Using the edX Video Player to Watch Videos

The edX platform has got a video player of its own, especially because almost all of its courses consist of videos. If you have ever watched a video online, then you are surely familiar with most of the player’s options. Nevertheless, there are some additional features on the edX video player as well, that you may have not seen before.

The screen capture below displays an image of a video player streaming a video. The following image shows the video player amid a video, along with descriptions for each of the video player’s features.

The video used in this example has been purposefully chosen to demonstrate all of the possible features a video may have. However, on a normal basis, you may not view all of these controls at once, and may only see certain options that apply to your desired video on the video player within any of the courses.

Play/Pause: By clicking on the Play/Pause option, you can start playing the video. Or, simply stop the stream and pause it by reselecting this control.

Time: The video Time is displayed like a ratio or score. The first time value indicates how long the video has already been playing, and how much of the total time has passed.  While the second number indicates the total video length.

Playback Bar: You can click on and drag the Playback Bar to move to different parts of any given video. Or you can simply use the left and right arrow keys to do this.

Speed: Using the Speed control settings you can alter the playback speed; playing the video at a slower or faster rate. 

Volume: Change the video volume using the Volume command.

HD: If HD quality is available for the video of your choice, choose this option to play the video in High Definition visual resolution. Yet, it is worth noting that this option is only suitable if you have access to a strong internet connection. If you would like to switch back to the standard resolution, re-click this option.

Full Screen: Click on this feature to enlarge the video, so that it fills the whole browser window. Moreover, you can return to the standard mode in one of two ways; either press the Esc key on your keyboard or click on this option once more. 

Show or Hide Closed Captioning: Click on this control to view a transcript of the file’s audio portion. When viewing subtitles, you can drag and drop them to different areas of the video screen. Reselect this option again to disable the captions.

Sometimes you may see two sets of subtitles when you click on CC. This situation may occur if your video hosting service is YouTube and the playback settings of your YouTube account are set to always show subtitles. Therefore, you can provide subtitles for your videos both from YouTube and in your course. To fix this issue, reselect CC or make changes to the settings in your YouTube account to deactivate it.

Show Transcript: If you wish to include a scrolling transcript for the ongoing audio portion of your file, choose this option to display the complete transcript to the right of the video screen. This option is used by many course teams to set the transcripts to appear by default when the videos begin to stream. By re-clicking on this feature you can deselect it, thus hiding the transcript.

Language Menu: If there are translations available for your video, this control menu allows you to choose a different language for the closed subtitles and transcripts. 

Download Video: If a downloadable file is available for your video, you can use this option to download your desired video for later viewing.

Download Transcript: It is possible to download the videos’ transcript files in a SubRip (.srt) or a text (.txt) format, which you can open and edit using a simple text editor software like Notepad.

Handouts: If the course team utilizes any handouts for a video, you are also able to download them.

License or Copyright: Information regarding the video’s licensing is presented below the video in case the course team reserves any rights for the video, or specifies a Creative Commons license for the video that is separate from the license defied throughout the whole course. Concerning the Creative Commons license, you can view extra information by clicking on License to launch a website with more information regarding your rights.

Read more Licensing Courses and Videos to learn more.

Transcript: Other than the playback bar, you can also navigate to different parts of a video by selecting the related lines from within the video’s transcript.

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