What is it?

Content material that resides on one website but appears on another is embedded. Embedded material might also have a reduced or specific set of interface controls when appearing on another site. You can take source material from media websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and Slideshare and embed them into content management pages hosted on systems like Blackboard, WordPress blogs and Google Sites.

Why do it?

Usually, embedded material is presented as part of an article, collection, or lesson. It may be one of several embedded objects that comprise a presentation. Since embedded material remains on the original host provider’s website it does not burden the system from which it is being displayed. The massive server infrastructure and playback optimization capability of web services can be used to insert material onto simpler websites that one maintains personally or which are operated by educational institutions.

Another advantage to embedding material onto your own website is that you can eliminate the distractions which are often associated with commercial web services. The visual presentation of embedded material can be customized to integrate well with the layout of other content you are publishing.

Example embed code: <iframe width=”640” height=”360” src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/7SWvDHvWXok?rel=0” frameborder=”0” allowfullscreen></iframe>

How it’s done

The process of embedding can generalized in a three step list:

1. Locate the target material
2. Get its embed code
3. Place the embed code on the page to be published

The specifics of the embedding process vary depending on the source material and the intended system where the published web page resides. The iTeach faculty training resource site has an excellent write up with screen shots showing how to place YouTube videos inside of Blackboard course shells and WordPress blogs. (see link at bottom of

Best practices

Consider removing any options that show viewer comments or related media material. Viewer comments are often not appropriate for the course material you are trying to present. Related media links from the original web site can be quite distracting and can lead viewers away from your course material.

If possible, select video sources of shorter length or those which have been edited to only the information you want your students to view.

If you have a choice, select playback settings that are optimized for low bandwidth settings, but allow the viewer to increase display resolution if she chooses.

Break long video presentations into smaller chunks. Aim for videos that are not much longer than 2-4 minutes.

Additional resources

1. Fine control of YouTube video playback: https://developers.google.com/youtube/js_api_reference
2. General video embedding guide for WordPress: http://en.support.wordpress.com/videos/