Video services

Zoom

Zoom is a video communication service that allows all university staff and students to create meeting rooms and participate in teaching, meetings, seminars and conferences in real time through video and sound. Students use Zoom a lot at the University of Helsinki to participate in distance learning, but you can also use it to organise your own meetings. Interaction with the teacher and other students is possible in text in the chat as well as with sound and video.

In the image below, Raimo and Trälle are working on a presentation together through Zoom:

The Zoom rooms created by university staff and students can hold up to 300 participants. The university also has a limited number of special licences that can be used for larger Zoom meetings (500–3,000 people).

You can log in to Zoom at zoom.helsinki.fi. There, you can also manage invites and settings and find links to the software installation files.

You can participate in Zoom meetings either by installing the Zoom client on your computer or mobile device or by using a browser.

When preparing a meeting and making changes to the default settings of the software, we highly recommend using the browser version. The best browser for using Zoom is Chrome.

When participating in meetings, we recommend using the Zoom client. By default, meetings are always opened in the client software if it has been installed on your computer.

Zoom also works well with the calendar. You can install a plugin in Outlook for creating scheduled Zoom invitation links to your events through the Outlook calendar. Once the software has been installed, the meeting can automatically be opened in Zoom by clicking on the link.

The Zoom software can also be used to record Zoom meetings or lectures. Host or co-host permissions are required for recording. Currently, you can record on the University of Helsinki Zoom using NORDUnet’s cloud recording service (the recording is sent to the e-mail of the creator of the Zoom meeting in the mp4 format) as well as locally (the file is saved on the computer and can be converted to the mp4 format).

The recordings can be shared to other university staff and students, for example, by using the Unitube Uploader. This workflow has been presented in the advanced studies section of Student’s digital skills P.6. If you are interested, you can go to see the instructions even if the general advanced section is not part of your course requirements!

Watch a demo video demonstrating the basics of Zoom!

Detailed instructions on using Zoom have been compiled on the University of Helsinki Helpdesk page.

Teams

Another video communication service used for distance learning is Microsoft Teams. This service, too, can be used with a browser or mobile device, although we recommend using the desktop application, just as with Zoom. Teams may be a mandatory way of keeping up with teaching as sometimes the party organising the distance teaching may not be able to use Zoom.

With Teams, you can arrange meetings, webinars and live events. At Teams meetings, it is possible to use automatic subtitles in different languages, including Finnish.

Teams also enables versatile work on Office documents, for example in groups, and offers a more versatile work platform that is almost equivalent to Moodle, where video connection is only a small part of the service. You can also use Teams to capture screen recordings. More about Teams in the section on teamwork.

Unitube Viewer

Designed for university staff and students, Unitube is a medium for watching, streaming and sharing videos. You can find the Unitube Viewer on the university’s open website at https://www.helsinki.fi/en/unitube. In Unitube, you can watch live and recorded lectures, teaching and instruction videos and other public recordings.

 

Videos are published as series in Unitube. Usually, the easiest way to find a specific video is by sorting videos according to series or faculty. Please note that the access rights of some Unitube videos have been restricted and can only be viewed by the participants of a specific Moodle course, for example. Such videos may not be displayed in public lists or search results.

Please note that the audio in the video may be muted by default in the browser, so if you cannot hear anything but see video, check the icon in the Unitube player to make sure audio is turned on!

Unitube Uploader

Students and employees of the university can use the Unitube Uploader to share their own recordings and embed them for others to view on Moodle courses or the Unitube Viewer, for example. The Unitube Uploader can be found at lataamo.helsinki.fi.

The advanced section of Student’s digital skills provides more information on publishing videos with the Unitube Uploader.

In the Uploader, you can save videos or computer animations recorded using a tablet, a smartphone camera or a video camera, for example.

Unitube studios and rooms

There are lecture rooms and studios around the university with Unitube recording equipment. These so-called Unitube facilities can be reserved separately and used for filming and recording course videos, for example, directly into the Unitube Uploader with high-quality equipment and a suitable space. The equipment is handled with the control panel in the room. Find more specific instructions for the use of the Unitube Uploader and lecture recording equipment on the Helpdesk website.

Other videos

Courses may also provide other videos. Some teachers may make videos available in popular video sharing services, such as YouTube or Vimeo.

Video materials may also be available as downloadable files in the AVI, MOV or MP4 file formats, for instance. You can open these file formats using player software, although you may also be able to watch the videos directly in your browser window. The free-of-charge VLC player is suited for opening video and audio files.