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Faculty Guide for FCET Instructors

Leverage our Digital Collection

Our collection is 93% digital. The library subscribes to over 185 databases.

You can leverage our digital collection of books, case studies, articles, reports, streaming media and more for your course resources (e.g., textbook alternatives, supplemental readings, research assignment sources).


When you are linking to Seneca Libraries resources, you cannot copy and paste the URL from the address bar. You must find the persistent link (aka permalink) and may even need to edit it according to our  persistent link instruction guide.

You can get the persistent link for resources in Library Search by clicking on the title of the resource in your results, and then selecting Permalink.

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library search saving options with permalink highlighted

Alternatively, if you have found the resource in a particular database outside of Library Search you can manually create the persistent link according to the instructions for that particular database.

 Seneca Libraries Guide to Obtaining Persistent Links

Seneca Libraries' digital collection offers excellent sources of authoritative and - from the student perspective - inexpensive readings for your classes. In this era of expensive textbooks, faculty may wish to substitute traditional textbooks with resources from our digital collection.

More information about eBooks as course readings

Link to a Streaming Video in Your Blackboard Course
Important! 

Copy & paste the following instructions alongside any links to videos from Seneca Libraries:
"You will be prompted to login using your Seneca email username and password. If you cannot view [video title] right away, you may be experiencing a slow network or a maximum number of viewers has been reached. In these cases, close your browser window and try again in a couple of minutes."

Acquiring a Permalink

To obtain streaming video links that work, always use the links explicitly provided by the streaming service. Do not copy the URL from the browser's URL field. To ensure that the link works within MySeneca, always set the link to open in a new window.


YouTube 

Click on the "Share" button located underneath the video screen. Expand the "Options" link to customize the quality of the video or specify different start point.


Streaming Videos from the Library

If you find a streaming video from our library search, click on the "..." icon and use the "Permalink" from the to copy the persistent link.screenshot of creating a persistent link to a video

 

Next Steps

Once you have the link of the video, follow the instructions on MySeneca's Help on how to add external links to add the streaming video link into your course. Make sure to set the link to "open in a new window."

Instructions for creating more direct persistent links to specific streaming video resources (Curio, Films on Demand, Kanopy, NFB etc.) offered by Seneca Libraries can be found at this link.

Embed a Streaming Video in Your Blackboard Course

Important! 

Copy & paste the following instructions alongside any links to videos from Seneca Libraries:
"You will be prompted to login using your Seneca email username and password. If you cannot view [video title] right away, you may be experiencing a slow network or a maximum number of viewers has been reached. In these cases, close your browser window and try again in a couple of minutes."

YouTube

YouTube provides BlackBoard Building Blocks that make it easy to embed their streaming videos into the course:

  1. Select Build Content > Mashups: YouTube Video.
  2. You can search for a YouTube video within MySeneca.
  3. Select a video, and the video will be automatically embedded into your content area.
Streaming Videos from the Library (e.g., Films on Demand, Curio, Kanopy)

Many streaming platforms provide embed codes that work in MySeneca. In general, these are the steps to follow for embedding a video from the library:

  1. Go to the streaming video page of the title that you want to embed.
  2. Look for an "embed" link or section on the page. Sometimes, the embed functionality may be shown within the sharing functionality.
  3. Copy the embed code. Make sure you are highlighting the full code when you copy it.
  4. Open another browser window with MySeneca and log into your course.
  5. Select Build Content > Create Item.
  6. On the text editor, click on the down arrow button to see all editing options. Click on the HTML button, then paste the embed code that you copied into the HTML code view window.
  7. Important: Do this before you save / submit the item!* Within the embed code that you have pasted into MySeneca, locate the video URL (starts with http://) and add the following prefix: (see the screenshot for details) http://libaccess.senecapolytechnic.ca/login?url=

screenshot of the BlackBoard text editor showing the image and HTML buttons for adding an embedded code.


*if you save the embed code before you add the prefix, you will have to add it twice to the embed code - Blackboard creates a second version of the embed code once you save it, and if the prefix only appears in the second version, the embedding will not work.

Tips:
  • If you decide to embed a video, make sure that you do not have the video start to play automatically when the page opens.
  • To make the video accessible make sure that it provides closed captioning or add a link to the video transcript underneath the video.

Leganto

Leganto is a resource list management system that allows course instructors to quickly build specialized resource lists for your courses. The Leganto search spans the library collection and other openly available resources, and you can add more digital items from online and your own collection.

Because Leganto is also linked to Blackboard, you can embed your resource lists right into your courses, making it easy to access for students.

There are a myriad of useful features available to students (accessing, commenting upon, "liking", etc.) and faculty (analytics, ability to edit within Blackboard, etc.) to enhance virtual learning and class participation.

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Learn more about Leganto and how to start building lists by checking out our Leganto for Faculty guide.

Interested instructors should  contact their liaison librarians.

 

BOILR

Seneca Libraries Bank of Interactive Learning Resources

The BOILR is a repository of interactive learning resources that have been reviewed and selected for use in courses. 

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Seneca Libraries Bank of Interactive Learning Resources

You can help us build the BOILR by suggesting topics, interactive learning resources, or joining the BOILR community that reviews and selects resources to be added to the repository.

Library Packages and Tutorials

 Library and  Sandbox packages are zip files that you can add to your Blackboard course.

► Imported packages create a content area in your course and can include tutorials, videos, and/or quizzes for students.

► Quizzes are automatically graded and entered into your Grade Centre within Blackboard. 

For help importing a library package, contact librarians@senecapolytechnic.ca

For help importing a Sandbox package please contact sandbox@senecapolytechnic.ca

For Blackboard support, contact BBsupport@senecapolytechnic.ca 

Students can use a variety of  interactive tutorials and instructional videos to help with their research.

Faculty can encourage students to complete the interactive tutorials by sharing the links to the tutorials or by importing the related Library Package into their Blackboard course. 

Subject Guides

Subject guides centralize the key resources and tools that best serve specific programs and subject areas. They are curated by the library’s subject experts who recommend them as a starting point in the research process. Subject Guides are available through the library website, and faculty can embed these within their Blackboard courses.

Faculty can enable the Library Resources tool in Blackboard to embed a library subject guide and connect students to relevant library resources from within their course page. By activating this tool, the Library Resources menu item that appears on the Blackboard course page will feature the recommended subject guide within the Blackboard frame.

To embed a Subject Guide:

► Contact your liaison librarian to confirm the subject guide you want to appear in your course along with your course code.

► Once you receive confirmation from your librarian that the link between the subject guide and your Blackboard course page is ready, follow these Instructions for adding the Seneca Library Resources menu item to your course.

Assignment Calculator

Seneca Libraries Assignment Calculator is a time management tool that creates a roadmap of the steps required to complete assignments and projects by their due date. Each step in the process points students towards relevant tools and services that will help them to complete their work.

calendar icon (in white) Assignment Calculator
Use the Assignment Calculator to help you with time management of your project. This tool is simple to use, just identify the start and end dates, choose your assignment type, and you will be given a customized timeline of your work.
Please enter dates correctly
 
 

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