theBox Introduction

Introduction to theBox

theBox is UNSW's online media management tool which allows you to organise media and share them in Moodle courses and on websites.

theBox was developed specifically for UNSW and integrates closely with Moodle via the Media Collection activity and the Moodle file picker. Significant functionality has been added over their predecessors.  We have re-designed workflows to support these new features and improve ease of use.

Note: While theBox is integrated with Moodle, it can be used separately by staff. Some functionality is unique to the Moodle integration, while other functionality is unique to theBox website.

Methods for sharing media stored in theBox

There are several methods for sharing media stored in theBox, which are detailed further within this site. These include:

  • Sharing with your students within a Moodle course through use of the Moodle File Picker via the TinyMCE/ATTO editor
  • Sharing with your students within a Moodle course through the Media Collection activity
  • Embedding a video embed link within your Moodle course or other website
  • Sharing a public direct link

What is a collection, gallery and media item?

Media collections and galleries are ways to organise your media items.  A collection can consist of one or more media galleries.  A gallery can consist of one or more media items. 

It's important to note that theBox does not require you to organise media items within a collection or gallery however when creating collections in Moodle, media items must be within a gallery which in turn must be within a collection.

theBox file structure

Moodle's Media Collection

The Media Collection activity was developed prior to creation of theBox, and enhanced by UNSW for integration with theBox.

Content uploaded to Media Collections will now be uploaded to theBox. This means that videos are transcoded by ‘theBox’ for optimised web playback, meaning that videos are compressed, given titles and copyright declarations as needed automatically, and are streamed within the browser and on mobile devices. This is explained further within theBox pages.