This guide contains instructions on how to copy and share the Permanent Play Link for a file uploaded to your MyMedia account.
For teaching teams: After you've uploaded an audio or video file, you will likely want to share that directly to a person or within your course (see How do I add a MyMedia video to a Quercus page? or How do I add a MyMedia video to a Quercus discussion board?).
For students: Typically, this is the link your instructor is looking for, if you've been assigned to upload a file to MyMedia as part of your course. Before you submit, confirm the specifics of your assignment with your Teaching Team (just to be sure!).
Note that you might not be able to share files if you did not upload them. If you are trying to share a file that you did not upload, please contact the person who did.
Before you Begin
Jump to
- Find the file you would like to share
1. Find the file you would like to share
- Select the "open in a new window" icon to open the video in a new window.
- Select on the "share" icon to open a pop up menu that provides links to the video.
- Copy the link, if you plan to share the link to your course.
- Copy the embed code (read about the difference between embedding and uploading), if you plan to embed the video within your course.
- If you want to make the shared video start player at a certain time, you may specify it by checking the box and dragging the sliding bar to the preferred start time.
That's a messy link! You're right - this links provided by this tool are hard for a human to read and identify. You can help make it easier to distinguish links (and make your links more accessible) by using natural language linking when you embed your links. Learn more about the top things you can do to ensure that your online content is accessible, including learning more about making link text meaningful.
1.1. Having trouble finding the file? Use the search bar!
Depending on the number of files you've uploaded, your MyMedia homepage might be quite busy. You can use the search bar (top left) to help you find a specific video.
- Type the title (or a keyword).
- Use the filters to sort the videos into a more manageable list.
2. Confirm Access Settings are correct
MyMedia allows a fair amount of granularity when it comes to who can access your file uploads. Before you share widely, you'll want to confirm that the settings you think you set are the actual settings that you set. I typically do this by opening an "incognito window" in my Chrome Browser OR by switching to a browser where I am not logged into Quercus nor any other U of T system.
- Open a new Incognito window or switch to a different, non-authenticated browser.
- Paste the URL for the file into the browser bar.
- See what happens!
- If you've set the video to only be accessible to the U of T community, you should be prompted to login via your UTORid.
- If you've set the video to be public, you should be able to view the video without logging in.
2.1. Review your MyMedia File Access Settings
If you notice anything amiss, remember that you can modify the access settings for the file via file options.
3. Share the link (as needed)
Now that you've (temporarily) copied the URL for the video, you can decide how you'd like to share it. Typically, sharing happens in one of these ways:
- Email: Add this URL to an email that you are sending. If you are sending an HTML email, you should be able to paste this URL right into your email.
- Chat: Add this URL to a chat message that you are sending.
- Quercus: If you are a member of a teaching team, you might add the URL (or embed code) to a Quercus page or a discussion board thread.
- Assignment Submission: If you are a student, you might submit this URL as part of your assignment submission (confirm the specifics with your instructor prior to submitting).
Make a tracking spreadsheet! We've found that if you're going to share a file link once, you typically share it a few times. To make it easier, we recommend creating a tracking spreadsheet of the videos used in your course. These days, videos are often uploaded to more than one hosting service (e.g. YouTube AND MyMedia) and this can help make copying and sharing links to your content easier to manage. If you have questions, or are looking for a template, contact [email protected].