Media recording attempt: "nothing happens"

[hmcnally]

Hi,

We are getting infrequent but consistent reports from students who attempt to either record video, or upload a pre-produced file, that "nothing happens" when the "Record / Upload Media" button is pushed.  To be clear, it's this...

By "nothing happens," we understand this exactly as described.  This doesn't mean "my camera is broken," "I don't have a camera or microphone," "I am being asked to allow access to my camera/mic from Flash," "I don't understand how to upload a file based on the pop-in dialog," or any other permutation.  Our students mean, exactly, "nothing happens."

This appears to be happening on a bewildering array of installed platforms and browsers, and we are yet to see a pattern between Windows / Mac / Chrome / Safari / Firefox / IE in their many permutations, cookie settings, installed extensions, anti-malware software, etc..

This is becoming a very serious problem for us as some of our online courses are requiring fairly high-stakes video submissions that students cannot do.  In desperation, they are resorting to file uploads, YouTube submissions, etc.... and those are from the technically savvy.  Students who don't have these skills are giving up, and we're getting pushback from faculty about using this technique to teach, and pushback on the Canvas platform in general.

Please note: some else here has run into this and come up with their own workaround (https://community.canvaslms.com/thread/5921); I have tried this unsuccessfully--but then again, I am unable to replicate the problem myself.

We need a workaround, or, better, a solution, to this problem as soon as possible.  If anyone out there has one (aside from the "right click the record button" workaround), we're all ears.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello hmcnally​...

Thanks for all the detail.  For clarification, are these students working on their own personal computers/laptops?  Or, are they using a computer in a lab/classroom at your school?  Also, are you sure that they have the latest version of Firefox or Chrome installed on the computer?  Which browsers does Canvas support?    (Internet Explorer isn't the best to use with Canvas, BTW.)  What about the Flash player plug-in?  This plug-in gets updated frequently.  Also, have you tried clearing temporary internet files/cache/history from the browsers you're using?  Once you do that, you'd want to close the browser and re-open it to try again.  Please post back with your findings...thanks.

[hmcnally]

This is all happening on students' personally owned computers.

Chris, I've tried to address all the knee-jerk stuff you've mentioned (what browser, what version of Flash, restart your browser, clear cookies, etc.) and it's all been ineffective with people having this problem.  Newly downloaded and installed versions of Chrome and/or Firefox--as in, "I never had Chrome before and the new installation doesn't work either"--are failing for students (the "try another browser" approach).

We need some help beyond asking the first-line diagnostic questions... it's happening too often to be a case of mass-user-error.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi hmcnally​...

Hmmmm...that must be frustrating!  Have you had your students report this to Instructure's Help Desk staff so that they can look into the issue further?  Your students would want to be on the screen where they are having the issue.  Then, click "Help" at the top right corner of the screen and then "Report a Problem".  Doing this will send some additional metadata about a student's computer so that the tech can better assist.

[hmcnally]

Our "Help" link goes to a page of our own construction, and after our Help Desk fails to help these students, the problem is escalated to--you guessed it--me, the Media Producer.  I also get to hear from instructors whose students communicate their issues directly to them rather than use any built-in help mechanism.

Please elaborate how a student can directly contact Instructure about this type of issue and I will discuss with our Canvas admin staff on how your suggestion can be implemented.

https://bridgeport.instructure.com/

[lknott · Accepted solution]

Hi Hugh,

This is Libby and I am the CSM for University of Bridgeport. I apologize for the confusion/frustration you've experienced with the media tool in Canvas. I would love to help you get this escalated properly through Canvas Support. Since you have help tickets routed to your internal Helpdesk first you'll need to have the Field Admin at your institution ( @kbickell ​) escalate the issue to Canvas Support and we'd be happy to look into it.  @kbickell ​ please feel free to CC me on the ticket you escalate to Canvas Support so I can stay in the loop and track the resolution for you.

Thanks

Libby

[hmcnally]

Thanks for helping out, Libby!

[ajay_dh2013]

Hello Everyone,

I  integrate  Kaltura in my Canvas LMS project and also I have account in Kaltura. All Done, But when I upload any audio/vedio file it is showing  me some  processing but after that I am getting  these error " Media comment uploading has not been set up properly. Please contact your administrator." Please any one can help me to figure it out.

[TravisSalters]

Yes it takes until coming of the end of the world too download video on canvas