Downloading Student Recoded Media/Videos

[aduran]

If a student submitted a media recording using Canvas's built-in media recorder option, am I able to download it as an MP4/MOV? Or any other playable video format/codec I can then open with VLC? 

I've tried "Download Submissions" under Related Items within the Assignments section and it will download other media that was recorded from their phone/video camera and then uploaded. However, it will not download any videos they recorded using Canvas's built-in recording option.   

I keep trying to find different ways and I'm having no luck. 

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Alexis,

I haven't tried this in Speedgrader but I know it works for videos embedded within Canvas so I think it might work for you too.  Best done with Chrome.  

• Click on the video so it opens
• Click the CC button and select Upload Subtitles
• Copy the URL listed on the screen and paste it into a new window
• On this screen click the 3 dots in the lower right corner and select Download (this step is specific to Chrome.  Using a different browser might require you to right click and select download)

Rick

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Alexis,

I haven't tried this in Speedgrader but I know it works for videos embedded within Canvas so I think it might work for you too.  Best done with Chrome.  

• Click on the video so it opens
• Click the CC button and select Upload Subtitles
• Copy the URL listed on the screen and paste it into a new window
• On this screen click the 3 dots in the lower right corner and select Download (this step is specific to Chrome.  Using a different browser might require you to right click and select download)

Rick

[aduran]

Rick, that worked flawlessly! Thank you!

I greatly appreciate your promptness and detailed response. 

Alexis 

[ktraynor]

Hi, I'm having the same issue as the OP, and cannot see a CC button on the video, in either Chrome or Edge. There is only duration, volume, settings and full screen in the bottom right of the video? 

I have also tried another workaround I found, to right-click on the video while it's playing, then save as... but this only gives me the option to save as html - not any video format. 

Any advice appreciated!

[JamieCyphers]

I am also dealing with the same issues and no solution. Have you figured anything out?

Thanks. 

[ktraynor]

Hi @JamieCyphers sadly not, for videos already submitted using the Studio tab, I've resorted to screen recording those I need, a very frustrating process! 

For future submissions, you can ask students to permit downloading by checking the Display Download Option toggle button in the Select Embed Options section (see https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Studio/How-do-I-submit-Canvas-Studio-media-as-a-File-Upload-assig...) Of course this is then dependent on students following that instruction... 

It would be super helpful if @Canvas would enable tutor download of student Studio videos by default, as it does with videos submitted via the File Uploads tab... 

[JamieCyphers]

Thanks @ktraynor. I will put that in the assignment instructions moving forward.  

[Kristis]

Go to the assignment page and click on the assignment.  Then, click "download submissions".

[zampinml · Accepted solution]

I don't know if people are still having problems with this, but I came across a solution after reading other people's suggestions and playing around with it. I have a Mac. This is what works for me: I open the student's media file submission and click play. As the audio/video file is playing, I press CTRL while clicking the mouse on the upper left side of the video/audio frame. A menu appears, and one of the options is "Save audio as..." it will then download download as an mp4 file. I hope that helps!

[Hildi_Pardo]

Bummer.  It seems that neither of these two solutions work any more (at least I cannot get either of them to work for me).

[adnap]

I could not get either one of these solutions to work (I have a PC). However, I followed the basic instructions on this youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MjN8xk0iCA) which was mentioned on a different post. Basically you have to find the source code for the student video that has been submitted to canvas. Once I got into the code area (just right click on video and go to 'inspect') I just used the find function and searched the code for "video" to get the scr url. Once you have the url you just paste into a new browser and then you can download the video as an MP4. (Note, in the youtube video mentioned there is a lot of minimizing code boxes to find the url you need which I did not do. Using the find function for 'video' worked and the url i needed was always the last hit in the code)

[LauraCND]

So it's May 2025, and we still don't have a viable way to download ALL media submissions in one zip file from an assignment? The course I'm working with has 75 students - there's no way it's feasible for the instructor to open and individually download every single submission.

[ktraynor]

Absolutely @laura - I've just spent an afternoon downloading all the zips for the 50 students on my course - I can download them all in one go but then still need to extract the contents of every submission individually, then go back through to check they all downloaded and extracted properly, and then repeat the process or chase up in the case of any issues. Frustrating.