Watching recordings in Panopto is fairly straightforward, but we have some tips that you might like to share with your students to help them make the most of the recordings. In addition to the tips below, the Library has also created a What is Event Capture workbook for students, which explains the Panopto Event Capture interface.
#1 – Select your source
Although many Panopto recordings consist of only a presentation, sometimes with a webcam view of the room, Panopto is able to record a variety of sources, such as the PC screen for demos or internet sources, or the document camera (sometimes referred to as a visualiser) for drawings or calculations.
If a recording has more than one source, it is possible to select a specific source to watch, by selecting one of the options highlighted in the red square in the bottom right hand corner of the screen (highlighted by the red box in Figure 1 below).
Figure 1: Different sources in Panopto
If there are more sources, this may be indicated by the down arrow to the right in the toolbar.
The ‘Screen’ option allows the viewer to see what was on the projector screen in the room and selecting this option usually means that the viewer does not need to switch between sources again – Panopto will switch automatically.
#2 – Speed
It is possible to watch the recording at a faster or slower speed than the original, to suit personal preferences. To do this, click on the ‘1x’ button (hightlighed in yellow in Figure 1 above).
#3 – Search Function
It is also possible to search for key words in a recording, which can be particularly useful if the students are revising or trying to return to a particular concept. The search function will search the text in any presentation, and also for the spoken word in the sound files. This depends, however, on the sound quality of the recording and whether or not the speech recognition software has recognised the words, as it is not always successful with specialised vocabulary.
The search function will search notes, discussions and bookmarks, as well as slides, captions and content headings. The icons by each result indicate where the search term was found.
The search facility is just under the webcam screen on the left hand side of the screen.
Figure 2: Search facility
#4 – Bookmarking
Another useful tip for your students would be to make bookmarks to any parts of the recording they may want to revisit. The bookmark facility is straightforward. Click on the ‘bookmarks’ option under the search facility on the left hand side of the screen (see Figure 2 above), type something relating to this bookmark and hit enter. Bookmarks are private, therefore only visible to the individual who has set them up.
For more information about the extra features that students can use, see Using Panopto Bookmarks, Notes and Discussions tools.