Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some answers to many common questions and the links provided will help you navigate Mediathread too.

General
Introductory and general information about Mediathread

Managing Your Course
Information for instructors on the different sections of the "Manage Course" feature, which is used to change general settings for your course

Canvas Integration
Advice for instructors on how to integrate Mediathread with Canvas

Collection Space
Information on the "Collection" space. The Collection space is where all media is collected in your class

Assignments (for Instructors)
Help for instructors on how to create and manage the assignments in your class

Assignments (for Students)
Help for students on how to respond to and manage assignments in their class

Projects
Answers to questions regarding the "Projects" tab

General

Introductory and general information about Mediathread

How do I login to Mediathread?

There are two ways to log in, and you can choose whichever is easiest for you or your students:

  1. You can login through your CourseWorks site once you have activated Mediathread. Most people use this option since they can continue to focus on using CourseWorks as their main portal for online components of classes.
  2. Another option is to login directly through the Mediathread site with your Columbia UNI credentials, or as a guest user. If you are a member of more than one Mediathread course site, you will be prompted to select a specific course after logging in.

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How do I navigate my courses dashboard?

Once you have logged into Mediathread you will see your Course Dashboard. Use the tabs to see Past, Current, and Future courses. You can also use the search function to search for a particular course by name.

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What are the system requirements for Mediathread?

The Mediathread platform supports the latest versions of Chrome and Safari. Note that if you plan to collect media off the internet, you must use Chrome. Many other browsers can use much of the functionality of Mediathread but it is not guaranteed.

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Managing Your Course

Information for instructors on the different sections of the "Manage Course" feature, which is used to change general settings for your course

How can I manage the many settings in the course under the Manage Course menu?

Roster

You can use this tool to view your class members. For Columbia faculty, please contact us if you would like to promote and demote members to different roles (student, instructor), or to remove or add class members.

Course Vocabulary

If you want students to tag or categorize selections with a particular set of terms, use Course Vocabulary. An instructor can create a list of terms using Course Vocabulary. These terms can be grouped by larger concepts, creating a two tier hierarchy (multiple parent concepts each with multiple children terms). To create a parent concept, click on the Create Concept + button. To create a term, click on an existing parent concept.

In the course, Vocabulary is used similarly to tags. When annotating an item, you can attach course terms. In the Collection tab, you can search for items or annotations by course terms.

Sources

You can set the sources from where you would like class members to pull media. Class members can pull media from any open source on the Internet, but this menu item can help guide users and place some restrictions.

Mediathread Video Uploader

Click "Enable Uploader" to enable video upload. You can change the video upload permission settings. The video uploader appears in the Collection tab when you click on Add to Collection. Changing video upload.

Panopto Ingest

If you are interested in synchronizing Mediathread with Panopto, you can contact us. [1] Panopto is a video hosting and streaming solution for the Columbia community. You can click on the Panopto Ingest Log button to see which Panopto videos have been connected to Mediathread.

Add Supported Sources

You can communicate to class members which Internet sources you would prefer class members to use. Simply press Add to Class button to add the source to a list. These sources will appear in a list of Recommended Sources. This list of Recommend Sources is located in the Collection tab when a class member presses Add to Collection.

Add External Collection

You can add your own sources to the list of supported sources. Under Collection Title, pick a title (i.e. Smithsonian Open Access). Under Collection URL, put the appropriate URL of the source (i.e. https://www.si.edu/openaccess). Under Thumb URL, put a link to the thumbnail image that you want to appear next to the source in the list of sources. This is optional. Put a description of the source to help inform your class members what the source is about (i.e. access to millions of images from Smithosnian museum, education, and research complex). When done, click Add Source to Class.

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How do I migrate course materials?

Use this feature if you need to move course materials from a previous class to the current class.

Activity

This is a list of all activity done on the course site. Each activity has a link to the change, a time stamp, and a brief description.

Member Contributions

This is a list of all your course members and each of their corresponding amounts of selections, discussion posts, and compositions. A graph visualization of these contributions is provided.

Assignment Responses

This is a list of all your assignments and the number of responses. In the Response column, the first number is the number of responses, and the second number is the number of students (possible responses). Clicking on the number in the response column takes you to a detailed report of the Assignment. You can click on the links in the Titles column to go to each individual response. By clicking on Download Detail, you can get a CSV file of the report, which you can open in Excel. This is an alternative way to view your assignments other than the Assignments tab in the course.

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Canvas Integration

Advice for instructors on how to integrate Mediathread with Canvas

How do I connect Canvas to Mediathread?

To have Mediathread appear in the Course Navigation menu, it needs to first be enabled. To do this:

  1. Click Settings in the Course Navigation menu.
  2. Click the Navigation tab.
  3. Scroll down to select Mediathread.
  4. Drag and drop Mediathread or click the ellipsis and select enable.
  5. Be sure to click Save.

To activate the appropriate course:

  1. Click Mediathread in the course navigation.
  2. Click Activate Now.

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How do students get to Mediathread?

Once Mediathread has been enabled and activated, students can access Mediathread by clicking on Mediathread in the navigation bar of your CourseWorks site. Students will be asked to launch mediathread and will be taken to the Mediathread site. Students listed in the Registrar for your course will be automatically added to the Mediathread site.

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How can I embed Mediathread selections in Canvas?

You can embed Mediathread selections in Canvas anywhere you can edit content (e.g. Pages, Discussions, Assignments, Quizzes, etc.)

  1. Click Edit.
  2. In the rich content editor select the Mediathread icon.
  3. Use the fields to search for content from your Collection and use the arrow on the left hand side to choose what you want to embed.

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Collection Space

Information on the "Collection" space. The Collection space is where all media is collected in your class

How do I add media to my collection?

Two ways to add media to your collection are directly from your computer desktop, or directly from the internet via the Mediathread Google Chrome Extension. For media available on the internet, it needs to be freely available[1] and not subject to copyright restrictions. If you are not sure whether the piece of media you want to add is available, you can simply try adding it to the collection. To add media, you can go to the Collection tab in Mediathread and click on “Add to Collection” to pull up both the media uploader and instructions on how to use the extension. For the media uploader, you can modify the upload permissions in “Manage Course” to also include students in the upload.

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How do I use the Google Chrome Extension?

You only need to add the extension once.

  1. Go to your course in Mediathread and click Collection
  2. Select Add to Collection (blue button on right hand side)
  3. You will be prompted to install the Extension - Follow the prompts
  4. Once you have the extension, open a browser[3] and find media you want to add to your collection. You must be logged in to Mediathread.
  5. When you have found media to add, click the browser extension icon on your toolbar (next to the URL bar) 6. You will be asked if you want to collect or open in Mediathread. To stay on the website and continue searching, click on collect. To go to Mediathread and analyze the item, click on Open in Mediathread.

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What resources are recommended?

Some recommended resources include:

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How do I search for collected media?

Once you have media in your Collection space you can search for specific items. You can search via:

  • Title of the media
  • Name of person who added it to the collection
  • Tags associated with it
  • Date it was added

Note that you cannot import images or other media from Google Drive.

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Assignments (for Instructors)

Help for instructors on how to create and manage the assignments in your class

What are the different types of assignments?

In each assignment type, the instructor should set instructions, expectations, and a prompt. Each assignment type allows students to respond to the prompt in a different way.

Selection Assignment

Students select portions of media to respond to a selection assignment. Class members can use these selections in other assignments.

Composition Assignment

Students write long form responses with a composition assignment. Students integrate selections of media into their responses. Composition assignments are structured similarly to a traditional essay.

Sequence Assignment

Students juxtapose side-by-side pieces of time-based media.

Discussion Assignment

Students respond to the prompt and each other. Like composition assignments, they can integrate selections of media into their responses. Discussion assignments are structured similar to topics in online message boards. You may see the following link for a more thorough breakdown of the different assignments.

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How do I create an assignment?

  1. To create an assignment, click on the Assignments tab.
  2. Then click on the Add an assignment button to reveal the different assignment types that can be created.
  3. Click on add assignment for the assignment type that you want to create.

You will be taken through an assignment wizard which will provide step-by-step instructions on the steps needed to create the assignment. The assignment wizard occurs over several pages; you can use the Previous and Next buttons below the wizard to navigate through the pages. Be sure to provide clear instructions and expectations for your students. In Mediathread, due dates are not binding; they do not prevent students from submitting late assignments. All student submissions have a time stamp at the time of submission so that the instructor knows when they were submitted. An instructor must administer consequences related to deadlines (if any) outside of Mediathread.

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How do I review my assignments and give feedback?

To review all the assignments you have created, click on the Assignments tab. A table of all your assignments is provided to you. If you have more than 10 assignments, the table will have multiple pages, with each page showing 10 assignments. You can navigate through the table pages by clicking on any of the buttons below the bottom-right of the table.

The table has eight different columns. Five of these columns are sortable. To sort by that column, click on the column header.

  1. Due Date - The due date of the assignment.
  2. Status - Whether your assignment is in draft form or shared with the class.
  3. Title - The title you set for the assignment. You can click on the Assignment Title to edit the assignment.
  4. Responses - The number of students who have submitted responses / the total number of students (possible responses) in the class.
  5. Authors - The class members who have created the assignment.
  6. Assignment Type - One of four assignment types in Mediathread.
  7. Last Updated - The last time any activity was done on the assignment (an instructor has created the assignment, an instructor has edited the assignment, or a student submitted a response.)
  8. Delete - Any assignment with 0 responses can be deleted. Click on the Delete link to delete.

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How do I edit assignments?

To edit an assignment, click on the Title of the assignment in the Assignments tab. Once the assignment is loaded, click on the Edit Assignment button to go to the assignment wizard (which was used to create the assignment). You can use the assignment wizard to edit the fields and settings for the assignment.

To review submissions, for an assignment, click on the Title of the assignment in the Assignments tab. Above the upper-right part of the assignment, there is a drop-down menu that displays the number of students who have responded. (For selection assignment, the menu appears as a button. Clicking on this button causes a pop-up window to appear; this pop-up window has a drop-down menu). Click on the drop-down menu to display a list of all the students in the class. Students that have a response will have their name in black, and students that do not have a response will have their name in grey. With the exception of the Selection assignment, clicking on a specific submission will take you to that submission.

Selection Assignments

All assignment submissions are viewable once the assignment loads. You can organize the submissions by clicking on the View Options drop-down menu, which is next to Responses. You can also display all submissions simultaneously via the View Options. The drop-down menu inside the blue submissions button both lists when students submitted assignments, but also gives faculty the option to unsubmit assignments (See Unsubmitting responses).

Composition and Sequence Assignments

In the drop-down menu, students who have a response that is in draft form will have a blank parenthesis next to their name. *this should be changed -- it should say draft*. If the student has submitted the response (no longer in draft form), a date will appear next to the student's name.

Discussion Assignments

In the drop-down menu, students who have left a reply will have the number of comments next to their name in parenthesis. Clicking on one of these students will take you to their first reply in the thread. Additionally, all of their replies will be highlighted in yellow.

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How do I provide feedback?

Feedback is private and can only be viewed by you and the author(s) of the response.. In discussions, there is no separate feedback feature as all comments in an assignment are displayed to the whole class in a discussion thread.

Selection Assignment

Find the student's response in the list of responses. Click on +add feedback next to the student's name. After typing in your feedback, click the Save Feedback button. You can return to the student's response and click on edit feedback to edit your feedback.

Composition Assignment

Navigate to a student's response using the drop-down menu. (See reviewing submissions). Below their response, click on the Add Feedback button. You can add feedback (and even include other selections) in the feedback. Click Save when finished. This will create a feedback conversation thread to which both you and the student can reply.

Sequence Assignment

Navigate to a student's response using the drop-down menu. (See reviewing submissions). The Feedback tab is the third tab above the sequence view. You can enter text comments in this feedback section. Click Save Feedback when finished.

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How do I unsubmit a student's response?

You may want to unsubmit an assignment if a student needs to fix their submission. Unsubmitting is only available in selection and sequence assignments. With other assignment types, students can edit their submissions at any time. In either case, you will navigate to a student's response (See reviewing submissions). Click Unsubmit.

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Assignments (for Students)

Help for students on how to respond to and manage assignments in their class

What do the different statuses for assignments mean?

Assignments are listed in order of which assignments do not have a submission as well as in the order of the closest due date [1]. Each assignment is also labeled with itscurrent status [2]. These are the possible statuses that an assignment can have:

No Response

You have not submitted a response for this assignment, nor have you started a draft for your response.

No Comments (for discussion assignments only)

Similar to No Response, you have not yet commented on this discussion.

Draft

You have started a draft for the assignment, but have not submitted anything.

Shared

Comments (for discussion assignments only): You have posted comments to the discussion. The # represents how many comments you currently have posted.

Shared with Instructor

The response has been submitted and can only be viewed by the instructor.

Shared with Class

The response has been submitted and can be viewed by everyone in the class.

Shared with World

The response has been submitted and can be viewed publicly, even to users that do not have Mediathread accounts. *Please note that you do not have the option to decide whether your response will be shared with the class or with just the instructor. This is something that the instructor determines for everyone when setting up the assignment. You do however have the option to share the response publicly (Shared with World) as long as the instructor has turned that option on for the course.

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What are the different assignment types?

There are four assignment types that your instructor can choose from and assign to you. Each of these assignment types have different forms of submission that you will follow. These assignment types are:

Selection Assignment

You will be asked to select or annotate parts of a chosen media file. The annotation tools available will depend on the type of media (image, audio/video, or pdf). When annotating you can add comments that help answer the instructions or address the context of the assignment. Typically for these assignments you can create multiple selections before submitting them as the response to the assignment.

Composition Assignment

This assignment type is similar to a typical writing assignment you could complete using Word or Google Docs, Composition assignments allow you to add media that has been collected and the selections that you have created directly cited into the text itself. Your instructor may give guidance on how many media citations are appropriate for a given assignment.

Selection Assignment

This assignment type allows you to line up a "primary" selection of video or audio against multiple "secondary" selections and/or annotations. The secondary selections will appear at designated points while the primary selection plays.

Discussion Assignment

This assignment type allows you to respond to a discussion post with your own post that can incorporate media and selection citations directly into the text. You create citations as you would in a Composition Assignment and your response becomes part of a discussion with classmates and your instructor.

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How do I respond to different assignment types?

Each assignment will ask you to respond in a different format.

Selection Assignment (Image)

You can create multiple selections before submitting a response.

  1. To start press Create Selection.
  2. Use the annotation tool to select a part of the image that you want to comment on.
  3. Fill in the selection information fields.
  4. Press Save Selection
  5. Repeat the process if you want to add more selections.
  6. Press the Submit Selections button when you are ready to submit the assignment. Be sure you are ready to submit, as you cannot undo the submission after the fact.

Selection Assignment (Video):

You can create multiple selections before submitting a response.

  1. To start press Create Selection.
  2. Choose the start and end time for the selection of the video. This can be done either by letting the video play out to those times and pressing the Start Time and End Time buttons at their respective times, or manually input the times into the fields.
  3. Fill in the rest of the selection information fields.
  4. . Press Save Selection.
  5. Repeat the process if you want to add more selections.
  6. Press the Submit Selections button when you are ready to submit the assignment. Be sure you are ready to submit, as you cannot undo the submission after the fact.

Composition Assignment

As you are writing your composition, you can add selections that you or your classmates have made to collection assets within the text body. You can do this following these directions. 1. Use the Selections from Collection search to find the selections you want to add. 2. When you find the selection you want to use, make sure your cursor is located in the text where you want it to appear. 3. Then press click on the selection in the collection space and press Insert in Text.

You should now see a selection added into the text. You can repeat this process to add more selections into the text.

As you are writing your composition, it is being automatically saved every 10 seconds. This is noted by the Save/Saved button. When it is not in a saved state you can manually save the work by clicking the save button. You can leave your saved composition as a draft you can return to later.. Also, every time your work is saved (either automatically or manually) it gets saved as a new file under Revisions. This allows you to see the revision history of the composition.

Before submitting your composition, please use the Preview feature to see how your work will be viewed by your instructor and/or fellow students. When you are ready to submit the composition, you can click on the Submit button on the top right. Once the composition is submitted you cannot return to editing..

You can also make the composition collaborative by adding more Authors. When you press the Authors tab you can add other class members by starting to type their name. Click on it when it appears in the auto-fill.

Sequence Assignment

In a sequence assignment choose one of your video selections to be the primary video that will be played through in its entirety. This needs to be done first before anything else can be done.

For the secondary elements you can use as many different selections so you want. To add a secondary element please follow these steps:

  1. Click on the audio track (The track with the M symbol), at the time you would like the element to appear.
  2. You can then change the start and end time that the element appears.
  3. Similarly you can have text pop up as a 3rd asset in the sequence by doing the same thing in the text elements track(The track with the T symbol).

You can add as many secondary elements as you can fit on the track timeline.

Depending on the instructions for the assignment, you may be asked to add a text-based response in the reflection section.

You can save your work so that you can return to it anytime before you submit it. Once you submit the response you can no longer edit it.

Discussion Assignment

Your instructor will have assigned a discussion prompt. Press the reply button to start your response. You can add selections to your response the same way you do in a composition. Follow these steps:

  1. Use the Selections from Collection search to find the selections you want to add.
  2. When you find the selection you want to use, make sure your cursor is located in the text where you want it to appear.
  3. Then click on the selection in the collection space and press Insert in Text.

When you are ready to submit the post, press the Save Comment button. You can still come back to edit the post at a later time.

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Who can see my submitted work?

For assignments, your instructor will decide at what level of visibility your submission will have. For the selection, composition, and sequence assignment the instructor will always be able to see the submission, but they will choose whether your submissions will be shared with other classmates. Instructors can also choose hide your classmates responses until you have submitted your own response.

For Discussion Assignments, your comments will always be viewable by your classmates.

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Projects

Answers to questions regarding the "Projects" tab

How are projects different from assignments?

There are only two project types that you can create; a Composition and a Sequence. These are the same tools that are used in the Composition Assignment and the Sequence Assignment. The difference here is that projects are not submitted as part of an assignment. They are for your own personal use. Instead of submitting your work, you have the option to share your work either with your instructor or your fellow classmates.

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Who can I share my projects with?

With your projects you will be able to choose whether you want to share your work. If you do decide to share it you can decide whether to share it to just your instructor or to the whole class.

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