Menu

Technology Enhanced Learning Team

menu

Sharing Box of Broadcast content with others

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

For: Staff and StudentsApplication: Box of BroadcastsTagged: audio , multimedia , video

If you have found something interesting on Box of Broadcasts, you can share that content with other BoB users in a variety of different ways.

  • Send a link to the content e.g. in an email or an instant message
  • Hyperlink the content on a website, including a QMplus area. People can click the link to view it
  • Embed the content into a website. This displays a preview image of the content which people can click on to play. The content will then play in the web page, the same way embedded YouTube videos work

BoB is a subscription only service which means that everyone is required to log in to BoB, even to view content. This means you can only share content with people who have access to BoB. Everyone at QMUL has access so you can easily share content with staff and students here. If you want to share content with someone not at QMUL, they will have to be a member of an organisation which subscribes to the service.

Even though everyone at QMUL has access to BoB, accounts are not automatically created. You create an account yourself the first time you access the service. Therefore if you share content with someone and they haven’t accessed BoB before, they will be asked to set up an account. It’s a very simple process and only has to be done once. It might be worth letting people know this when you are sharing the content with them.

Where to find the sharing options

bob-share

When viewing content in BoB, you will find the Share button underneath the content itself. Clicking on this button will display the various sharing options.

bob-sharing-options

  1. This is a simple link to the content. You can send this link e.g. in an email or via instant messaging. You can also make a hyperlink on a website. When the person clicks on the link, they will have to log in to BoB (if they are not already logged in). Use this link if you want to share BoB content with people who are not QMUL staff or students.
  2. This option is similar to option 1, it is a link to the content and can be used in exactly the same way. However, if you are only going to be sharing the content with people at QMUL, you should use this link. It allows them to bypass a part of the login process for viewing the content, making life easier for them. WAYF stands for Where Are You From and using a WAFLess link this means that the system is going to assume the person is from QMUL, rather than having to ask them
  3. This option provides you with the “embed code” which allows you to embed the content into another website, including QMplus and QMplus Hub.

selecting-a-bob-link

Clicking on the text in the boxes for any of the sharing options will select it and you can then copy it using Ctrl-C if you are on a PC and cmd-C if you are on a Mac.

Once you have copied the appropriate link for your content, you can use it in a variety of ways. You can send it to someone in an email or via instant messaging or you can make a hyperlink on a website for people to click on.

If you want to share the links on QMplus you can either create a hyperlink using the text editor or, if you have editing rights on the area, you can use the URL resource.

Embedding BoB content into other websites

Below you will find an example of a Box of Broadcasts clip embedded into this web page. If you are not logged in, you will see a message telling you that you have to log in to view the content.

Source: ‘The amazing swimming sloth’, Planet Earth II, Islands, 20:00 06/11/2016, 00:04:33-00:06:10, BBC1 London

You can embed the content into any website that you have the rights to edit. How you use the embed code will depend on your particular website.

If you have editing rights on a QMplus course area, you can embed the content there. Content can be embedded anywhere you see the QMplus text editor e.g. in a quiz question, a forum post, in a label or a page. If you only have “student” access to a QMplus area, you will not be able to use the embed code. You will have to share content using links.

You can also embed BoB content into QMplus Hub pages using the External Media block.

Don’t forget that anyone you are sharing content with has to have an account on BoB to be able to view it.

Sharing playlists

BoB allows you to create playlists of content. You can keep these playlists private, just using them to help you keep track of interesting things you’ve found, or you can make them public, allowing you to share them with other BoB users. In previous versions of BoB, it was possible to search BoB for other users playlists but this functionality was removed during a system upgrade in 2016 and has not been replaced. While it is still useful to be able to create playlists to manage your content, sharing them is a little more involved. There is currently no way to embed playlists into websites but it is possible to share a playlist via a link.

playlist-link

When you are on your playlist page in BoB, you will find the web address for the list in your browser address bar. Select the contents of the address bar and copy it. You can then use this link in exactly the same way you use links to any other BoB content. Remember that if you want to share a playlist with others, you must set it to be publicly available.

You can see the Wonderful Wildlife playlist in the example.

Did this answer your query? If not, you can raise a ticket on the online Helpdesk or email: its-helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk . Alternatively you can also request a particular guide or highlight an error in this guide using our guides request tracker.

Produced by the the Technology Enhanced Learning Team at Queen Mary University of London.
QP026-image015

Return to top