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- Course author updates/adds videos after video migration.
For courses that underwent a transformation using a manual video migration script run by the engineering team, the course staff were never trained to use the Video Upload tool. So then, when they later updated or added videos in the course, they didn't know about the new process and didn't use the Video Upload tool. - Course author updates/adds videos in a Course or in a Course rerun, bypassing the Video Upload tool.
Similar to #1, except for courses that had been using the Video Upload tool. In this case, the video was updated/added by a course author that was unaware or forgot about the process. - Course updated/created in another environment (Edge, OLX, Open edX) and then imported into Prod.
In this case, the course team was using an open edX environment to experiment and create their course content. Once they were ready to start their course, they imported their course into studio.edx.org. However, since there was no video pipeline service available at the time of course creation, the videos in the course were not processed through the pipeline. - Video pipeline integration settings overridden on import on Prod. (
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-1302
When a course copy having empty video pipeline settings (e.g., when importing from an open edX environment) is imported onto its Production copy, it overrides any previously stored settings in Production. In this case, video pipeline integration settings are reset and the Video Upload page disappears for that Production course. - Manual entering of Video ID results in incorrect or missed value.
Since the Video Upload page is separated from the Video Authoring content block, course authors are required to (somehow) find the correct corresponding video and then manually copy and paste the corresponding Video ID into the corresponding Video block. This is understandably an error prone process and can lead to unwanted errors. - Manual re-use of Video ID across courses.
When course authors want to reuse the same video across courses, they may manually enter the Video ID of a video that appears in the Video Upload page of another course. Although theoretically allowed, the video abstraction layer (VAL) isn't updated to link the video with the other course. This results in a performance issue since a bulk search for all videos in a course will not include those outliers.
Note/Question: Should we just update the Video Authoring block to update VAL to link to the course whenever a legitimate Video ID is added? - Licensed video not marked as only_on_web.
In some legitimate cases where a video is not meant to have a downloadable reference (e.g., for licensed content), the intention is to mark the video as `only_on_web`. However, this is not made clear in the Video Authoring block and so course teams forget to do so.
Note/Question: Should these videos be marked as 'only_streaming' instead? Now that we have YouTube support on the mobile apps, they can still be streamed using YouTube; just not downloaded.
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While a long-term plan to reassess the edX Asset Pipeline Strategy is under discussion, we plan to address the above issues through tactical short-term measures.
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- Simplify Video Authoring UI
- Course Validation
Video Upload UI improvements
- More video management features
- Better error states
- Warning when interrupting uploads
* Have authors upload their raw video files within the video module editor, instead of in a separate Video Upload page.
* Simplify the Video Studio Settings so there are only 3 cases:
** YouTubeID + OnlyOnWeb
** edX_video_ID (if video pipeline enabled for course)
** S3 Fallback URL (if video pipeline not enabled for course)
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- UI (related ticket:
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-385
Addresses: Scenarios #6 and #7 above.
We want to simplify the Video Authoring block, so that it's clear to course authors that we support only 3 cases:- YouTube only - with YouTube link supplied by the video author.
- Video ID only - if the video was processed through the edX Video Pipeline workflow for this course (or processed through another course).
Note: when processed through the Video Pipeline, a video will have multiple encodings, including YouTube, Web, Mobile, Audio-only, etc. So it would be "nice" for the course author to see the links to the various encodings in the Video Authoring UI once the video is processed (related ticket:
).Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-150
Note 2: Upon saving the Video block, the corresponding video in the Video pipeline database (VAL) should be updated to have a link to the course, if it doesn't already have so. - Externally Hosted Video only - with an external link supplied by the video author (e.g., video hosted on their own S3 site, if they are not using the edX Video Pipeline).
- YouTube only - with YouTube link supplied by the video author.
- Decouple Video Upload and Video Reporting and allow course authors to upload directly through the Video Authoring block (related ticket:
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-2066
Addresses: Scenarios #1, #2, #5 above.
By having course authors upload videos directly into the Video Authoring block, it prevents unnecessary user errors (forgetting, not knowing, incorrect copy and pasting, etc). And then the current Video Upload page can be used mostly as a Video Reporting page. - Course Validation (related ticket:
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-736
Addresses: Scenarios #3 and #4 above.
Although Course Validation can be generalized to other requirements and other features, for the purpose of Video assets, adding a validation step in the Course Publishing/Importing workflow will allow course authors to understand all the video-related issues in their course. In particular, for courses that are designated as "Mobile Available", reporting all the non-mobile available videos in the course will allow course authors to address and fix those issues.
Validation entry points:
a. Course Import - Note that, a chicken-and-egg problem can arise if the course author is prevented from importing the course without a way to actually fix the course.
b. Course Publish - Note that, today, the underlying database publishes courses at various times, without an explicit Publish action by the course author.
c. Manual Validation UI - This may be the best option at this time, given the issues with the above choices.
Validation results:
a. Failed
b. Warnings
c. Success
It is a policy decision on what types of video issues are actual failures rather than simply warnings. And it's also a matter of policy on whether we want to allow courses with video issues to be published to edx.org. - Video Pipeline UI Improvements
To provide a better user experience for course authors, the following UI improvements are highly recommended, in the short term, by the edX video team.- Deleting unneeded videos from the library (
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-326 - Better error states (
,Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-769
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-242 - Warning message when upload will be interrupted (
)Jira Legacy server JIRA (openedx.atlassian.net) serverId 13fd1930-5608-3aac-a5dd-21b934d3a4b4 key MA-333
- Deleting unneeded videos from the library (