Instructor Video Feedback Issues

[Carter41]

I have an instructor that is attempting to post 10-minute feedback videos for student submissions. After he records the video within Canvas, it can take a few minutes to process or just hangs and never processes. I did a speed test with him and his upload/download speeds are very high, so that's not the issue.

Does Canvas have a time or size limit on instructor feedback videos for student submissions? 

Any tips on how he can speed up this process, as it's slowing down his grading immensely.

Thanks as always!

[greydon]

Hello  @Carter41 

Thank you for contacting the Instructure Community. We're sorry to hear you've been experiencing issues with leaving media comments for students. Presumably the teacher is doing this directly in the speedgrader on the righthand side comment section? There isn't a "hard" limit of how long they can be but keep in mind the more often they are leaving these and the longer they are, the more prone to delays and uploading errors. 10 minutes could be considered a bit on the long side for the speedgrader media comment box. Generally speaking, we recommend to anyone anything longer than a couple minutes (similar to typing longer than a few sentences) is done outside of their browser directly as it is solely reliant upon their network connection, browser, device, etc. all working without any hiccups or issues. It comes down to the longer the upload (especially videos) the more likely issues will come up preventing it from making it to our servers. 

Do they regularly clear their cache and cookies? That could help a lot of this as long as their internet speed is good. Moving forward, they may want to consider making their comment videos a little shorter (5 minutes or so) or giving the student video feedback outside of the speedgrader comment box.

[Carter41]

Thanks for the reply and suggestions! The instructor was leaving feedback by clicking "Reply" within the discussion thread via the rich text editor (see attached screenshot). What did you mean by "anything longer than a couple minutes is done outside of their browser directly"? Are you suggesting that he film his feedback on his phone and upload that as an attachment? I'm reluctant to tell him to keep his feedback shorter, as his class requires lengthy collaborations/feedback like he's currently doing.

[Carter41]

@greydon What did you mean by "anything longer than a couple minutes is done outside of their browser directly"? Are you suggesting that he film his feedback on his phone and upload that as an attachment? 

[ProfMasten]

Hi @greydal , I appreciate your answer here, but I also feel obliged to chime and add that 5 minutes is really too short of a limit for feedback. Now that new RSI standards have been implemented in the US for instructor feedback in higher ed, it's important that there are straightforward ways to provide more natural, classroom-like feedback for students online.

In many disciplines, it's not uncommon to sit individually with students during in person design studios (this is my use case) and provide 15–20 minutes of feedback. 10 minutes online is probably the minimum needed to get close to an asynchronous equivalent. 

Can you let us know the max file size for instructor feedback videos? I'm recording mine outside Canvas and attaching them, but sometimes they don't upload fully. I try to stay under 100MBs per video (roughly 11 minutes, pretty low quality).

[RonnieHarold]

I'm seeing a problem here and responses; however, I am not seeing a solution.  I have the same issue here with fast internet speeds.  I am using Speedgrader and I leave a 2 minute or less video feedback for students.

Canvas is taking forever to upload the video and today I'm even having it where the previous video goes onto another student's speedgrader - yikes.

Is there a solution from Canvas for this issue?  Recording short feedback has been a wonderful tool for students and they really like it...