to upload or send a file of your video. A standard format for downloaded video files is MP4 although Apple products usually produce a .mov file. Most platforms should accommodate both file types, but if you need to convert the file to a different type, the Library web team may be able to advise.