Year after year, online video is becoming more important — indeed essential — in the professional development and training sector. This is exceptionally important for online training companies like CareerFoundry.

Implementing Video In The Workflow

Since 2014, the global company has helped thousands of mid-career individuals from all over the world learn the skills for starting new careers in iOS Development, UI Design, Web Development, and UX Design.  They are taught skills including coding and programming to further their career paths. At the same time, they are matched with mentors to help them in their learning. Video communication has become essential in building relationships with mentors and learners.  

Since the company’s early days, ScreenPal has been a part of CareerFoundry’s operations strategy.

“Our mentors review our students’ work. Students send in a piece of work — a wireframe — and the mentor will review it and give them feedback,” says Samuel Boguslawski, Product Manager at CareerFoundry.

“We have implemented the ScreenPal API, so they [mentors] will click the “Record” button in our platform and start recording their review. When they’re done, they’ll upload it,” says Boguslawski.

ScreenPal API Integration

ScreenPal offers an API integration for companies looking to implement video within their existing workflow systems.  The API is embedded in the system and allows for easy recording. The web-based recorder makes it easy for users to launch the recording tool, which is great for companies like CareerFoundry who utilize video within their business.

Implementing and leveraging APIs in web-based workplace platforms is central to success for many of today’s companies, including those in distance learning and training. According to the Harvard Business Review, “APIs are the windows to new ecosystems. APIs allow firms to expand into markets they may never have previously considered.”1^[1]

This holds true for CareerFoundry, as the ScreenPal API has been embraced by its customer base.

“It’s definitely a feature that our students very much enjoy,” Boguslawski says, noting his company looks to keep its online learning environment lean and easy-to-use so as to not overload students with too many tools.

The ScreenPal API makes it is easy for the company to integrate into its workflow. ScreenPal has made using the API seamless on the back-end for CareerFoundry mentors and operations staff.

“The upload callback will create a record in our database with a URL link hosted on ScreenPal,” describes Boguslawski of his company’s experience with the API. “We use the embed code to immediately display the video once it’s uploaded.”

Recording Videos With Ease for Professional Development

CareerFoundry also uses ScreenPal’s video editing and hosting tools internally to record videos for internal discussions on company plans and initiatives.

Boguslawski notes that CareerFoundry decided to use ScreenPal’s API in its classes because of its simplicity of including it in its website code, plus its one-button, easy-to-use functionality.

“ScreenPal was actually the only tool that offered something where you can have a record button on the website and a callback that immediately uploads the video,” he says.

“It’s simple to integrate due to the API. For our use case, it was super-helpful to have the ability to have the record button in our own platform and have the upload procedure handled by somebody else. We only need to worry about the first step of starting the recording and the last step of displaying the recording. To have all that integrated, it’s been exactly what we needed,” adds Boguslawski.

ScreenPal consults on an ongoing basis to update the API with desired new features. This continual process fits perfectly with best practices outlined by McKinsey Digital, a leading analytics consulting company: “Like any product or service, a successful API program requires a thoughtfully managed adoption campaign backed by rigorous performance management.”^[2]

Quick Links

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^[1] Iyer, Bala and Subramaniam. The Strategic Value of APIs. Harvard Business Review. January 2015

^[2] Keerthi Iyengar, Somesh Khanna, Srinivas Ramadath, and Daniel Stephens. What it really takes to capture the value of APIs. McKinsey Digital. September 2017