Finding and Using Streaming Video

Guidance on finding videos in OneSearch, popular video databases, and using videos in your classes.

About Kanopy

Example video covers from Kanopy

Where to find Kanopy Videos

Kanopy videos are not listed in OneSearch. 

Connect to the full Kanopy database to browse for videos.

Using Kanopy Videos In Your Class

Kanopy videos are licensed for 12 months at a time so it is always important to review your Kanopy links each year to ensure the films will be available for your students. 

Some films on Kanopy are instantly available for viewing but others must be requested.  Read more about purchasing options on Kanopy, below. 

Requesting Purchase of a Kanopy Video

Connecting to Kanopy from Off-campus

Linking to Kanopy Videos

Creating Playlists

Create a New Playlist

  1. To create and manage playlists, you must be logged in to Kanopy with your own personal account. Use the “Log in” or “Sign up” links at the top right corner of the Kanopy landing page to create your personal account, 
  2. Search for a video title in Kanopy and click on one from the list of search results.
  3. Click “Create Clip/Playlist”
  4. Give your playlist a title in the “Create New Playlist” field
  5. Your video is now in the playlist you just created, which is listed under “Existing Playlists.”

Add to a Playlist

  1. Search for a video from the main Kanopy searchbox, and click on one from the list of search results.
  2. Click “Create Clip/Playlist”
  3. Choose your desired playlist from the list of “Existing playlists.”
  4. Click the “Add video” link next to that playlist.

    You can also add videos by selecting "Edit Playlist" while in your playlist area.

Share Your Playlist

  1. View your playlists.
  2. Under the playlist, look for the "Share/Embed" option.
  3. Copy the Share link.
  4. That's it!

Creating Clips

  1. To create and manage playlists and clips, you must be logged in to Kanopy with your own personal account. Use the “Log in” or “Sign up” links at the top right corner of the Kanopy landing page.
  2. Clips in Kanopy are created in the playlist editor, so a video must be added to a playlist before a clip of it can be created. See instructions for creating and managing playlists for this step.
  3. Once you are logged in and your video is in a playlist, click on your username (top right corner of the window) and select your playlist from “My Dashboard” > “My Playlists.”
  4. Open your playlist for editing.
  5. Within the playlist, open an individual video for editing

Your video is now defined as a “clip,” with these parameters:

Title: Title of the original video
Clip description: An empty text field. You can enter or paste as much text as you like.
Start time: 00.00
End time: (corresponds to end of clip)

  1. Play your video, and navigate to approximate place you want to start a clip.
  2. Click the “Capture” button next to “Start Time” to set the beginning of your clip. Then, click the “Capture” button next to “Stop Time” to set the end of your clip.

You may adjust the playback speed of your video with a selector in the media player. This can be very useful for fine-tuning the beginning and end of the clip.

You may also use the “forward” and “back” arrows on your keyboard to skip ahead or back 10 seconds at a time. (These keyboard shortcuts can become disabled as you use other controls. To re-enable them, toggle between “Fullscreen” and normal view.)

Alternatively, you may manually enter exact times for the beginning and end of your clip.

  1. Click “Save clip,” and then “Save changes.”
  2. For a single clip, create a playlist of just one video and then edit it. For a playlist of multiple clips, add the videos to the playlist first, then edit the clips.