Traditionally only used for “flipped classroom” courses, Ensemble is now available for use by all faculty members. The program, which is based on a campus server, allows for quick and easy upload that supplies ad-free videos students can access from their Blackboard accounts.

A training program was held on Thursday, Feb. 26 in the Woods Classroom in the Mortensen Library for staff members to learn how the site works.

“The site runs in the background. This is something that faculty will use to create videos, put the videos on the server to store, share them with other faculty members, and then there’s a plug in for blackboard so then to share it with students,” Dr. John Williams, associate professor of mathematics, said.

Once a video is uploaded, the faculty member has control over who has access to view, and share the file. Videos submitted through this site lose the risk of being taken down, which is a common threat for Youtube videos.

Ensemble allows for easy access from student’s personal devices like their laptops, iPads, and phones, which can be beneficial in the event that class is canceled, or they can’t make it in.

“This winter when we had the problem when we missed so many classes, I did hear that some of the faculty members were putting out videos because they missed the class. Students could at least watch, do something on those days when they were missing class,” stated Dr. Williams.

Any staff member with questions about their ensemble accounts can email the ITS office at