Media Security Settings

In some cases, you may want to restrict a video to only VIU students and employees without requiring users to access the video through a specific website domain. This is when you might use the authentication restriction setting.

Please note: students will only be able to access a video that requires authentication if they are logged into VIULearn (which will also sign them into VIUTube) at the time they follow the media link. If students try to open a link that requires authentication when they are not already signed into VIULearn, they will be taken to a login page which currently only works for employee accounts. CIEL is working with our vendor and IT to resolve this, but for now we are recommending that this kind of restriction only be applied for media held inside VIULearn or media that will only be shared and viewed by VIU employees. 

1. In the Security Settings window check the box beside Password or Authentication Restriction.


2. Select Platform Authentication [Platform or Single Sign on].


3. Once you have finished, click Save. 

A password restriction does exactly what you would expect: asks users to enter a password before the media will play. This is a simple restriction that can be very effective if there’s a set number of users who should have access to media. Anyone who has the password or can guess it would be able to view the media, otherwise the media will not play.

1. In the Security Settings window check the box beside Password of Authentication Restriction.


2. Select Simple Password.


3. Enter the password into the password field provided. Passwords are case sensitive and can include numbers and symbols for enhanced security. Anyone who you have directly shared the video with using the share feature with either edit or full access permissions can see and change the password.


4. Once you have finished, click Save. 

You can also control the date range that your media can be accessed. This may be helpful if we want to cut off student access to the materials once the course is complete. Before the “Visible Date” and/or after the “Invisible Date,” anyone who isn’t the video owner, or someone who the video owner has directly shared the video with using the share feature, will see a “This Video is Private” message when trying to access the media.

1. In the Security Settings window check the box beside Date Restriction.


2. Add a Visible Date, Invisible Date, or both.


3. Click Save to apply the change.

IP address restrictions are generally not recommended. If there is media that needs to be viewed only from a specific computer, you would need to work with the IT department to determine if there is a static IP address or set range of IP addresses you could use for that machine to restrict the access. If this comes up, please contact learnsupport@viu.ca so we can help you set up and test the restriction.

The location restriction setting will allow you to restrict your videos so that only users who are located in a specific country or specific province can view your videos. 

1. In the Security Settings window check the box beside Location Restriction.


2. Click the Country box and select the country you wish to restrict the video to. If you would like to restrict the video to a specific province/state, click the Region box and select the province/state from the dropdown menu. 


3. Click the > button to add the location to the list of allowed locations. You can remove previously added locations by clicking on that location and then clicking the < arrow.


4. Repeat steps 2-3 for each location you wish to restrict the video to. 


5. Click Save to apply the changes.

A domain restriction works by only allowing media to be played if it is accessed through a specific URL. This feature may be useful if you wish for your VIUTube videos to only be shared and viewed through a specific platform.

For example, If you add https://learn.viu.ca/ to the domain restriction field, your media can be viewed by your students when it is embedded inside a VIULearn course, or shared by a link accessed from inside VIULearn, but will not allow that link to be copied and shared outside of VIULearn. 

1. In the Security Settings window check the box beside Domain Restriction.


2. Enter any URLs that you wish to have the domain restricted to into the input field on the left hand side (for example: https://learn.viu.ca/) 


3. Click the > button to add the URL to the list of allowed domains. You can remove a URL from the list by clicking that URL and then clicking the < arrow.


4. Click Save to apply the changes.