Adding video to the Library and assigning them

You can add video to your Perusall course alongside your reading assignments. To add a video, select Library > Add content > Video and then enter a URL based on where the video is stored.

Video types

YouTube

Enter the URL of the page in YouTube that has the video you want to add (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTQJp9wllow). The video must be publicly accessible (Perusall won't be able to import private videos).

Accessibility notes: Perusall will show captions on YouTube videos when available. YouTube only provides captions to Perusall when they are uploaded by the video author (i.e., YouTube's automatically-generated captions won't show up in the Perusall player). Due to a technical limitation, captions will always be shown within the Perusall player when available. To access the original YouTube video and any associated transcript or additional captions that aren't accessible within Perusall, click "View original web page" in the Perusall Library entry for that video.

Vimeo

Enter the URL of the page in Vimeo that has the video you want to add (e.g., https://vimeo.com/98256980).

Google Drive

In the file list in Google Drive, right-click on the video and click Get shareable link; then paste that URL into Perusall. Alternatively: open up the video, click the three dots button in the upper-right corner, click Share, click Copy link at the bottom, then paste the link into Perusall. The link must be publicly accessible (Perusall won't be able to import files that are only shared privately). 

(Note: We recommend only using Google Drive for small video files. Google Drive places bandwidth restrictions on how much can be streamed from your account. This is not a limit on our side--The limit platforms like google drive is not just on how much storage space is used, but how much is transferred/downloaded by students-- example: when a student watches the video the video is downloaded to their computer--so if a lot of students watch the video over a short period of time and the video file is large then you could hit the bandwidth limit. Consider using YouTube or Vimeo for larger files.)

Dropbox

Find the file in Dropbox, then click the Share button. In the resulting dialog: click Create link, click Copy link, then paste the link into Perusall.

(Note: We recommend only using Dropbox for small video files. Dropbox places bandwidth restrictions on how much can be streamed from your account. If you exceed 20 GB per day in bandwidth across all shared files on your Dropbox account -- 200 GB per day for Plus, Family, Professional, and Business accounts -- then none of your shared links will work for at least 24 hours, including any Dropbox videos in your Perusall course. This is not a limit on our side--The limit platforms like Dropbox is not just on how much storage space is used, but how much is transferred/downloaded by students-- example: when a student watches the video the video is downloaded to their computer--so if a lot of students watch the video over a short period of time and the video file is large then you could hit the bandwidth limit. Consider using YouTube or Vimeo for larger files.)

Video hosted on your server

If your video is hosted elsewhere in MP4, MPEG, or Ogg format, you can provide Perusall with a direct link to the file. The file must not be behind a login and must be set to public.

Synchronized videos

If you have multiple videos that should run simultaneously (e.g. a video of a lecturer along with the slide show), enter URLs to both videos in the Video URL and Secondary Video URL field. The secondary video will display in a smaller box above the main video, but progress will be synchronized between the two videos. (Note: YouTube and Vimeo videos cannot be displayed simultaneously with other videos.)

Adding comments to videos

When viewing a video, click the Add comment button in the upper right corner of the video to pause the video and start a conversation. A blue (instructor) or yellow (student) dot will appear in the video timeline to show there is a conversation at that point in the timeline.

Inserting video as a part of an annotation