University at Buffalo (UB)
Panopto Tips and Tricks
By: Elizabeth Fellendorf
Instructional Systems Analyst, IT Customer Service
Published August 21, 2023
The fall semester is almost upon us and as you prepare your course materials in the new Learning Management System, we want to give you some pointers on using Panopto videos in UB Learns so you and your students have a good experience.
On this page:
You must configure your course with the Panopto Content External Learning Tool. This creates a course folder and user groups in Panopto. Do this even if you plan on embedding your recordings rather than giving students access to the folder.
Ensure that students enrolled in your course have permission to view your videos by using the Panopto Content and Panopto Video Embed tools to add videos to a course. Using these tools will reduce or eliminate the number of “Request Access” emails you receive.
- Panopto Content. This External Learning Tool provisions your course in Panopto and creates the Panopto course folder where you can gather all the videos for a course in one place. Videos from this folder can also be sprinkled throughout the course using Panopto Video Embed.
throughout the course using Panopto Embed. - Panopto Embed. Use the Insert Stuff button anywhere you find the HTML text editor and choose Panopto Embed. Insert Stuff lets you to place individual videos throughout a course alongside other relevant content. Panopto will automatically update the sharing settings to include viewers for the course, regardless of where the video is saved in your account. You only need to save a video to one Panopto folder and you can use it in all your courses.
Be very cautious using a regular link or HTML embed code to add Panopto content:
- If you use a regular link to a Panopto video or paste the HTML embed code from Panopto, you need to set the share permissions carefully:
- For Who can access this video choose one of these options:
- Anyone at your org with the link – lets anyone with a UBITName watch the video.
- Anyone with the link – lets anyone with the link watch without logging in
- Only specific people and groups – restricts access to users and groups you add in the People and groups section.
Enter the course viewer group here so your students have permission to view but cannot share the link with people outside the class.
- For Who can access this video choose one of these options:
Migrated courses do not include Panopto content, so you will need to add videos back into your course. To ensure students have permission to view your videos we recommend waiting to add the Panopto content to the current semester’s course until after you perform the course copy.
If you have a cache of recordings in a previous semester’s Panopto folder, you can move or copy them to the current semester’s Panopto course folder. Doing a batch copy creates a reference copy of each video. A reference copy:
- Clears out old student viewing and quiz response data;
- Does not take up more storage space;
- Changes made to the original version will also be made to the reference copy.
As per the UB Learns Data Management Policy, courses remain on the system for one year after the end of the semester in which they were taught. When a UB Learns course is deleted, your account is removed from the Panopto creator group the next time you touch Panopto within UB Learns. This means your access to the Panopto course folder can be lost even though the folder and videos remain. To avoid this disruption in access, add your account as a creator, separate from the creator group. Do this while you still see the folder in Panopto.
If you’ve lost access to a Panopto folder, UBIT can assist you. Fill out this UBIT Panopto support form.
By default, videos in Panopto can be downloaded and viewed offline. This gives students a way to watch videos even if they don’t have a reliable internet connection. You can restrict downloading for a whole folder or an individual video.
If you add quiz questions to a video, students can skip ahead and take the quiz without viewing the whole video. You can prevent this behavior by disabling forward seek.