If you have spent some time with Moodle version 3.5 this fall, you may have noticed two new icons located at the far right of the text toolbar. These icons allow users to record audio and/or video directly into a text editor for display to in your Moodle courses. Unfortunately, we strongly advise against using these new features at this time.

There are several concerns related to these features that make them inconvenient for use at this time. The main problem is that audio and video created in the toolbar cannot be downloaded or saved remotely. As a result, these files are stuck in Moodle and unusable with other applications (YouTube, Google Drive, Ensemble, other class management programs, etc.). A larger concern is that of accessibility. Audio and video created in the text box cannot be captioned without tremendous effort, and without captioning, multi-media files are not accessible to all learners. Because of these concerns, we cannot recommend using these new features at this time.

If the audio/video features allow for downloading and/or captioning in the future, we will revisit our recommendation. For now, please use Ensemble for all audio/video saving and distribution, and let the Educational Media Technologies team know if you have media in need of captioning for use in your courses.