[ARCHIVED] Canvas recording virtual background

[khollis]

Is there any way to add a virtual background to the videos that students record directly in Canvas?  I teach French and with hybrid learning, we are recording almost daily.  I would really prefer that the students' privacy be maintained. I don't want a situation where inappropriate items are on display in someone's home. It's bad enough dealing with the language and screaming/yelling that some students have in their homes or members of a household walking into the video wearing almost no clothes or drinking/smoking etc.  The best thing that I told the students is to record against a wall somewhere in their homes. So sad.

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

I agree, it is sad.  With student's home now becoming the classroom too I understand your desire to maintain some privacy for students.   Unfortunately the built in Canvas video recording tool does not allow for virtual backgrounds.  Something you might try is an application named Snap camera https://snapcamera.snapchat.com/.  I'm not saying this is a great idea because there are a bunch of silly filters which are available. But, the way the tool works is that is acts as a go between from the camera to whatever application (Canvas) is getting.  So when you record in Canvas you select Snap Camera as your camera and it provides the video feed with a filter.

Like I said, many are just silly but for cases with students you trust this option could be shared as a way to use a filter to remove what's in the background.

Another possibility which works similar to Snap Camera is Logitech Capture https://support.logi.com/hc/en-nz/articles/360025141614.  I don't know for sure it if would do a virtual background, but it can work in the same way to add some settings between the camera and the application to change the picture.

Another option is to record with a different application and then have the students upload the video instead of recording directly to Canvas.  The upload option is right next to record in Canvas.  Even free accounts in Zoom let you record locally and Zoom does virtual backgrounds fairly nice.  So a student could start up a zoom session, turn on a virtual background, record their assignment, and then upload the file that Zoom produces.

I hope that helps, and want to say thanks for thinking about students.  It's rough on everyone so I hope this might help out a little.

Rick