Video reactions are now open to everyone: any Space can turn them on. Posts and the recorder have a new design, made for the phones most students record on. The recorder can now redo a clip, trim the start and end, and upload a video you already have. We've also published a series of short tutorial videos, one for each written tutorial. Since our last update, Topics can open and close on a schedule, and posting takes fewer steps. Adding a Topic is now one click from the Space page. A video recorded from your dashboard can go straight to a Topic, and your own posts no longer wait in your approval queue. Videos also play with sound in more browsers.
Video reactions for every Space
Students can reply to a classmate's video with a video of their own. They record while the original plays beside them, and they can pause or rewind it at any point. Each reaction links back to the original, so the conversation is easy to follow.
Reactions started in a private beta with a few classes. Thank you to the instructors and students who tested them and helped get them ready for every Space.
Reactions are off by default. Turn on Allow video reactions in a Topic's settings so students can react there. Owners and admins can react to any post, even before turning reactions on for a Topic, and can send a reaction privately to its author. See React with a Video for the walkthrough and a four-minute video.
A new look for posts and the recorder
Posts and the recorder now look and work like the short-video apps students already use, on a phone and on a larger screen.
Posts fill the screen. On a phone, a post plays full screen. Tap to pause, and swipe up or down for the next post. React, comments, and captions sit down the right side. The newest comments tick by under the video, and tapping them opens the thread while the video keeps playing. On a larger screen, the video plays on a stage beside its details and comments, and the buttons beside it (or the arrow keys) move to the next post.
The recorder puts the picture first. On a phone, the camera spans the screen from the top, the Topic's prompt is a caption over it, and the tools run down the right edge as a column of icons. Tap the arrow at the bottom of the column to see each tool's name. On a computer, the prompt sits above the picture and the tools beside it. Picture-in-picture and side-by-side layouts now open from one Layout tool, and screen sharing is a single switch.
Review where you recorded. After Next, your take plays where the camera was, with the trim handles underneath. Pause on a good moment and choose Use this frame as cover. Capture cover, Download, and Discard sit beside the video. If you leave, the take stays saved in your browser, under Upload.
Redo a clip, trim, and upload a video you already have
Three changes to the recorder make a take easier to get right.
Redo the last clip. Each pause ends a clip, and the ring around the record button marks them. If the last one didn't go well, tap the delete key to the left of the button, then tap again. The clip is gone and the timer rewinds to your previous pause, so you can record just that part again instead of starting over.
Trim the start and end. On the review screen, drag the handles under the video to cut a slow start or a stray ending, then press the check between them. Only the part between the handles plays, and only that part is uploaded.
Upload a video you already have. The recorder's Saved button is now Upload, the icon beside the record button. Choose From your device and pick an MP4, MOV, or WebM file, or drag the file onto the recorder. It opens on the review screen like a recording, so you can trim it, choose a cover, and add a description. A video longer than the Topic allows opens trimmed to fit. Every upload is converted to a format classmates can play in almost any browser. Replies to a classmate's video are still recorded, not uploaded.
See Recorder Tools for the steps and a new video tour of the recorder.
Watch the Vivipod Tutorial Series
In early October we added a five-minute overview video to Get Started. It now opens the Vivipod Tutorial Series, followed by seven short videos, one for each written tutorial: adding a Topic, joining and posting as a student, reviewing pending posts, managing members, the recorder tools, comments and feedback, and reacting with a video. Most run about two minutes, and the next one starts when the last ends.
Vivipod Tutorial Series8 videos · 22 min · plays straight through
Open on YouTubeEach video also appears in its written tutorial. Before your class's first assignment, try sending students Join a Space and Post as a Student.
Open and close Topics on a schedule
Set a Discussion window on a Topic to choose when it opens for posts and comments, and when it closes. Pick the opening and closing days on the calendar, then a time for each. A Topic opens at 9:00 AM and closes at 11:59 PM unless you change them, so it stays open through the whole closing day. You can leave either end open.
Outside the window the Topic stays on the Space page but is locked. Students see when it opens or when it closed, and they can't post or comment until it opens. The lock lifts on time without anyone reloading the page.
Space owners and admins can still post while a Topic is locked, so you can record the prompt video before the Topic opens. See Create a Topic for the steps.
Add a Topic, not another Space
Privacy and membership belong to the Space, so each new Space means students have to join again. To make the better choice easier, owners and admins now have a + Topic button next to Members on the Space page. If you already run a Space, the New Space form also offers to add a Topic to your latest one instead.
Share a video to a Topic right after recording
A video you record from the dashboard's + button used to sit in your library until you added it somewhere. Now, as soon as it uploads, Vivipod asks which Topic it goes to. Choose Keep in library to save it for later.
The picker marks Topics the video is too long for, and Topics where posts need approval.
Your own posts skip your approval queue
When a Space owner or admin posted to a Topic that requires approval, the post used to land in their own Pending queue. Now it goes live at once. If you would rather review it first, turn off Publish right away before you upload. The switch is on the recorder's review screen and in the Topic picker for videos from your library.
Smaller improvements
- Videos play with sound. Videos used to start muted. Now they try to play with sound. Where the browser blocks sound, as Safari and Firefox often do, a Tap to unmute button appears over the video.
- Videos play in more browsers. Some recordings played their audio over a still picture in browsers that can't decode HEVC, including some on Windows and Linux. New uploads are saved as H.264, which plays almost everywhere, and we converted the videos that were affected.
- The recorder says when nothing is recording. If the camera or microphone is paused, for example with Safari's camera button in the address bar, the recorder now shows a notice instead of quietly recording nothing.
- The camera turns off when you leave. On some iPhones, the camera light could stay on after you left the recorder. It now turns off every time.
- Post arrows keep working. In a Topic with many posts, the arrows in an open post now go past the first page.
Tell us what to build next
We build these features in response to what instructors ask for. Write to support@vivipod.com and tell us what would make Vivipod more useful for your course.