Body
Environment
MiVideo Mediaspace
Referred to as “mini-portals”, channels are personally managed, user generated media collections in MiVideo. They can be configured in a variety of ways from fully open collaborative collections to private collections locked down to specific groups. Viewers can subscribe to channels to be notified when new content is added. See related
Channel articles for more information.
Issue
How to create a channel collection in Mediaspace.
Video Demo
How to Create a Channel in Mediaspace
Resolution
Note: every Mediaspace is configured differently. If you do not have the ability to create a new channel, contact your site admin.
- Navigate to user drop-down > My Channels > Create Channel.
- Enter a channel Name.
- A channel Description, Tags, and Reference ID are all optional. Most channels don’t use a reference ID.
- Choose the Privacy level which determines who has the ability to view the media in the channel. See the Channel Types article for more info.
- Restricted
- Access is limited to anyone with a U-M login but only specific users can publish media to the channel.
- Even though access is restricted by U-M login, you should treat this as publicly viewable since anyone with a login can see the content. NEVER publish student assignment video content in a restricted channel without the owner’s express permission (e.g. as a showcase example). Visit this webpage for more information about class recordings.
- Some Mediaspaces restrict site access to only members of specific MCommunity groups. Therefore, restricted channels in these Mediaspaces will be restricted to only those who have access to the site.
- Private
- Access is limited to specific U-M users and only specific users can publish media to the channel.
- Private channels require channel managers to add users manually. See the Understanding Mediaspace Roles and Channel User Management article for more info.
- In order to add a user to a channel they must have already logged into the Mediaspace at least once. Depending on the size of your group, managing access with an MCommunity group may be more efficient. For help with private channels, including dealing with missing user accounts and Community groups, contact the ITS Service Center.
- Public, restricted
- Anyone, including anonymous visitors, can view media in this channel but only specific users can publish media.
- Some Mediaspaces restrict site access to U-M weblogin or members of specific MCommunity groups. Therefore public channels on these sites will be restricted to only those who have access to the site.
- You may not have the ability to create public channels on your Mediaspace. If you need a publicly accessible channel on https://mivideo.it.umich.edu contact the ITS Service Center.
- Set desired Options. Options are based on Mediaspace configuration and may vary.
- Moderate content (recommended to leave deselected): A channel manager or moderator must approve media before it is published to the channel.
- Enable comments in channel (recommended to deselect to ensure comments made here don’t bleed through to Canvas): Enables the comments tab for all media in the channel. Comments can be blocked on a single media item in the Options tab on the Edit Media page (see the Media Options article).
- Keep comments private to channel (optional): Keeps media comments, when enabled, private to the channel. This is useful when media is published in more than one channel or category in the site and you do not want to share channel members’ comments with the wider site audience.
- Force media published only to this channel to always be played in the context of the channel (optional): If the media entry is only published in this channel, this option applies the channel context when the media entry is access directly through the media URL. This is useful when tracking channel analytics.
- Enable subscription to channel (optional): Provides your visitors with a Subscribe button on the Channel page. When users subscribe, they get an email notification every time new media is published to the channel. The channel must be Restricted to allow users to subscribe.
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Assign Categories (only for Mediaspaces utilizing Galleries).
- Associate a channel with existing gallery categories.
- When a channel is associated with a category, a “browse channels” link displays in the gallery category view.
- Gallery category viewers only see the channels they are entitled to see.
- Select Topics (only for Mediaspaces utilizing channel topics).
- If enabled, allow views to be filtered by predefined topics.
- For assistance with configuring channel topics, contact the ITS Service Center.
- Click Save.
- Wait for the green bar to appear indicating the channel is saved. Click the Back to channel link.
- Your channel is now ready to publish media to and add additional channel members.
Resources and Questions
For additional questions, please contact the ITS Service Center