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Introduction:
One of the things I learned about at InstructureCon that most excited me was Office Mix. I finally got a chance to play around with the platform and want to share what I learned regarding uploading a Mix to Canvas.
Details:
Office Mix is a PowerPoint plugin that allows users to more fully engage their audience by adding interactive and multimedia elements, and then hosting the Mix on a server. In full disclosure, Mix is a free add-on, but we also pay for the professional Microsoft license for O365 and such.
In order to test the integration, I created a basic interactive PowerPoint and then hosted it both on Mix servers as well as my professional OneDrive. The presentation included a few interactive/hyperlinked buttons and resembled a kiosk (as opposed to a presentation show).
I then tried three approached to integrating this onto a dummy Canvas content page. I utilized the Office Mix LTI tool, the Office Mix embed code, and the OneDrive embed code. The result is that all three of these methods worked, but each one was different than the other two.
For the first option, I integrated the Mix using the LTI tool. It was pretty straightforward. After you add the LTI tool in the App Center then the content page shows a Mix icon in the RTE.
When you click on that you will have the option to paste in the URL of a public Mix or you can select a Mix from your own creations.
The result is a hyperlink created on the Canvas page that when clicked will open up a new page where students can see the Mix.
Advantage to the LTI tool
This is incredibly simple and intuitive and is very easy for professors to learn
Disadvantage to the LTI tool
It doesn't embed on the page and requires an extra mouse click for students. If there is more content on the page then clicking the link will navigate the students to another page.
The second option I tried was to open my My Mixes on the Mix webpage (https://mix.office.com/MyMixes/). Select the mix you want to use and then click Share and copy the provided embed code.
This of course gets pasted into the html editor of the Canvas content page. The result is a nicely embedded Mix presentation with limited navigation, including Previous and Next navigation buttons, a ToC, and option for fullscreen viewing.
Advantage to using Mix embed code
It embeds very cleanly and the user can interact with the Mix while still benefiting from additional instruction/content on the content page.
Disadvantage to using Mix embed code
It does require a miniscule amount of technical ken, including the knowledge of what embed code is, how to access the html editor, and how to read the code well enough to be able to place the embed code in the right place. It's more work for the professor, but results in a much better experience for the student.
The last option I tried was to put the pptx file on my OneDrive and used the embed code. It's a very similar process. I navigated to the folder and file that I wanted:
The OneDrive embed code provides much more robust options in the player. I don't find these options to be of any particular benefit to the student though.
The Embed Information option is nice in that you can embed the Mix on other locations, such as blogs or websites. However, I really don't know when a student would need to do that.
Advantage to using OneDrive embed code
Like the Mix embed code, it embeds very cleanly and the user can interact with the Mix while still benefiting from additional instruction/content on the content page.
Disadvantage to using OneDrive embed code
It takes a few more clicks to get to the embed code than using the Mix page. But if the people at your institution are heavy OneDrive users, this might not be a problem. I don't like the clutter of the player and prefer the Mix player instead. No need to have options for "terms of use" and "privacy and cookies". It's just clutter.
Conclusion:
What Microsoft is developing in terms of integrating platforms into Canvas is kumbay-mazing! Next week I am going to beginning training my IDs about Mix and Sway. It won't exactly be a game changer, as we already use prezi, Storyline, iSpring, and others. But it is a never arrow to put in our ID toolbox quiver. Great stuff.
