Approve YouTube Videos for Students

Videos can be great instructional resources and YouTube hosts one of the most extensive video libraries. As a Google Suite for Education district, we place account restrictions on our end users for safety. As staff members, you have "unrestricted" access to YouTube with the exception of what our Securly filter blocks for content. Our elementary students have "strict" access to YouTube and middle school and high school students receive "moderate" access to YouTube content.

These restrictions sometimes block videos that are educationally appropriate. To have videos unblocked in the past, teachers would have to contact our technology department to approve the videos. This year, we have made a change in our management console to allow verified Google Classroom teachers to approve videos for student access to minimize any delays in access to resources.

To approve videos, follow the steps below. If you already use Google Classroom, you may skip the first step.

1. Join Google Classroom by following the prompts here. The technology department will have to verify you as a teacher, so they may be a short delay after this step.
2. Open YouTube signed into your district account.
3. Under the video there will be a blue bar that either says the video is "approved" or "not approved" for msd.k12.wi.us. There is also a button that allows you to "Approve" or "Remove" the video for students. Once a video is approved, it is viewable by ALL students. 

If you've started your own YouTube Channel to share instructional resources or have an educational channel that your trust and use as a common resource, you may want to approve an entire channel for students.

To approve an entire channel follow these steps.

1. Click on the channel's icon below the video. This will take you to the channel's homepage.
   
2. A blue bar will appear on the channel's page, click "Approve" to grant access to ALL videos on this channel.
   

If a video is still blocked for students after you approve it, it is most likely being overridden by our Securly web filter. In these rare cases, you will need to reach out to the tech department by submitting a tech ticket with a direct link to the video.