New Media Player

[QC99_tsilvius]

I'm finding that the new media player has removed the play/pause button from the controls in quizzes. This is a shot from one of my quiz directions pages.

Also, to support my students in quizzes I embedded audio in each question, correct answer, and distractor answer question. Those students who needed this support could access it more discreetly without drawing the attention of their peers having the text read aloud to them by a person. 

The play/pause button is also missing from embedded audio in Discussions.

However, the embedded media player in a page seems to be working just fine. (see below)

These systems seem to be broken with the new media player, but maybe I'm missing something. Is anyone else having this same experience and knows of a way to correct the problem?

Thanks,

Todd

[melodyc_lam]

@QC99_tsilvius I'm assuming from the images there that this is a Classic Quiz, correct? Was the quiz made before the switch over to the new media player?

In testing on my instance, I created a new classic quiz and embedded video and an audio file directly from my hard drive into the quiz and the buttons all appear to be there.

[QC99_tsilvius]

yes, @melodyc_lam  it is from a class quiz created before the new media player release. I'm seeing the same no-play-button experience on discussions, too. This means that Announcements do not have a play button either. Just checked.

Maybe it's not a big deal, but it really seems that having a playback button would be helpful. 

I really wish that this did not break all of the embedded audio in Classic Quizzes though. 

[melodyc_lam]

Yeah that is really weird! I would report it to Canvas support so they can check on their end and see if they have any solutions to this.

I suspect that re-embedding all the audio/videos will fix the issue, but that's not a great solution when we're in the middle of a school year.

[QC99_tsilvius]

Thanks @melodyc_lam. What do you think is the best way to go about sharing this with support?

[melodyc_lam]

I'd just put in a ticket with them or use the live chat (if available) and send them the screenshots and the course that the problem is in.

Just curious, did you clear your cache and cookies and re-log into Canvas to see if the issue is still there?

[dbrace]

Hi @QC99_tsilvius.,

I have included @AkosFarago. Akos is the Product Manager of Canvas Studio and their team worked on the upgraded media player.

Hello Akos,

Are you able to help?

-Doug

[QC99_tsilvius]

Thanks Doug. I appreciate the extra eyes. 

I just tried to embed a podcast recording from my Course Files into a Page. 

Same result. No playback button. 

I then though maybe I need to upload the mp3 file from my computer and embed it like @melodyc_lam mentioned they tried with success, but it still created the same result -- a media player without a play button. See below screenshot.

When these no-play-button interfaces appear, I can get the audio to play. In fact, until the play button reappears, I included a tip of clicking the audio player once then click using the spacebar to begin playback, but that's not very intuitive especially when videos are working just fine.

@AkosFarago I am wondering if this is issue is related to embedding an mp3/audio file only? My video files in other parts of my course are looking great. Very nice play buttons there. 

However, for my quizzes where I've voice-recorded the questions (since immersive reader doesn't extend into the classic quiz tool) and in my colleagues courses (for example, one of our mandarin teachers' courses where students listen to a sentence and transcribe what they hear), the new media player is causing some challenges.

Do you think it might be something to do with audio files?

Thanks for the extra eyes on this. 

PS -- although I haven't checked this out yet, @AkosFarago I've heard from other colleagues that YouTube ads now appear in CanvasStudio videos. Sorry -- don't want to mix the topics here. 

[dbrace]

You are welcome, @QC99_tsilvius.

Two quick things:

1. The Studio team is aware of ads playing in YouTube videos and it is documented as a known issue at Youtube Studio videos play ads - Instructure Community - 639355 . I am not sure if/how the Studio team is going to get around Google/YouTube and ads playing back without some extensive trickery. Google/YouTube has made it very different to avoid/skip ads.
2. Akos is located in (I believe) Hungry so I am not sure if you will get a response today. Working with Canvas Support and having a ticket/case is the recommended way to get eyes on it but I wanted to loop in Akos.

-Doug

[QC99_tsilvius]

I appreciate these, Doug. Working around those ads does seem like a tricky issue.

last favor: Would you point me in the direction of filling out a support ticket? 

[dbrace]

You are welcome, @QC99_tsilvius; as a fellow Pennsylvanian (I live in Allentown and work at Lehigh Carbon Community College) and individual with a music background (my Bachelors is in Music Education).

Does your school have a support contract with Canvas Support that allows you to contact Canvas Support directly? If it does, from inside of Canvas you should have options available in the "Help" area.  Those options could be chat, phone, or email.

If you do not know or if your school does not have that available to you, you would need to report this to whoever you typically work with to address Canvas problems or questions.

-Doug