Panopto is mainly known as a Lecture Capture system, but it has many features that make it useful for a range of Technology Enhanced Learning activities. Here are just a few of the possibilities.

1 – Linking Fieldwork to Learning and Teaching

Videos can be created on mobile devices and uploaded directly to units via the Panopto app (iOS and Android). If students and staff are carrying out field trips or other off-campus activities, they can record aspects of these activities and upload them to the relevant unit. This presents many opportunities for co-creation.

2 – Research Video Diaries

If staff are away from the university carrying out research that might be of interest to students, they can record short video diaries explaining their research and its progress. This could give insight into how research takes place, and help to fuse the research itself with student learning. By using the commenting feature in Panopto, students could also actively ask questions whilst the research is taking place. And because Panopto recordings can be made and uploaded from laptops, tablets, or smart phones, the diaries could be created by staff from anywhere in the world where they had a WiFi connection.

3 – Assessing Student Presentations

It’s not just staff who can record content in Panopto. Students can also use it to record their presentations. This could be particularly useful when students are on distance learning courses, or away on placements, as it allows presentations to be assessed without the student being on campus.

4 – Self-Guided Lab Exercises

If there are lab exercises that students could perform themselves, but which require some instructional guidance to begin with, this guidance could be recorded in Panopto using a phone, tablet, or webcam connected computer. Students could then refer back to the video guidance as much as needed.

5 – Software Tutorials

If students are using a particular piece of specialist software on their course, Panopto can be used to record tutorials on this software. Students can also ask questions about a particular aspect of these tutorials using the comment function, and the answers to these questions can also be seen by other students.

Next Steps

If you are interested in using Panopto in any of the ways outlined above, or have other innovative ideas that might be enabled by Panopto, please contact your Faculty Learning Technologist. You can also find out more about Panopto from the TEL Toolkit.