What is Box of Broadcasts (BoB)? 
BoB is a TV and radio streaming service for UK Higher and Further education. Using BoB you can:
To create an account in BoB follow these simple instructions.
- Visit BoB and select 'Sign In'
- Search for and select "Aston University - OpenAthens" using the search bar. Click 'Go'
- At the Aston University login screen, sign in with your Aston University username and password.
N.B. The first time you login to BoB you will be asked to provide an email address to verify your account. Enter your email address and name. You will shortly receive an email with instructions on how to verify your account.
What is the Guide?
The BoB Guide shows the TV listings for 65 free to air channels. All programmes on the 9 most popular channels are recorded automatically on broadcast, content from the remaining channels can be requested up to 30 days after broadcast. If you're planning ahead you can request recordings up to 7 days in advance.
The left and right arrows navigate backwards and forwards in time, scrolling vertically show more channels. The colour of the text underneath the programme title shows its recording status;
Blue; available for you to request a recording of the programme
Amber; scheduled to be recorded automatically. It may take several hours to become available
Green; available now to stream
Requesting a recording
To request a recording from the guide scroll to the day and time of broadcast.
Once your recording is ready you will receive an email to the address you registered with and the programme will appear in MyBoB.
You can request up to 10 recordings per day.
As well as recording content from the guide, you can also search an archive of over 2 million broadcasts to share with your students. Once you've found a programme you're interested in you can add it to MyBoB or create a playlist. To search the BoB archive first click the Search bar at the top of the page.
You can either search for individual programmes or user-created playlists using the checkbox. The default search settings will look for your keywords in programmes' titles, metadata and transcript; you can perform an advanced search by clicking "search options". To perform a search enter your keywords and click the search icon.
Your results will appear in a list below the search bar, you can sort these by newest, oldest, title and relevance. A short excerpt of the programme's transcript will appear showing you where your keyword was mentioned.
Once you have found a programme you're interested in click the title to view, share, add it to a playlist or add it to MyBoB.
Sharing programmes recorded on BoB is simple, this page will explain how to share videos using a link but you can also share them using Resource Lists, Sharing Playlists and Embedding Videos in Blackboard.
Once you have found a video you want to share open it from the Guide, your Search Results or from MyBoB.
- Link: This link will take users to the BoB homepage first. They will need to search for Coventry University and login to watch the video. This option is best if you're sending the link via email, blogposts, instant messenger services or including in documents or presentations.
- WAYFless Link: This link is specific to Coventry University so users will go directly to our login page.
- Embed: The embed code allows you to embed a video directly on a website or Moodle page. Users will be asked to login when pressing play.
Creating a playlist allows you to group together related videos or clips for yourself or to share with your students. You can view and edit your playlists from your MyBoB area.
Creating a New Playlist
To create a new playlist click MyBob from the BoB homepage. Click "Playlists" and "New Playlist". Give your playlist a name and brief description. The checkbox allows you to chose if you want your playlist to be publicly available; if you select this option other BoB users can find and view your playlist.
Adding Programmes to your Playlist
To add a video to a playlist open the full video by clicking on its title. Under the video you will see an option to "Add to Playlist", click this. You can now add the programme to an existing playlist by typing in its title or create a new list and add your video to this.
Editing a Playlist
To edit your playlist go to your MyBoB area and select playlists. Click the playlist you want to edit to open it. To edit the title, description and public status of your list select "Edit Playlist Details". You can also use this to delete your playlist. To remove programmes from your playlist click "Edit List", check any items you want to remove and click "Remove".
Many times there may only be a specific part of a programme relevant to your students. BoB includes functionality to easily make clips from whole programmes.
Make a clip
To make a clip
Your clip will now be saved in your MyBoB area with a unique URL. You can share your clip in any of the ways you would a full programme.
Editing Clips
To edit your clips
The URL of your clip will remain the same after you have edited it.
Broadcasts from BoB can be added to a module's reading list just as you would a book or article. This is a quick and easy way for students to access content and creates a strong link between the programme and the module's learning outcomes.
Remember that you will need to visit the Reading List page and publish your changes before they will be visible to students accessing the list.