Educational videos and streaming your lectures

There are a couple of ways to utilize videos and video conferencing and in teaching. Material can be recorded in advance with your tool of choice and made available to the students through the course platform. The other option is to teach in real-time by streaming, which also enables the use of interactive components depending on the system used.

1. The Zoom web-conference system (in Finnish) is the primary alternative for real-time interactive distance education within the University of Helsinki. Zoom can be used to arrange distance teaching for a larger group of people (up to 300 participants per meeting). The sessions can also be recorded in Zoom and distributed to the students afterwards.
2. Videos can be made for example with Screencast-O-Matic or Zoom. Creating videos usually only requires your own laptop as the very minimum.  Unitube lecture halls and -studios can be used to record high quality videos with the built-in equipment of those rooms. Mobile devices are perfectly all right for recording short educational clips.
3. One-directional streams can be broadcasted using Unitube lecture halls and -studios. We recommend using a separate back channel for interaction, for example Flinga or Presemo. 

 
Recorded videos are easiest to distribute through the Unitube Uploader, in which you can create a video series linked to one or more Moodle courses.

On this page you can find instructions for the use of these tools provided by the University.  

Support addresses

• Educational technology services and training: edutech@helsinki.fi 
• Moodle: moodle@helsinki.fi 
• For services provided by the Center for Information Technology (eg. Teams, Office 365, Zoom) you can get support by contacting Helpdesk  

Zoom is a web conferencing system suitable for remote teaching or streaming and recording of lectures. Zoom offers user-adjustable views and multiple tools for activating learners including chat, polls, whiteboard, annotating shared views and sharing of files.    

Using Zoom requires a microphone (and optionally a webcam if you want lecturer video). We recommend using Zoom through the Zoom app and an Ethernet connection.   

Staff and students at the University of Helsinki can create and manage Zoom-meetings. 

Zoom guide for teachers

• Opettajien Zoom-oppaassa (in Finnish) 

Special licences

• Webinar and Large Meeting functions

Additional information

• User instructions (Helpdesk)
• Zoom has great instructional videos in English, which we recommend highly. (Zoom website)

Screencast-O-Matic offers functionality for creating screen capture videos and video assignments as well as editing video and audio. Moreover, captioning videos is also possible either manually or through Speech-to-text. Thus, it also provides a way of meeting the accessibility requirements for videos through subtitling.

Screencast-O-Matic can additionally record video from a webcam and mix it with the screen capture. The audio quality of the recording can be improved by using an external microphone instead of the built-in mic of your device. However, recording in a quiet environment is by far the most effective way of improving intelligibility and reducing listener fatigue. 

Additional information

• User instructions (Helpdesk)
• How to install the software yourself to centrally administered University of Helsinki computers. (Helpdesk)
• The supplier’s website has plenty of concise video tutorials in English covering most functions of the software.

ThingLink is a platform that makes it easy to augment images, videos, 360° material and virtual tours with additional information and links. Thinglink is integrated with the university's Microsoft Office 365 account and an educational license is provided to both students and staff.

Here is an example Thinglink  tour.

Getting started

• How to activate your Thinglink account and add Thinklink icon to your Office 365 launcher menu.
• How to create & publish ThingLinks
• Introduction to ThingLink for Educators webinar

Additional instructions

• How to use the ThingLink editor

UniTube services include space for storing lectures as well as self-service studios and a platform for publishing and watching videos.

UniTube facilities

Certain facilities at the University of Helsinki have been equipped with UniTube lecture recording equipment that allow you to create recordings of your lectures and stream them. The recording equipment is not remotely scheduled. Instead, the organiser (lecturer) must always start and stop the recording device. List of the facilities.

UniTube Studios

You can use the UniTube studios to create instruction videos of presentations or group discussions. 

The facilities can be booked through the Office365 calendar. The studios can be booked by all members of the University of Helsinki staff. Use of the facilities is free of charge.

Studio at Aleksandria (A-studio): calendar
Studio at Exactum (K-studio): calendar
Studio at Info Centre Korona (V-studio): calendar

Unitube Studio user instructions

Publishing a video  

You can use the UniTube Uploader to make your video/audio recording public or share to a Moodle course with your students. You can find UniTube Uploader at http://lataamo.helsinki.fi/. The recordings can include videos recorded using a tablet, a smartphone camera or a video camera, or audio files created using a dictation machine. UniTube lecture and studio recording will be saved to your UniTube Uploader Inbox where you can administer them.

UniTube Viewer is a viewing interface for video and audio files. It can be accessed at https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/unitube

Further information:

• Helpdesk website: Unitube user instructions
• Support requests unitube@helsinki.fi
• UniTube news: UniTube area in Yammer (University of Helsinki O365 login required)

Currently room 430 at Alexandria in the centre campus has equipment specifically for podcasts and other recordings. Take a look inside the room!

Based on about a year of test use, the equipment is easily accessible and can record audio from Bluetooth or USB in addition to the four microphones, so participants can be present, for example, via a telephone call or Zoom connection. Recording is possible both on the recorder's memory card and via a USB connection to a computer, if the user has one. When recording to the memory card, each audio source is recorded on its own track, making it easier to process the recording afterwards. When recording to a computer, the features depend on the programme and computer you are using.

The room is booked via Outlook. The most reliable way is to invite aleksandria.430@helsinki.fi as a participant. If your booking is denied because you do not have rights to book the room, please contact Mikael Kivelä to solve the issue

Note. There are no studio lights, Unitube recorder, or other equipment for recording the image.

More info on podcasts in Flamma from the communications department here.

Microsoft Teams tutorial videos now available in Suffeli! More information in Flamma news.

See the Office365 instructions

• Video based Teams instructions by Microsoft
• Teams instructions (Helpdesk)

Unitube-equipped rooms as well as three rooms specifically outfitted for distance teaching  (Metsätalo hall 12, Chemicum A128 and Biomedicum kok. 2) offer the use of the room's AV-equipment through a single USB-cable courtesy of Extron MediaPort. Thus, it is possible to use the installed camera(s) and microphones with all software and hardware supporting USB-audio and webcams. The PC installed in the room is already connected to MediaPort and a cable labelled either VIDEOVIESTINTÄ or SKYPE provides connectivity for laptops or other personal devices. In order to use camera or microphones with for example Zoom or Screencast-O-Matic you need to select either MediaPort 200 or Extron 200 as the video or audio source. The camera and microphones can be adjusted using the control panel in the room. 

The same basic principle applies in meeting rooms equipped with webcams, SoundBars or other devices offering USB-connections. 

Unitube-equipped lecture rooms require logging in with a Uniflow card in order to access the camera controls even if Unitube is not used for recording or streaming.  

Please note Unitube studios do not have the USB-connectivity described above. Therefore they provide only recording and streaming through Unitube. In Aleksandria, however, the Unitube studio has limited USB-connectivity for experienced users.

Further information:

•  Teaching facilities site