Adding videos to your Open edX course - Appsembler
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Adding videos to your Open edX course

One of the most common and useful tools of online learning is video lectures. Adding them to your course can be easily done through Open edX.

First, open up any course.

An image showing a selected course on the Studio homepage.

Then, navigate to Content, and then, from the dropdown menu, select Outline.

You can add videos to units that already exist, or create new ones. In this example, we’ll just add a video to a pre-existing unit. Navigate to the unit you want to add a video to, clicking the arrows to expand the sections and subsections. Select the Unit

A visual example of a unit within a subsection of a course outline.

As you can see, this unit has some text information, but no video content yet. To add a video, simply click the Video button underneath Add New Component, which is towards the bottom of the page.

An image of the "Add New Component" section of the course editor, with the "Video" button highlighted.

A default video will load, but you can replace it by clicking Edit and pasting a new URL in the Default Video URL box. From the editing window, you can also change the video title displayed in the unit. You can also upload a timed transcript, and in the Advanced section in the top right, you can further adjust transcript settings.

Don’t forget to hit save for any changes you make.

An image of the newly added Video component with the "edit" button highlighted.An image of the basic editing window for a video component within a course unit.Note: Open edX users often ask if there is a way to upload video content directly. There currently is not — all videos must be hosted somewhere on the Internet in advance to being added to an Open edX course. 

And just like that, you’ve got a new video lecture for your course!

An example of a fully added and edited Video block within a course unit, with a video titled "Problems."

Note: For more information on creating course content, be sure to check out our articles on Adding a slideshow to your Open edX courseAdding subtitles to videos in Open edX, and Inserting images in Open edX courses.