Using Microsoft Stream in Your Course | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

Using Microsoft Stream in Your Course: Captioning Lectures, Collecting Student Video Projects, Screencasting, and more!

by Jennifer Peters, Seneca Libraries and the Teaching & Learning Centre

in the June 2020 issue

Microsoft Stream is a streaming video app available to Seneca faculty and students through the Office 365 suite of tools. Recently, the Teaching & Learning Centre has begun to explore Microsoft Stream and has found multiple potential uses for you and your students.

One of the benefits to Microsoft Stream is that no one outside of Seneca can view the videos. You can further limit access to only a group of people, a single person, or private (just to you). Videos you would like to share with colleagues or students can be linked to or embedded.

Get started today by logging into Microsoft Stream using your Seneca credentials. Now let’s explore some ways to use Microsoft Stream in your course.

Auto-Captioning Your Videos

Captioning videos is not only our responsibility as educators in Ontario, under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, it’s also a great way to ensure increased and flexible access to our teaching materials.

Microsoft Stream can auto-caption videos, whether you are producing video lectures, demonstrations, or introductions; as long as the file is in an accepted format, you can upload it to Microsoft Stream for auto-captioning and transcription. Note that auto-captioning can take from a couple of hours to overnight, so plan ahead and be patient. Just ensure that “Autogenerate a caption file” is selected in the options for your video:

Captions can be automatically generated for English and Spanish videos. To auto-caption other languages, try YouTube for auto-captioning. Also, use YouTube for auto-captioning if you would prefer your video to be viewable outside of a Seneca login.

Related instructions:

• Instructions for downloading a video from Collaborate Ultra to auto-caption on Microsoft Stream
• Instructions for recording a lecture in Microsoft Teams for auto-captioning in Microsoft Stream
• Add a survey, poll or quiz to a video on Microsoft Stream

Microsoft Stream for Student Video Projects

The Groups tool in Microsoft Stream is very useful for collecting and sharing student video projects. Instead of asking students to submit their videos through My.Seneca, which can cause a host of issues, you can create a Group for your class in Microsoft Stream, and then each student can upload their own video to that group. Please note: bulk-adding students is not available at this time. Students must be added one-by-one to a group.

Here are some instructions for using Microsoft Stream for Student Video Projects:

• Creating a Class Group in Microsoft Stream
• Uploading a Video Project to a Class Group on Microsoft Stream (feel free to share this with your students!)

Screen Recording

Screen recording (aka “Screencasting”) is an incredibly useful tool to record any process or activity on your computer screen. From demonstrating how to use software, to where to find information in your course on My.Seneca, screen recording can provide effective and efficient instructions for students.

Microsoft Stream has a screen recording tool built right in. When in Microsoft Stream, click on +Create and then Record screen to launch the tool:

After recording, you can upload the video to Microsoft Stream for basic editing and auto-captioning.

Troubleshooting tips:

• If you are embedding a video from Microsoft Stream in My.Seneca or another web page, always provide the direct link to the video as well. Embedded content often won’t display for a number of reasons (e.g., cookies, security settings) so having the direct link helps students avoid having to email you for assistance.
• Students must log in to Microsoft Stream at least once before they will be able to see any embedded content. Ask them to visit Microsoft Stream and login with their Seneca credentials.
• If captions don’t appear after an extended period of time, try refreshing your page, try another browser, or re-upload your video.

View the June 2020 issue of the Academic Newsletter.