Western supports Panopto for video

Thanks to a partnership between the Disability Access Center and Academic Technology and User Services, Western is fully supporting Panopto as the recommended media management and captioning tool.  Panopto is an easy-to-use, centralized media/video management application that is integrated directly in Canvas courses to provide video recording, editing, automated video captioning, streaming playback, and interactive quizzing. 

Automatic speech recognition technology adds searchable transcripts and captions to every video and recorded PowerPoint presentation, making educational videos easier to study and review for all students. 

“Online learning has posed a variety of challenges for students who are D/deaf or hard-of-hearing,” said Gretchen Rumsey-Richardson, Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services Manager.  “Panopto will help alleviate some of those challenges and bring greater accessibility with its easy-to-use captioning feature.” 

"Panopto has made online learning a lot more comfortable for me,” added student Taylor McGillis.  “I am able to focus more now that I can see the transcriptions since I can double-check what I've heard rather than stressing about mishearing something." 

More than 70 faculty and staff at Western participated in a pilot test of Panopto during the fall 2020 quarter.  Feedback and survey results were very favorable. 

“Using Panopto has allowed me to increase my students’ engagement with my asynchronous material,” said Katie Rupe, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Western.  “In recorded mini-lectures, I am able to embed discussions and get feedback from students about the questions they have, the ways they are thinking about math problems, and the strategies that they are using. It creates more opportunities for me to get to know my students, their strengths, and the areas that they need more support.” 

Panopto works in tandem with a variety of other video tools at Western such as Teams and Zoom. The application is already enabled in Western Canvas courses. Making the link visible requires only a few steps.  An example of a searchable, captioned, full video experience is available at “How to Use Panopto with Canvas.” 

Panopto replaces the previous video recording/editing tool at Western, Screencast-O-Matic. Screencast-O-Matic will no longer be supported beyond the end of Spring quarter 2021.  For more information about Screencast-o-matic, please see “Screencast-O-Matic Help.” 

For details about accessing and using Panopto, see Panopto at Western.