Video Security In Your Online Courses

By: Justin Ferriman • March 24, 2015
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video-securityAt some point or another you will need to decide whether video is a good option for your online course.

Depending on the content and the audience, using videos for elearning is often a great way to present the information.

In my experience, video presentation is often well suited for any training that requires demonstrations, but there are many other use-cases.

I’ve seen videos that are essentially audio only, but display the words of the audio (similar to closed captioning). You might be surprised to know that there are a good number of people who prefer learning with this approach.

If you’re selling your online course, then when you create a video you ultimately think about its security. In other words, you don’t want the video to be available for free.

I’ll preface this by saying you shouldn’t spend too much time worrying about the few people who will steal your video content. It’s probably safe to assume that 99.9% of your target customers are going to purchase your course and not choose a knock-off version. If they do, then you don’t want them as customers anyhow.

That said, it still makes sense to secure your videos. While the options below aren’t free, they are worth the investment if this is of high priority to you. Of course, you can always secure your video content for free by using a simple modified .htaccess file, but we’ll save the ‘nerd’ talk for another article.  🙂

1. VimeoPRO – This is my personal favorite for many reasons, but mainly because setting the security for a video is very easy. All you need to do is specify the exact URL that has access to play the video. If anyone attempts to get the direct video URL and play it in another browser or website page, it won’t play. VimeoPRO costs $199 per year.

2. Wistia – A popular choice for many, Wistia has security settings that are very similar to VimeoPRO. Where Wistia shines is that they also make it possible for you to capture emails in exchange for someone to view the video. This makes it possible for you to give away some of your online course content in exchange for the lead. To start getting these features, you’ll need to join at their $25/mo level.

3. SproutVideo – Private video hosting with an emphasis on security. Like many of the other options today, there are useful viewer analytics so you can gain insight into what videos are performing well. Pricing starts at $25/mo, but there is a free trial so that you can have a “look under the hood” before committing.

4. S3MediaVault – This solution was brought to my attention by an individual when they realized a previous recommendation (from the original article six years ago) no longer existed. While I don’t have direct experiencing in using it, the reviews are positive!

Justin Ferriman

Justin started LearnDash, the WordPress LMS trusted by Fortune 500 companies, major universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is currently founder & CEO of GapScout. Justin’s Homepage | GapScout | Twitter