Panopto FAQs

Q: What happened to my Ensemble videos?
A: Videos stored in Ensemble personal accounts have been moved to our new video hosting platform, Panopto.  You can access your videos at https://colgate.hosted.panopto.com. You will find them in the “Ensemble Migrations” subfolder of your “My Folder”.  Any links you have previously shared to Ensemble videos must be updated to links using the appropriate Panopto share link.

Q: Is it possible to edit videos migrated from Ensemble using the Panopto video editor?  
A: There are some caveats when editing Ensemble videos in Panopto.  Please contact us to discuss your goals and the best approach. Email ITS Service Desk

Q: Why do I have a Moodle course folder?
A: Each semester, a folder can be created in Panopto for each Moodle course you teach. It is recommended that this folder be used for student video submissions and for course videos that are intended to be used for a single semester.  Each course folder will have an “assignments” subfolder which will receive videos that are submitted by students from Moodle assignments.  Assignment folders allow students to submit videos but prevent them from viewing videos submitted by their classmates. See How to Create a Video Assignment in Moodle. Note: To create your course folder you must  Add the Panopto Block to your Moodle course and then provision your course.

Q: What is the best way to organize videos that I use in more than one course or for more than one semester? 
A: It is recommended that you create a subfolder in your My Folder for each course. This ensures that the video links will persist when you copy your Moodle course to future semesters. Additionally, when videos are in your My Folder, you set Share permissions to Anyone at Colgate with the link, which makes them available from one semester to the next without needing to provision each course for Panopto.

Q: If I copy a video, then edit the copy, I’m prompted to either edit the original video or unlink the video and edit.  What is this about?  
A: There are several ways to copy videos in Panopto. See How to Copy and Move Videos.  If you make a reference copy rather than a full copy, the reference copy refers back to the original source video. If the source video is edited, the reference copy will automatically reflect the same edits.  On the other hand, if you try to make edits to the reference copy, you will receive a message asking whether you would like to unlink the copy from the original so that edits made to the copy will not be reflected in the original.  Learn about Video Reference Copies.

Q: Is there a way to just search video titles rather than searching all video transcripts?
A: Panopto has a robust search feature.  It searches the title, the video captions that are automatically generated from every video, as well as any text in the video that it can recognize.  See How to Use Video Search and Learn About Smart Search. If you want to narrow your search to just find videos that have a specific search term in the title, there is currently no way to do that. 

Q: What are the options for sharing videos with students, others at Colgate and people outside Colgate?
A: There are several share options.  You can share videos with individuals with a Colgate.edu email address, with all students in a specific Moodle course, with everyone at Colgate who has the video link and with anyone outside Colgate who has the link.  Please be aware that if you share with people outside of Colgate, there is no way to just limit access to a particular individual.  Anyone with the video link will be able to access the video.

Q: If I am not using Moodle to share videos, can I share a video with just the students in my course without sharing with every student individually?
A: Yes.  The first step is to Add the Panopto Block to your Moodle course - this will create a Panopto group for sharing videos with your course students. This group is synchronized automatically with your Banner course enrollments.  If you wish to share the video using another means, such as in an email or a website, you need to set up share permissions in Panopto. In this case, the second step is to add the course name to the share options for that folder in Panopto.  Open the share options for the folder. In the People and groups area, start typing the name of the Moodle course (e.g. Fall 2022-COSC101)  and then select your course name with “Viewer” access from the matches listed.  Viewer access allows students to view the videos but not create videos in that particular folder. 

Q: How will I know if students are watching the videos I assign?
A: Panopto provides extensive usage reporting.  See How to Access Folder and Video Statistics for Panopto. There are additional ways to track student engagement with your videos.  Panopto has built-in ways for students to engage through discussion or by responding to quiz questions embedded in the video. See How to Use Discussions and How to Add a Quiz to a Video.

Q: What is the difference between the Panopto Capture and Panopto for Mac/Windows? Is it better to use the browser recorder or download the recording app?
A: The following chart describes some benefits/drawbacks of using each type of recorder: 

Q: If I’m recording to Zoom Cloud Storage, how can I move those recordings to Panopto? 
A: All new Zoom recordings are now automatically stored in Panopto. For Zoom recordings made prior to 10/14/22, you can download from Zoom and upload to Panopto.  

Q: How can I link to a Panopto video from Moodle?
A: Two steps:

1. Provision Panopto in your Moodle course by adding the Panopto block. See How to Add the Panopto Block to Moodle Courses.  After adding the Panopto block, students in the Moodle course will be able to access any video that is linked from the Moodle course without having to set share permissions for each video included in the Moodle course.
2. Add a Panopto activity in Moodle.  See How to Insert Panopto Video Links and Quizzes in Moodle and  How to Embed Videos into a Moodle Course.
    

Q: I’ve heard there are a lot of nice features for course videos in Panopto. Where can I find out about all these features?
A: This overview video and description, How to Use Panopto with Moodle for Instructors, is a good place to start.  You can find more information on our Moodle-info site.

Q: How do I set up a Panopto playlist and share it with students?
A: See How to Create and Share a Playlist.

Q: When importing an existing Moodle course to a new semester, will the links to videos still work? 
A: Importing Panopto activities and links into a new Moodle course will continue to give students access to those videos, as long as you provision the new Moodle course in Panopto.  This is done by adding the Panopto block and selecting “Provision” from the block.  See How to Add the Panopto Block to Moodle Courses. 

Please note: If you are using the interactive features of Panopto, such as Quiz or Discussion, the process will be different.  You will need to login to Panopto and make a copy of the video which will clear out previous quiz results and discussion posts.  Then in the new Moodle course, link to the video copy rather than the original video.  Each Moodle course that you provision with Panopto will have a course folder in Panopto.  Suggested best practice is to organize videos that have interactive features in the Panopto Moodle course folders to avoid confusion between video originals and copies.  Please contact the ITS Service Desk for assistance as needed.

Q: How do I caption my videos? 
A: All videos uploaded to Panopto, transferred from Ensemble, or created using the Panopto recorder are automatically captioned in Panopto using computer-generated captions.  The accuracy of computer-generated captions can vary considerably depending on several factors including the quality of the microphone, background noise, the accent of the speaker, etc.  Captions should be reviewed for accuracy and edited as needed.  See How to Edit or Delete Captions.

Highly accurate captioning is also available from third-party vendors.  Contact the ITS Service Desk for more information about how to request paid captions from a caption service.

Q: What are audio descriptions and should I be adding them?
A: Audio descriptions provide visually impaired viewers with visual context of what is being presented in a video.  These descriptions will be read out loud during the video’s playback.  Writing good audio descriptions is an art, so learning more about audio description is a valuable starting point.  See Turning Sights into Sounds: The Art of Audio Descriptions and Description of Visual Information.  There are also vendors who provide audio descriptions, but they are quite expensive and often do not have enough knowledge of the subject matter to create meaningful descriptions.  See How to Add Audio Descriptions in Panopto.