#1 most frequent
United States of America
68.4%478 installations of 699
What is Panopto?
Panopto is a video management platform for businesses and universities from the company of the same name in Seattle, supporting the recording, sharing, live streaming, and (after recording) sharing via LMS or internal video site, video search, and virtual classroom.
Categories & Use Cases
Videos
Top Performing Features
Video link sharing
Allows users to generate hyperlinks for sharing individual videos or players.
Category average: 9.7
Audience polling
Users can poll viewers during live video events, and display the results.
Category average: 6.2
Integration to LMS
The video platform integrates with the user's learning management system.
Category average: 9.8
Areas for Improvement
Video analytics dashboard
Includes a dashboard view of video performance metrics.
Category average: 7.4
eCommerce
The platform supports paid viewing, with a mechanism to receive payments in exchange for a media license.
Category average: 4.8
Streaming quality reports
Quality control reports are available to monitor fluctuations in video streaming quality.
Category average: 8.7
Who Buys & Uses Panopto
#2 most frequent
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
12.2%85 installations of 699
#3 most frequent
Canada
3.0%21 installations of 699
Panopto Supports Learner Success Before, During, After a Pandemic
Pros
- Easy to set up and record desktop with dedicated application or browser tool.
- Automated speech to text generated captions for accessibility.
- Simple editing tools to snip beginning and end or edit out sections in the middle.
Cons
- Panopto doesn't fully support Ultra courses in Blackboard - we can do quizzing, which is very helpful, but we can't do video submissions like an Original course.
- There is no built-in certificate option for completing a video and its quiz questions, which requires us to use additional systems for tracking and awarding.
- Analytics are mediocre. The reporting tools are challenging to use and to get clear information on a consistent basis.
- Quizzing is limited to multiple choice or T/F -- there is no reflection point or open-ended question format.
Most Important Features
- Support for both single-sign on AND our learning management system (e.g., Blackboard).
- Adaptable video delivery for device and bandwidth.
- Ease of recording functionality - how quickly can an instructor start recording lectures and post the links back into the Blackboard course site.
- Support for accessibility, in this case, speech to text captioning is mostly accurate.
Return on Investment
- During the pandemic, Panopto allows our faculty to quickly stage up lectures that were normally delivered in person, and these recordings reached thousands of students who could not come to campus for class.
- Both faculty and student report high satisfaction with the flexibility and convenience of having Panopto video content available in a course to watch and rewatch for learner reinforcement.
- Panopto's adaptable media distribution reduced impact on student technology and internet speeds when they might not have access to broadband connections, allowing them to continue to access essential course materials.
- Speech to text capabilities. increase accessibility compliance of media content.
- Archiving training materials in Panopto allows faculty, staff, TAs, and students to easily find recordings for reference.
Alternatives Considered
Kaltura
Other Software Used
Blackboard Collaborate, Webex (formerly Webex Teams), Slack
Panopto - A Simple, Flexible, Reliable content capture and presentation system
Pros
- Simple to use - It really is a click-and-go system. Log in, click on record, and you're set.
- Flexible - It allows multiple information-rich inputs to be recorded simultaneously (for example, the screen, webcams, microphones, etc.). For some demonstrations, having multiple perspectives/views can be beneficial. The ability to add multiple webcams enhanced the value of some of my recordings.
- Reliable - This is critical when an unforeseen opportunity arises and you want to capture it visually and with audio. I had multiple experiences where a unique person was available briefly and due to Panopto's reliability, I was able to capture content that would otherwise have been seen by only those physically present at the time.
Cons
- The initial cost of ownership for our facility was a point of contention until a sufficient number of faculty and students expressed their desire to have access. I'm not sure how the pricing is determined these days, so that might have been resolved.
- Tutorials for allowing multiple users to have access to content with various administrative levels would be helpful. Owners, viewers and others who aren't familiar with the options available to them might benefit from more tutorials.
- It's a stretch, but having an automated system that suggests "trimming" the length of recordings that begin prior to the important content might be useful. In some cases, I would start a recording but not get done with preliminary discussions in a class for a few minutes prior to focusing on the day's material. Including that in recordings doesn't look as professional as it could, and could be considered a waste of a viewer's time.
Most Important Features
- Simplicity. It doesn't take much training at all to learn to use it. In fact, I created some 30-second to 1-minute videos to cover the main points needed to create recordings (and I did them using Panopto!).
- Scalability. With so many new students entering our university each year, Panopto had to be able to handle the increased load.
- Reliability. Our IT department didn't need to work quite so hard since Panopto seems to have addressed the "pinch points" that can typically occur while using such a system.
Return on Investment
- I'm not at the level where I could provide information on ROI, but as a professor, I can unequivocally state that students were more prepared after we started using Panopto than prior to using it. I attribute that largely to information access unencumbered by time (of day), pace (recordings can be adjusted for speed), or space constraints. That made my task much easier as I could have them view materials that were previously recorded instead of inefficiently using time during class to answer questions that were asked and answered previously.
- Almost all of my students were initially either ambivalent or a bit worried about submitting presentations on video but once they did, they noticed that their presentation skills improved, as they were able to practice, review, and re-record if needed. In my opinion that prepared them better for their careers.
- A culture of cooperation grew as we increased the use of Panopto for recordings, as I would contact individuals from various departments across campus to work on interdisciplinary projects. The ability to have snippets (short recordings) from experts in their respective areas, addressing aspects of materials covered in our program enhanced the perception (and I would argue, the reality) of quality of our program.
Other Software Used
Corel VideoStudio Pro, Blender, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Autodesk MeshMixer
Great video management software with great captioning features
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Panopto allows us to organize all of the videos that created and put them in a central place. It allows us to search for and categorize the vides so they can be found easily. We can also control who sees the videos based on audience. We can also get stats on who is viewing the videos.
Pros
- Great captioning features
- Easy uploads
- Timestamps for videos
Cons
- Captions aren't perfect for industry standard words
- Would like more SCORM features
- Sometimes there are delayed processing times after uploading
Most Important Features
- Captioning
- Video tagging/classification
- Controlling video access
- Playlists
Return on Investment
- Put all our videos together in one central place
- Use playlists and security features to control who sees what
- See statistics for who is watching what
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft SharePoint
Other Software Used
Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance
Video content for learning and teaching
Pros
- Easy to use and is intuitive to find your way around.
- Software-based, so it's available for staff to use on many devices and helps students to access content online.
- Flexible to suit the needs of users.
Cons
- Captions are always a problem for us. We would like to caption all our videos and currently, the automatic captioning is not very good.
- We would like integration with our VLE grade book to allow seamless submission and grading for students.
Return on Investment
- Students are able to catch up on course material.
- Staff can manage time better by using video for delivery of content that is often viewed many times.
Excellent user experience and support
Pros
- Intuitive: ease of use and accessibility is important for all users.
- Well featured and flexible: with basic editing tools easily used with more sophisticated options to organize material where required.
- Reliable: crucial for our student experience
Cons
- Possibly more detailed real-time feedback during lecture-room based recording.
Return on Investment
- It's used for educational purposes and the ability to review and study material is the need fulfilled; enhancing our student experience.