Overview

In Canvas, there are two main ways to make your videos in "My Media" visible to members of your course: publishing them to the Media Gallery and embedding them on Canvas pages. This tutorial will walk you through how to embed a video on a page in Canvas. 

This tutorial only applies to Canvas users, and while students are able to embed media (on pages where they're able to edit text), this knowledge base article largely applies to instructors. 

Critical Concepts

What Does it Mean to Embed a Video?

"Embedding" a video on a web page means opening up the source code for a web page and pasting in what's called an "embed code," which, when the page is rendered by a web browser, shows a media player ready to play a desired entry. In Canvas, you're able to embed videos within a variety of instructional tools, such as quizzes, pages, or discussion board posts. You can also add content above or below the player as desired. 

On the other hand, publishing a video makes it visible in a Canvas course's Media Gallery. (See our tutorial on publishing media to a Media Gallery if needed.)

Note that you can both publish to a Media Gallery AND embed that same piece of media within your modules in Canvas. It's totally up to you.

Things to Keep in Mind

• The Kaltura media player was upgraded on August 2, 2024. The impact of this change is that all players used in Media Galleries and in "My Media" immediately switched to the new player. Videos that were already embedded within modules, however, were unaffected and will continue to use the old player. Because of this, we strongly recommend that instructors re-embed their videos within their modules if they weren't exclusively publishing to the Media Gallery. Note that the only player options you have now for embedding videos are new players. 
• Embedding a video doesn't publish it to the Media Gallery. If you also want it to be visible in the Media Gallery, you'll need to publish it yourself. See our tutorial on publishing to a Media Gallery if needed.

• Anywhere users encounter the rich content editor in Canvas, they're able to embed media from their Kaltura media repository ("My Media") by clicking the Kaltura logo/icon. (It sort of looks like a rainbow sunburst with a gray center.)

  Anywhere you see the rich content editor in Canvas, you're able to embed a video. You embed a video within Canvas by clicking the "Embed Kaltura Media" icon in the rich content editor. But this editor doesn't just show up on Canvas "pages." On any page that uses that editor, you can embed a video, such as Canvas quiz questions, discussion forum posts, etc. 
• The same goes for students - if they see the rich content editor that means that they can embed a video as well. This can be handy for certain types of submissions or discussion forum posts. Check out our tutorial on how to create a video submission assignment based on this principle.
• You can embed multiple videos on a page. We wouldn't recommend putting too many on the same page, though - this can trigger an error in some of the players.
• When embedded, Kaltura technically labels the media as "embedded in context." We like to draw a conceptual distinction between publishing media and embedding media. The former is about what's in a Media Gallery and the latter is about what's within modules, discussion forum posts, etc. But if you go and look at a piece of media that's only been embedded in a module, you'll see that Kaltura claims it's published in a Media gallery, but "embedded in context." It's a bit misleading; the label claims that it's published in a Media Gallery when it's not. Just know that even though it says it's "published in a Media Gallery," if it says it's "embedded in context" that just means you've embedded it somewhere in that course. 
  

Known Issues

• Old embed players that use the transcript widget reserve space for the widget, whether or not the transcript is showing. The transcript widget that sits below the old player is collapsed by default, though users can click to expand it if they want. When it's collapsed, however, the iframe that the player uses still reserves space for that transcript widget. So if you intend to put text below the player, the text will show up well below the player. Kaltura has acknowledged this, but will not be fixing it. Instead, we will need to upgrade to a new player, which we aren't prepared to do until all features from the previous player have been added to it. Note that this problem is resolved in the new player (since the transcript is within the player itself). So the way to address this is to re-embed your video using the new player!
  

Assumptions

• In the instructions below, we're assuming you're embedding a video on a Canvas "page" within your modules that's already been created. As mentioned above, though, you can embed Kaltura media in Canvas wherever you see the rich content editor (a quiz question, a discussion forum post, etc.). So if you're in another type of course element that has the rich content editor and you want to embed a video, you can just jump to step 2 below.

Steps to Take

There are two high-level steps involved in embedding Kaltura media in Canvas:

1. Editing the course element where you want to embed the media
2. Embedding your media

As mentioned above, for the sake of developing this tutorial, we're assuming that you want to embed your video on a Canvas page, but you can embed a video wherever you see the rich content editor. Feel free to skip to step 2 if you're embedding on a different type of course element or if you're already seeing the rich content editor.

Step 1: Edit the Course Element

First you'll need to get to the course element where you want to embed your media. We're assuming it's a Canvas page. Skip to step 2 if it's a different type of course element or you're already seeing the rich content editor.

1. Log into Canvas.
   1. Go to https://canvas.ucsd.edu.
   2. Enter your active directory credentials.
2. Enter the course in question by either clicking on it in your dashboard or by finding it in the Courses menu item in the left global navigation.
3. Click Modules in the course navigation on the left.
4. Locate the page in which you want to embed a video and click on it.
5. Click Edit.

Step 2: Embed Your Media

1. Click the Embed Kaltura Media icon in the rich content editor. It looks like wheel spokes in rainbow colors.
2. Find the video you want to embed and either click </> Embed in its row or the gear icon if you want to configure your embed a little more (choose the size, player, etc.). Note that you can use the tabs at the top of the window to see videos and playlists in the Media Gallery. You can also use the search and filter options to find your media more easily.

Now your video should be visible within the text box of the rich content editor. If you think it's the wrong size or want to, say, use a player with different features, delete the existing embedded video from the editor and see "configuring your Embed" above to re-embed it to your liking.