The main menu bar in Echo360 contains options for: Library, Courses, and Collections. Each page contains a Search text field, a Filters option, and a Sort drop-down list. This article describes using all three to find what you're looking for.

The below figure identifies these items on the Library page but they reside in the same location in all of the pages accessed from the top menu.

If you are a Student, you may not have a Library option in the top menu. Some institutions disable the student library.

If you enter Echo360 through an LMS/VLE (i.e., Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, Brightspace, Sakai), you likely land on the Class List of a course most often. And in this case you may not need to navigate using the main menu. In fact, if you are a student, you should ONLY access your courses through the links in your LMS/VLE unless you have been instructed to do otherwise. You may need to use the Library or Collections pages though.

If you have multiple roles in Echo360, for example you are a student in some courses and a teaching assistant in others, you may need to change your current role to see different courses in the Courses page. Click your avatar in the top right corner, then select the Change button. Select the role from the drop-down list. Again - this does NOT necessarily apply to LMS/VLE users; those users should access Echo360 via the links in their LMS courses if possible.

All of your available media appears in your Library page, and all Collections you are a member of appear in the Collections page, regardless of your currently active role. A subset of your collections also appears in the top of your library page, for ease of access.

Using the Filters

The Library, Courses, and Collections pages all contain a Filters link. This allows you to set certain criteria for showing the items on the page.

Click the Filters link, located on the right side of the top of the page and identified in the above figure, to filter what is shown on any of the pages. 

To remove a filter, click the Filters link again, select Clear/Clear All and then click Apply.

Library filter

The Library filter has several options for filtering the media (and collections) showing in your library. You can filter the media by content-specific characteristics such as media type, owner, and whether the item is shared/published. You can also filter to find media that is currently published to a course or to any course in a term.

Only the Owner field applies to both media and collections on the library page. Collection managers are considered "owners".

Use multiple filter selections to narrow the media shown to be fairly specific. For example, select Presentation as the content Type and then select a particular Course. This filters the page to show only those Presentations that are currently published (shared) to classes in that course.

1. Click Library from the top menu
2. On the Library page, click Filters from the right side of the top section of the page.
3. In the Filters dialog box, use the Content and Found In drop-down lists to identify the filtering criteria you want. 
4. Click Apply.

When the page has filters applied, the Filter link changes to show how many different filtering criteria are currently being used to display the media. This is helpful if you cannot find something you know is in your library but isn't being shown. If the Filters link has a number next to it, click it to see what filters are in place at the moment.

Click Clear All and then Apply from the Filters dialog box to remove any filters currently in place.

Use the Filters along with the Search box to narrow the media shown even further.

Few items to note about the filters:

• The Owner drop-down list is the ONLY filter that applies to both the media and the collections in the Library page. Filtering by owner will result in media that matches the Owner selection AND any collections where the matching owner(s) are Managers.
• The Source options include Live as well as Classroom Captures and Personal Captures, filters which are NOT necessarily mutually exclusive. Meaning if you select Live as a source filter, you will see both classroom captures and personal captures that were live streamed if both exist in your library.
• The "Shared" status is defined as follows: 
  
  • Media that another user has shared directly with you.
  • Media that has been published (shared) to an Echo360 course section.
  • "Shared" status does NOT apply to media the YOU have shared with another user.
  • "Not Shared" means it meets neither of the first two criteria. So that the media that appears is either owned by you, or in a collection in which you are a member, and in either case does not reside in any Echo360 course.
  
  So that selecting Not Shared as a status but then also selecting a Term or Course filter will yield no results, as those filters are mutually exclusive. See Shared vs Owned vs Collection media below for more information on the Shared/Not Shared status

Feel free to experiment with the Library filters, along with the Search and Sort features, to find the way that works best for you to find the media you need quickly and easily. BE SURE to "Clear All > Apply" on the Filter dialog box to return your library to its fully populated state as needed.

Shared vs Owned vs Collection media

Notice on the Library page that each tile shows the owner of the media along with the title below the thumbnail.

If YOUR name appears there, it is media you own. If a different user's name appears there, either the owner shared it specifically to you, OR the media resides in a Collection where you are a member.

At a minimum, you can always view this media by clicking on the tile and opening the media details page. What ELSE you can do with it depends on whether you own it, or your permissions in the collection(s) where it resides, or certain institutional settings surrounding individually shared media.

Media ownership typically provides additional functionality that you may not have for media that belongs to someone else. 

Courses filter

The Courses filter is limited to Term, as shown below. It allows you to show only the Courses/Sections in a particular term.

1. Click Courses from the main menu
2. On the courses page, click Filters from the right side of the top section of the page.
3. In the Filters dialog box, use the Term drop-down list to select which term's courses/sections you want to show in the page.
   
4. Click Apply.

The Courses page appears and now shows only the courses in the selected term.

If you are an instructor and teach multiple sections of a particular course, you will see multiple sections for a single course within a selected term. Not all institutions have multiple sections in a single course/term but some do.

The below figure shows the Courses page, with a filter applied (Term Start). The results are two sections in the same course and term. The displayed tiles show the term and the course name along with the section name (which are different than the course name because there are more than one in the course).

Collections filter

The Collections filter is limited to Manager, as shown below. It allows you to filter the Collections page based on who is a manager in each collection.

This is helpful for seeing the collections YOU manage but also for finding managers of collections in which you are a member. This would direct you to the person you may need to ask to have your permissions changed, or have media or other users added/removed from the collection if necessary (if you do not have those rights).

1. Click Collections from the main menu
2. On the collections page, click Filters from the top right side of the page.
3. In the Filters dialog box, use the Manager drop-down list to select which collections you want to show in the page. Anyone is selected by default.
   The list is limited to ONLY users who are Manager in Collections in which you are a member.
   
4. Select yourself from the list to show only those collections where you have full management (ownership) rights.
5. Select a different user to see the collections where they have management rights.
6. Click Apply.

Using the Search Box

The Library, Courses, and Collections pages all contain a Search box at the top. The Search Library box on the Library page is shown below, but the same search text box appears on all of the pages.

Enter search text to match text in the Name/Title of what you are searching for in order to find matches. This includes the name of a Collection, Title of the media, or name of a Course or Section (on the Courses page).

The Search applies to Collections as well as media, and it applies to your ENTIRE list of collections, not just the subset shown by default. The top collections that match the search text appear in the Collections panel of the library. This can be a very fast and easy way to find the collection you want without having to go to the Collections page.

The page contents filter as you type. Meaning that the more characters are typed into the box, the fewer matching items should appear on the page.

You can use the Search text in conjunction with the Filters. Filter the items on the page first, then use the Search box to find what you are looking for within the filtered results. 

Sorting

The Library, Courses, and Collections pages all have a Sorting option, to put the items on the page into the order you prefer. The sort options available depend on which page's items you are sorting.

Sorting the Library

By default, both the Collections and Media in your library are sorted by date created, with the newest shown first (descending order, arrow points down).

NOTE that which collections appear in the library will change with the sort; your ENTIRE list of collections is affected by the sort, and the top collections that match the sort appear in the Collections panel of the library. This can be a very fast and easy way to find the collection you want without having to go to the Collections page.

Click the Sort by drop-down list to sort BOTH the media and the collections by either Date Created or Name.

Click the arrow to the right of the Sort by drop-down to change the sort from ascending to descending or vice-versa.

If you sort the media by Name (title of the media), media that is "Untitled" appears first if in Ascending order (arrow points UP), and last if in Descending order (arrow points down). 

Sorting Courses

By default, your Courses page is sorted by Term Start date, with courses in the current (or most recent) term shown first. Within that term, they appear in alphabetical order by course name (then section name if the course has multiple sections).

Click the Sort by drop-down to sort the Courses list by Course Code, Course Name, Name (section name), Term (term name), or Term Start date.

Click the arrow to the right of the drop-down to change the sort from ascending to descending, or vice-versa.

Sorting Collections

By default, your Collections appear in alphabetical order by collection name. 

Click the Sort by drop-down to sort the collections list by Name or Date Created.

Click the arrow to the right of the drop-down to change the sort from ascending to descending, or vice-versa.