CoE VALT

VALT Maintenance Schedule

Reminder: VALT monthly maintenance is
EVERY THIRD WEDNESDAY from 1-4pm.
Access to VALT may be restricted during this time.

The Video and Audio Learning Tool (VALT) is a video recording and sharing system located in the College of Education's Assessment and Clinical Training Center (ACTC) in suite 2.400 of the Sanchez building. The system is intended to be used by College of Education students, faculty, and staff with specific assessment and clinical training needs.

Requesting Access to CoE VALT

Users must be pre-authorized to use the College of Education's VALT service.

 Instructors

Request Access for a Class. Course instructors should submit an ITO help request for the course or courses that require access to VALT. Include the following in your request:

  • unique number of the course(s)
  • specific date when your course starts (in case it's earlier than the first class day)
  • name and EID for each TA; identify TAs by course unique number if multiple

You, your students, and TAs will be pre-authorized.

 Research Teams

The principal investigator or team lead should submit an ITO help request. Identify your research/project name and include the EIDs of the research team members that you are requesting to have access to VALT.

 Students

Students who need access to VALT as part of their course should ask their instructor to submit the request on behalf of the class. If you are part of the research team, the request should come from your principal investigator or research team lead. Refer them to the appropriate instructions above.

Reserving ACTC Rooms

Assessment and Clinical Training Center (ACTC) rooms, aka assessment rooms, should be reserved via the Reservation Request Survey.

Instructors or research teams needing to reserve multiple ACTC rooms for one or multiple days during a semester should also use the Reservation Request Survey. You will initially only be able to select one room. On the next page, select the date, start time, end time, and repeating days for that one room. Use the Additional Comments field on the last page to list other assessment rooms and/or additional dates you need during the semester. Be as specific as possible.

Current reservations can be viewed on the Reservation Calendars.

Connecting to CoE VALT

Prior authorization is required. See the Requesting Access to CoE VALT section above.

Connect to the CoE VALT service wirelessly on-campus at https://valt.education.utexas.edu.     (Use the "utexas" WiFi network.)

 Connecting On-campus on a Wired Connection

You must first connect to the UT VPN service if you are on campus and are using a wired network connection.

Not able to connect to CoE VALT even when connected to UT VPN and you are in the Sanchez or Belmont buildings?
Submit an ITO help request to troubleshoot your wired network port configuration.

 Connecting Off-campus

Connecting to CoE VALT off-campus requires that you first connect to the UT VPN service.

Use the Login with SSO button and log in with your EID credentials.

CoE VALT uses two-factor authentication (2FA) via UT Duo.

 Don't Have a UT Duo Account?

Create a Duo two-factor authentication (2FA) account at the Duo Self Registration Portal.

When you manage your 2FA account, you can choose what type of device you want to register to do your second factor authentication.

Using CoE VALT

Reserve ACTC Rooms in Advance

Remember to reserve ACTC rooms in advance. See the Reserving ACTC Rooms section above.

VALT Functions

Note that for security and privacy reasons, the downloading of videos is not allowed.

 Start/Stop Recording

Recordings are started and stopped from the VALT web interface.
It is your responsibility to stop a recording that you have started.

Log into VALT. See Connecting to COE VALT section above.

Select the Observe tab (Image of VALT observe icon) from the left-hand side navigation menu.

Select a room from the list where you want to start a recording.

Click the red Record button above the camera view area.

Give your recording a name on the Information page.

Optionally, enter a note to further describe the recording.

Optionally, share the live recording with your instructor, supervisor, classmates, or team members. See the Share Recordings section below.

Click the Start Recording button.

(Remember to close the room door; otherwise, your conversation could be heard on the microphones in adjacent rooms.)

Stop, Pause, and Mark buttons display above the camera view area.

Elapsed time is displayed next to the room name.

 Access Past Recordings

Past recordings are accessed via the VALT web interface.

Log into VALT. See Connecting to COE VALT section above.

Select the Review tab (Image of VALT review icon) from the left-hand side navigation menu to see your past recordings.

Note: Recordings remain accessible on the VALT server for 180 days from the date of recording.

 Share Recordings

CoE VALT allows recordings to be shared with other users of the system such as your instructor, supervisor, classmates, or team members.

It is the user's responsibility to share the recording only with specific users who should have access.

Each person with whom you want to share a recording must have logged into CoE VALT at least once; otherwise, you will not be able to select that person from user listings. See Requesting Access to CoE VALT section above to learn how to gain access to the system.

 For Live Recordings

See the Start/Stop Recording section above to begin the process.

IMPORTANT: BEFORE clicking the Start Recording button, you must select the user(s) with whom you want to share the live recording. You cannot share a live recording once it has started.

Click the Sharing section.

Use the Search box to find each user.

Check the box next to their name.

Be careful that only your intended users are selected/checked.

Click the Start Recording button.

 For Past Recordings

To share past recordings:

Select the Review tab (Image of VALT review icon) from the left-hand side navigation menu to see your past recordings.

Click the gear icon in the Options column for the recording you wish to share.

Select the Sharing option.

Use the Search box in the Sharing pane to find each user. 

Check the box next to their name.

Be careful that only your intended users are selected/checked.

Click Save.

Inform the users.

 Add Markers

Markers allow users to insert searchable information into a specific point within the recording. Markers also act as index points within the recording allowing users to easily navigate to that point during review. Markers can be added during the live recording or when reviewing a recording.

 During Live Recordings

During live recordings, click the Mark button above the camera view area.

Note: The marker is inserted at the time when the Mark button is pressed not when the Save button is pressed.

Enter a marker name.

Optionally, select a color for the marker. This helps to identify the marker more easily on the timeline.

Optionally, enter a note to further describe the marker.

Click Save button.

 When Reviewing Past Recordings

When reviewing past recordings, click the Markers button above the video.

(Past recordings are accessed on the Review tab from the left-hand side navigation menu.)

Advance the video to the time index where you want to insert a marker.

Click the Add New Marker button.

Enter a marker name.

Optionally, select a color for the marker. This helps to identify the marker more easily on the timeline.

Optionally, enter a note to further describe the marker.

Click Save Marker button.

TIP: Pin the marker menu so it does not auto-collapse after a marker is added (after you click Save). This is useful if you intend to insert multiple markers while doing live observation.
Picture showing how to pin marker menu. Pin in upper-right corner

 Clip and Redact

Clips are used for featuring a segment of your video for future use. Redactions, on the other hand, are best used for removing unusable pieces of the video such as time spent taking breaks during a recording.

Log into VALT. See Connecting to COE VALT section above.

Select the Review tab (Image of VALT review icon) from the left-hand side navigation menu to see your previous recordings.

Clips and redactions cannot be created during live video recording.

Select a video to bring it up in the VALT player.  

Click the Tools button above the video.

Define the area you would like to isolate by adjusting the yellow triangle sliders in the video play bar.  You may need to click Play for the yellow sliders to appear.

Select either the Create Clip or Redact button.

Find your clip or redaction video on the Review tab. The new video file name will include the word Clip or Redact for easy identification.

NOTE: The original video will still be available intact. A new video file will be made containing either just the clip or the video minus the redacted area. 

Retention Policy for Video Recordings

Videos remain accessible on the CoE VALT server for 180 days from the date of recording and are then automatically deleted. Submit an ITO help request with any questions regarding this retention policy.

Privacy Button

Each ACTC room has a physical privacy button as pictured below. Engage the privacy button to prevent other users from listening or observing this room via the VALT web interface. Disengage the privacy button first to start a recording via the VALT web interface.

Once a recording is in progress, only the user who started the recording—and anyone else with whom that user has shared the recording while it is in progress—can listen in and see into a room via the VALT web interface.

Picture of physical privacy button in ACTC rooms

Panic Button

Each ACTC room has a panic button as pictured below. Pressing this button will instantly notify the UT Austin Police Department (UTPD) that an emergency situation is in progress and they will send a patrol officer to the room in response. If this button is accidentally pressed, immediately call UTPD at 512-471-4441 and inform them of the false alarm.

Picture of panic button in ACTC rooms

Technical Support

Users must be pre-authorized to use CoE VALT. Refer to the Requesting Access to VALT section above.

For technical issues, submit an ITO help request.