Please keep Office Mix if you cannot improve Stream

Brass Contributor

I have migrated all of my mixes to Stream, and although it's worded as if the move from Mix to Stream is an upgrade or improvement, we Mix users loose a ton of functionality.  Here are some examples,

 

1. The table of contents feature when uploading a Powerpoint to Mix is very convenient for people to find a section of a lesson.  I don't know if it's possible to create this in Stream.  Stream doesn't even give you the "youtube" thumbnail when you drag across the timeline bar at the bottom of the video.

 

2. The analytics in MIX allowed me to see how long a user spends on each slide of a ppt, and how long they watched the lesson.  I don't see this function within Stream.  I cannot tell who has logged in and watched my stream videos.  As an educator, I need to know if my students watched the lecture!

 

3. Uploading to Mix was MUCH faster than having my PC make a video, then uploading to Stream.  This process seems to take forever and the file sizes are huge.

 

4. Small changes in a PPT, then uploading an "existing mix" was very simple and fast process within Office Mix.  Now, when updating a PPT, you have to reconvert the lesson into a video.  I have a good/powerful PC and a 1 hour lecture takes a long time . . . this process was MUCH faster using Mix.

 

5. The download link was nice in Mix, so I could download the original presentation off of the Mix site if needed.  

 

I don't know if it's possible to keep the MIX features and functions as an option within Stream so users can chose to either stream a video or play a PPT mix.  I do, however, appreciate the ability to do any of this within Office365 and I understand that there are other factors that must play a role in eliminating Mix.

12 Replies

Thank you so much for your feedback and putting together that list of the things that you liked about Office Mix and what we need to improve in Stream. We will use your feedback as we plan what to do next.

 

We are looking at what features, ideas, and concepts we can start pulling into Stream. At this point it time as you mentioned Stream is not a replacement for Office Mix. Stream is about videos, however Mix was about interactive content, videos, powerpoint, and had deeper features that were tailored to the education space.

 

We do believe that Stream and PowerPoint are the right place for the ideas/concepts Mix proved out in it's preview product, however it is going to take time for us to figure out exactly how/what that means in Stream. 

Sean's post is exactly what we in the education space need to happen if Stream is to be the MS Mix replacement.  My University, as well as many others that I am aware of, have moved to the O365 platform. We had fully embraced the Mix environment and integrated it into our LMS (Blackboard).  We were starting to away from Camtasia to have a single vended solution but now have to go back or find another tool that supports online education. 

 

Adobe Captivate is a good tool that you can import your PPT into and create quizzing.  However, it's relatively new with a bug when integrating the SCORM into Blackboard but it does have rich metrics where the bug can be 'worked around'.  They also have an LMS.  The monthly subscription is reasonable too. Perhaps that is the solution if Microsoft can no longer support the educator.  

 

I would hope that MS would have this deficiency on their radar and would establish a platform to replace Mix to support the educator group of users.

 

Best Regards

Rita.

 

Absolutely agree with this post. From a teacher's perspective, Mix was a dream come true product. The analytics and ability to control access to the videos , in addition to the ease of updating the video were fantastic and absolutely necessary to for online education.  No other software I've found worked as well or as seamlessly with other Office 365 solutions. Stream clearly caters to the needs of a large, business organization but is a very clunky service for educators.

I really hope that Stream will be improved to match the needs of EDUCATORS who had such positive experiences with Mix.  Many of the concerns raised by Sean are the exact issues I face with the forced transition from Mix to Stream.  It is clear that Stream is NOT a replacement for Mix, especially for those of us who used Mix for educational purposes.  I hope the changes to Stream come quickly, but I fear that the focus is on an alternative product that does not match the needs of educators.  If you didn't intend for Stream to be a replacement for Mix, then why force all of our Mixes into Stream while not having the necessary tools available?  Please consider extending the availability of Mix while the Stream updates are being made.  I really don't want to learn another platform such as Adobe or Camtasia, but Stream is not suitable for my needs.  

As Mix was refined it became a viable option to much more expensive programs such as Adobe and Articulate. With the limitations noted above, I may have to reconsider my options as a professor as to what platform is needed to perform my instruction. The statistics such as who has viewed the presentation and how long per slide helped to address student issues. I hate to say it but at this point, Stream might as well be competing with YouTube, not the other educational presentation platforms. It was the other functions that were available in Mix, not the ability to stream a presentation, that made it viable. 

When will the interactive features for MIX work on Stream?

Our university has a fast approaching timeline to complete additional tutorials (created using MIX) which we've already rolled out to 900 medical and health science students. We're ready to use another product if the interactive features in PowerPoint's MIX do


@Marc Mroz wrote:

Thank you so much for your feedback and putting together that list of the things that you liked about Office Mix and what we need to improve in Stream. We will use your feedback as we plan what to do next.

 

We are looking at what features, ideas, and concepts we can start pulling into Stream. At this point it time as you mentioned Stream is not a replacement for Office Mix. Stream is about videos, however Mix was about interactive content, videos, powerpoint, and had deeper features that were tailored to the education space.

 

We do believe that Stream and PowerPoint are the right place for the ideas/concepts Mix proved out in it's preview product, however it is going to take time for us to figure out exactly how/what that means in Stream. 



not work with Stream.

@LaVentra E. Danquah - We hear your concerns and frustrations and are looking into how we can bring some of the best of Office Mix into Stream/PowerPoint. We need to get a little further along in our planning, designing, and thinking before we can share more specifics. But we are listening and taking action internally here on the Stream and PowerPoint teams. 

I really hope your team gets the time and budget to make it happen in the very near future. As educators, we are really quite depending on this features. As are our students! Wouldn't be the first time my students ask me to record a lesson in mix, so that they can review it at home. I now share both links with them (mix & stream) and the first comments about stream were not that positive unfortunately... The absence of the table of content-navigation is a real nuisance to the students.

Why do this? Office Mix was  a great add-on. Microsoft failed to promote it yet still it gathered a decent following. People started embedding it into infrastructure. Then Microsoft drops it.

Stream is not a replacement. Its just a video host - we don't need Microsoft for that.

Right now I'm typing on a Microsoft Surface. Its a great computer, but I am just waiting for Microsoft to drop it. I'll get a message one day saying that's the last update - so long and thanks. I used to have a Windows Phone. It was a great phone and that's what Microsoft did, one year into my contract.

It's really sad that a once great company doesn't seem to have an attention span any more. It just moves from one idea to the next. Attracting users then dumping them. As a user it feels like riding a wave. I wonder if Office 365 will do the same? - it does feel like we're at the crest.

In taking this approach, the company prevents others from developing longer term solutions - like the dog in the manger - sitting on the hay so the horses can't eat it.

I've been a fan of the Microsoft product, but this latest stunt with Office Mix is testing my loyalty.

Andrew

Our agency thrived on office mix features. We even bought Microsoft USB plug in play camera's for everyone to create awesome power point presentations and they delivered. If you implement these features on stream and stream is only available on a website, I dear hope you guys make it snappy. If we're allowed to keep the office mix plug-in, I plan to not remove it at all from office 2013/2016 .

I know your pain! I could overlook the fact that they took away most of the best features and made us individually update every link we've ever made, but I can't even share videos outside my organization or without a login anymore. Before I had all my mixes embedded into lovely workbooks and it all worked seamlessly. Now the student has to log in every time they want to view one. I can't send anything to externals. can't check analytics. I don't see the point in stream which has countless identical and better alternatives on the internet. Office mix was unique. RIP 

As a College Professor, my audience is students. I moved all of my Mixes, which students loved, to Stream. Now I can't share the Stream Videos with my students as they don't appear to be recognized as part of our "organization." This product is meant for the business world, not for education. Why not reopen Mix to .edu domains so we can continue to use it while you figure out your next steps? We could migrate back to Mix and stay there until we have another option. I'm sure if I looked into Adobe Creative Cloud solutions which are available to our College community, I might be able to find another place to store my videos, but I really prefer the Microsoft environment. Don't leave us out in the cold, Microsoft. At 170,000 students, we are the largest institution of higher education in the country. We need a better solution. Bring back Mix while you improve the Stream environment or adapt it for education purposes.  Thank you for considering our requests.

 

Dr. Mildred Roqueta
Miami Dade College