The benefits of using YuJa or video in your courses can be extensive. We know videos in online courses covers elements of communications, like tone and personality, otherwise difficult to gain from static images or text.

Just as with D2L Brightspace, YuJa provides a media infrastructure with direct connections to D2L for our educational media, especially the media we create. Using YuJa, instead of a tool such as YouTube, for our own and student videos is important due to educational policies and keeping a separate space for our media and storage. We have more control, access, and protection of our video media through YuJa at CCCS than we would with a free alternative, like YouTube.

Benefits of YuJa

• Hosting our videos in a cloud, saving D2L server space and your hard drive space.
• Streamlined look and feel for video players for students, especially if using captions.
• Easily share videos between your courses in D2L.
• Easily post videos from your full video library most places in D2L pages.
• Meets our institutional data and encryption methods of keeping educational media, including some student-created media.

Why don’t I see YuJa in D2L?

It is a tool that is available through some colleges but not all. Reach out to your college’s Learning Technology team to learn more about the video and media tools available to you.

Instructor Tips for YuJa Courses

• Outline: It is best to plan rough outlines of instructional videos before recording. With this outline, it is easier to determine the needed tools or props (I.e. computer windows open for sharing), topic ordering, and keep it short and focused.
• Rehearse: Many people are not used to recording videos or screen recordings. You will want to plan time to rehearse using the tool, especially YuJa, to ensure you have the right set-up, the audio is working, and you can work out some of the kinks without being rushed.
• One Outcome Focus: It is highly recommended to focus on one outcome or one key point in each video. This method is great for keeping videos short to meet student preferences, shorter load times for students, and easier for you to record, edit, and post. You can wrap shorter videos with text and context in ways longer videos do not offer for online learning.
• Edit Before Uploading: Many people are fans of YuJa, but many have reported the editing tools are a little delayed or unreliable. It is recommended you try to do simple video edits in another software, such as iMovie or Movie Maker, before uploading to the YuJa content library.
• Watch All the Way Through: Be sure you watch your video all the way through, especially once it is uploaded to YuJa. Interruptions throughout the video creation and upload process can create glitches or skips in videos. Make sure your videos are student- ready by watching them thoroughly.
• Check Auto Captions: While you watch your video all the way through, check the auto captions YuJa created. There may be some words it did not catch or have trouble hearing you accurately in transcribing your words. If you need to make changes to captions, you can edit them by downloading the captions file and reuploading or following YuJa’s instructions for editing captions (Link: https://support.yuja.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050590953-Editing-Captions-in-the-Video-Editor)

YuJa Overview Video

This video gives a brief introduction to the YuJa interface, media capabilities, and how-to use many of the tools.