Delivery Issues

Media Formats

Of the three media formats available (Quicktime, Real and Windows Media), only QuickTime is reliable inside WebCT. Windows Media has problems on the Macintosh platform. Real Video clips can be used but cannot reside on the WebCT server. If you use Real content, clips must reside on a streaming server.

At this time, we recommend the use of QuickTime for WebCT.

Downloaded Content

The first way of delivering audio and video inside WebCT is to upload these clips into your WebCT course and make links to it. This will require users to download the entire video clip to their computer. A technology, called progressive download, delivers content while the file is downloaded. However, with progressive downloads media quality may need to be sacrificed to ensure playback isn't choppy.

Streamed Content

While not yet available at UMass, an alternative method for audio and video content delivery is to use a Streaming Server. Using this model, media content is placed on a different server and pointers are created inside WebCT. Streaming technologies allow students to watch video as it is being delivered. No file is actually downloaded to the student workstation.