YouTube Tips & Tricks
YouTube (http://youtube.com) is the Internet’s leading video‐sharing website. It is home to millions of videos on virtually every imaginable topic and in a dozens of languages. YouTube is an increasingly important source of academic and educational content. The tips and tricks provided here will help you make the most effective use of YouTube resources. For a complete listing of YouTube EDU videos and channels visit http://www.youtube.com/edu
Search Options
YouTube search, like Google, is a powerful and flexible search engine. The YouTube search engine accepts standard Boolean logic search parameters. To search with advanced options, select the “Advanced Options” link on the far left, which will open the “Advanced Search” window. This search will let you narrow your results by quality, location, duration, language, and category. You can also select the “Filter videos that may not be suitable for minors” option in the search settings.
For a complete tutorial on Searching for Videos visit
http://help.youtube.com/support/youtube/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=17177
Sharing and Embedding videos
YouTube videos can be shared in a variety of ways. The simplest method is to forward the address (URL)
for the video to others in an e‐mail or by posting the link on a website (e.g., a Blackboard resources
page).
Embedding is a more powerful and flexible way to share YouTube videos. Each YouTube video page has an “embed” link that can be copied and pasted into another web page, such as a blog, a wiki, or a resource page inside of Blackboard. Embedded videos are presented in the context of the page in which it is embedded (rather than on the YouTube page). Embedding allows videos to be presented in the context of other relevant learning content. It also allows videos to be shared with students without also exposing them to the “related videos” links and comments from the YouTube user community.
Quietube
Quietube is a simple tool for automatically embedding videos in a blank page and then sharing the link
to that page. This is an example of a Quietube video page:
The site includes instructions for using the tool ‐ http://www.quietube.com
Time‐Based Linking
In some instances, instructors might want to guide students directly to a specific portion of a YouTube
video. This can be done by adding a small “time code” to the end of the video’s address (URL).
For example, the address below points to a video of President Hinckley telling a story from his boyhood:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0
If you wanted viewers to begin watching the video at the 1 minute and 20 second mark, you would simply add “#t=1m20s” to the end of the link (m=minutes and s=seconds). The resulting time‐coded URL would look like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naqX9iYE0V0#t=1m20s
Downloading YouTube Videos
YouTube videos can also be downloaded for offline viewing. This can be particularly useful for situations when an Internet connection is not available. A local copy of a YouTube video is also useful for editing and/or integrating with other applications. However, instructors should check for any copyright restrictions on particular videos before proceeding. For more information see YouTube Terms and Privacy Policy or contact the BYU Copyright Office at (801) 422‐9339.
For a tutorial on downloading YouTube videos to your computer visit the CTL Tutorial Page
Closed captioning and annotations
YouTube allows users to add closed captions and annotations to videos to make them more accessible and to provide commentary to viewers. Annotations can be made in more than 120 languages. To learn more about Closed Captioning and video annotation, see