This guide describes how to setup the Kaltura Video App for Canvas.
Instructions are provided for setting up the package behavior and how to control user roles and permissions using the Kaltura Application Framework (KAF) Admin Console.
Prerequisites
The following items are required to set up the Kaltura Video App for Canvas:
- Access to a Canvas environment with Account Admin permissions.
- A Kaltura account - Please contact your Kaltura representative for your Kaltura account details.
- Deployment of Kaltura Video App for Canvas on your Canvas environment. For installation instructions, see Kaltura Video App for Canvas Deployment Guide.
- KAF Admin Console – Please ask your Kaltura representative for credentials to access your KAF Admin Console instance.
Before You Begin
You will need to create a Canvas root category in the KMC, if not already created for you by your Kaltura representative.
To create the Canvas root category in the KMC
- Log into the KMC.
- Select the CONTENT tab and then select the CATEGORIES tab. The Categories Window displays.
- Click the Add Category button. The New Category Window displays.
- Type a Name for the new category and select the position of "no parent" (will create a root category).
- Click the Apply button. The Metadata Window displays.
- (optional) Type a Description, Tags, and a Reference ID for the new category.
- Click the Save button. Your new category now shows in the list of categories on the Categories Window.
Understanding the Setup Process
The Kaltura Video App for Canvas offers an out-of-the-box solution that enables users to view, record, upload, publish, search, and share video directly from their Canvas environment. This translates into time and money saved for your organization, improved student engagement, creativity and learning results, as well as ease of use for students, faculty and teaching assistants.
The Kaltura Application Framework (KAF) Admin Console
The Kaltura Video App for Canvas is implemented on top of the Kaltura Application Framework (KAF), a feature rich framework that allows flexible and streamlined integration of Kaltura’s video solutions and products into 3rd party applications such as Canvas. KAF is hosted and served directly from the Kaltura cloud servers and once integrated into your Canvas environment, presents different video components and workflows to users.
At the backend, the Kaltura Application Framework provides a flexible and extensible administration panel, called “KAF Admin Console”. The KAF Admin Console offers full control over the user experience and when interacting with videos inside Canvas. Nearly all configuration aspects of the Kaltura Video App for Canvas are configured through the KAF Admin Console.
KAF Modules
Your KAF instance is composed of multiple KAF modules, such as “Application”, “Player”, and “Auth”. Each module controls a different aspect of your Kaltura Video App for Canvas instance. A KAF module is composed of a set of configuration fields. All KAF modules are listed on the left menu in your KAF Admin Console instance.
Your KAF Admin Console may display modules and configuration fields that are not listed in this guide, some of which may be disabled. It is important that you do not modify the configuration of the disabled modules (and not enable them) without consulting with your Kaltura representative.
KAF Administration: Actions and Configurable Fields
Your KAF account comes pre-configured with the following settings. Items marked with * should not be changed.
General Settings
Module | Fields | Description |
InstanceId, privacyContext, userRoleProfile | Internal constant identifiers of your KAF instance. Please note that privacyContext should be empty. | |
sslSettings | All site (set to None if SSL is not used) | |
Client | serviceUrl | https://www.kaltura.com |
VerifySLL | Yes | |
allowLoadInIframe | Yes* | |
enabled | Yes* | |
enabled | Yes* | |
enabled | Yes* | |
enabled | Yes* | |
enabled | Yes* | |
enableLike | Yes/No | |
enableViews | Yes/No | |
allowEditPublished | Set to No if you want to prevent users from editing entries after they have been published to a course Media Gallery or embedded using the Browse, Search and Embed module. | |
allowDeletePublished | Set to No if you want to prevent users from deleting entries after they have been published to a course Media Gallery or embedded using the Browse, Search and Embed module. | |
enableEntryDelete | Set to No to completely prevent users from deleting entries | |
manPublish | Yes* (Unless publish plugin was integrated). | |
authMethod | lti |
Configuring Modules
Some fields are displayed only when you select a specific value for a different field. The group's configurable fields follow the group name.
To modify KAF configuration modules
In the KAF Admin Window select the Manage Configuration tab.
Related KAF modules: Application, Auth, Client, Security, Categories, Addcontent, Publish, Browseandembed, Canvas, Hosted
The following KAF modules are required for configuring the Kaltura Video App for Canvas and are described in this guide:
Configuration Management: Global Modules
- Application
- Auth
- Categories
- Channels
- Client
- Debug
- Gallery
- Header
- Metadata
- Moderation
- Player
- Security
- SharedRepositories
- Widgets
- Search
- MediaCollaboration
- PlaylistPage
Configuration Management: Configuration Modules
- Addcontent
- Attachments
- Captions
- Channelplaylists
- Chapters
- Comments
- Disclaimer
- Downloadmedia
- Emailnotifications
- Embed
- EmbedPlaylist
- Importchannel
- Publish
- SidemyMedia
- Thumbnails
- Userreports
Configuration Management: Channel Modules
Configuration Management: Entry Type Modules
Modules/Custom/Core/KAF
Roles and Permissions
See Common Use Cases of Role Configuration for recommendations for common role configurations in the Kaltura Video App for Canvas.
Introduction to Role Mapping
The Kaltura Video App for Canvas implements role mapping from Canvas roles to Kaltura roles via LIS roles. Each role that is assigned to a user in Canvas is mapped to one of the roles defined in the LIS standard. When a user is assigned with a role in a Canvas site – Student or Teacher for example –Canvas translates this role to an LIS role which is then sent to KAF. On KAF’s side, a dedicated module provides flexible mapping between LIS roles and Kaltura roles, allowing a granular control over the behavior of the different Kaltura Video Package components in Canvas.
This process is described in the following workflow.
- Users are assigned a Canvas role when added to courses via the Add People dialog.
- Canvas sends the corresponding LIS role to Kaltura.
- KAF Grants Permissions according to mapping.
Add People
Users are assigned a Canvas role when added to courses via the Add People dialog.
Canvas Sends Corresponding LIS Role to Kaltura
When the user accesses a Kaltura module, such as My Media or Media Gallery, Canvas send the corresponding LIS role to Kaltura according to the following mapping:
Canvas Role | LIS Role |
Student | 'Learner' |
Teacher | 'Instructor' |
TA | 'TeachingAssistant' |
Designer | 'ContentDeveloper' |
Observer | 'Observer' |
KAF Grants Permission According to the Mapping
On the KAF Admin Console side, each LIS role can be mapped back to Kaltura roles. KAF grants different permissions according to the mapping provided in the Hosted module in the KAF Admin Console:
As displayed, each LIS role is mapped in Kaltura to two roles – an Applicative Role (kmsRole) and a Contextual Role (kmsContextualRole). These roles correspond to different cases/scenarios in the Kaltura Application Framework Generic LTI Integration. Setting these roles changes the permissions a user has in the following scenarios:
Applicative role (KMSRole) - Defines the user roles and permissions in Kaltura widgets that are out of course context (for example: My Media)
- anonymousRole – Not relevant to the Kaltura Application Framework Generic LTI Integration and should not be used.
- viewerRole – The user will not have access to My Media, and will not be able to upload new content to either My Media, Media Gallery or using the Embed Kaltura Media text-editor button.
- privateOnlyRole – The user will have access to My Media and will have the ability to create new content.
- adminRole, unmoderatedAdminRole – Not relevant to the Kaltura Application Framework Generic LTI Integration and should not be used.
Contextual role (KMScontextualrole) - Defines the user roles and permission in Kaltura widgets when in a course (site) context (for example: Media Gallery)
- Member: The user will be able to view content in Media Galleries of courses to which the user is enrolled, but will not be able to contribute (publish) to the galleries.
- Contributor: The user has Member permissions with the ability to publish content to the Media Gallery.
- Moderator: The user has Contributor permissions with the ability to moderate content added to the Media Gallery.
- Manager: The user has Moderator permissions with the ability edit the Media Gallery settings, and view the course gallery analytics.
From the Kaltura module’s perspective, the permissions are as follows:
- My Media
- Applicative role: If viewerRole, the user will not have access to My Media and will not be able to upload new content. If privateOnlyRole the user will be able to have its own My Media repository to where he can upload his own private content.
- Contextual role: does not impact My Media.
- Media Gallery
- Applicative role: If the user has a contextual role that allows publishing/adding content to the Media Gallery (see the following table), and the user has an Applicative role of privateOnlyRole, the user will be able to upload new content or contribute content from its own private My Media repository.
- Contextual role: Determines the role of the user inside the Media Gallery (note – users can access a course Media Gallery after they have access to the course page in the LMS, regardless of their Kaltura role.
Role | Permissions |
Member | If the user has Member contextual role, the user will be treated as a “viewer only” in the Media Gallery, and will only be able to view content, and will not be able to contribute content to the Gallery (regardless of the user’s Applicative role). |
Contributor | Users with Contributor role can view Media Gallery entries and upload and contribute entries from My Media (if applicative role is privateOnlyRole). Students are usually assigned Member or Contributor contextual roles. |
Moderator | Moderator role allows the users to moderate content published to a Media Gallery (and to contribute new content). Teaching Assistants usually have Moderator contextual roles. |
Manager | A Manager role provides full access to the Media Gallery, including the ability to moderate content, edit the Media Gallery’s settings and metadata, and access the Media Gallery Analytics. Instructors usually have Manager contextual roles |
Embed Kaltura Video (rich-text editor button)
- Applicative role: If viewerRole, the user will not have access to My Media and will not be able to create new content. If privateOnlyRole the user will be able to have their own My Media repository to where they can upload their private content.
- Contextual role: does not impact Embed Kaltura Video.
Common Use Cases of Role Configuration
This section provides recommendations for common role configuration in the Kaltura Video App for Canvas. All configurations are set in the Hosted KAF module in the KAF Admin Console.
Canvas Role | Use Case | Kaltura | |||
ltiRole | kmsRole | kmsContextualRole | Allow Shared Repository | ||
Student | Allow authoring new content (upload, webcam recording, screencast recording) and allow publishing to course Media Galleries | Learner | privateOnlyRole | CONTRIBUTOR | |
Student | Allow viewing content only. Do not allow authoring new content or publishing to course Media Galleries. It is recommended to hide the My Media navigation link on the course menu, so that students will not receive an “Access Denied” screen when trying to access My Media. | Learner | viewerRole | MEMBER | |
TA (Teaching Assistant) | Allow to author new content, to contribute to course Media Galleries and to moderate course media galleries. | Teaching Assistant | privateOnlyRole | MODERATOR | |
Teacher | Allow authoring new content, contributing to course Media Galleries and moderating course Media Galleries. | Instructor | privateOnlyRole | MANAGER | |
Designer | Allow authoring new content, contributing to course Media Galleries and moderating course Media Galleries | ContentDeveloper | privateOnlyRole | MANAGER | |
Observer | Only allow viewing. | Observer | viewOnly | MEMBER | |
Teacher | Creating a Teachers Only Shared Repository | Instructor | privateOnlyRole | MANAGER | Yes |
Summary of Default Canvas > LIS > Kaltura Roles Mapping
Kaltura Applicative Role (kmsRole)
Kaltura Contextual Role (kmsContextualRole)
Canvas Role | LIS Role | Kaltura Applicative Role (kmsRole) | Kaltura Contextual Role (kmscontextualRole) |
Student | 'Learner' | privateOnlyRole | CONTRIBUTOR |
Teacher | 'Instructor' | privateOnlyRole | MANAGER |
TA | 'TeachingAssistant' | privateOnlyRole | MODERATOR |
Designer | 'ContentDeveloper' | privateOnlyRole | MANAGER |
Observer | 'Observer' | viewerRole | MEMBER |