Information Technology Services

Panopto at USD

Lecture Recording - Screencasting - Video Streaming and Management

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What is Panopto?

Panopto is the leading video platform for education and provides lecture recording, screencasting, video streaming, and video content management software, which is often used in e-learning environments. Panopto has been installed in all recently updated classrooms.

You can access your Panopto account here or see Panopto inside your Canvas course folder. The Panopto software has been installed on all classroom computers for hybrid/flipped classroom recording.

Getting Started with Being a Panopto Creator

Effective Uses of Panopto to Get the Most Out of your Pedagogy

You can watch a preview of a Flipped Classroom Microscopy by clicking on the video thumbnail or view full screen in another browser to see how faculty are creating Panopto videos in their coursework.

Faculty can create quizzes, interactive table of contents, and even allow automated "Smart Chapters" based on the slide or video presentation material!

The Panopto Lecture Capture platform also allows faculty to:

  • Search videos for spoken word keywords or text on screen
  • Set privacy and viewer settings similar to Google Drive
  • Securely upload, organize, and streamyour own video content
  • Create assignment folders for students so they can record videos with Panopto
  • Record and share microlectures to students only enrolled in your class
  • Let students comment, interact, and have discussion inside videos. Add your own viewable notes inside videos
  • Record your own assessments and give detailed video feedback
  • Edit out any part of your lecture and replace/insert content
  • Caption videos automatically and edit as needed for accessibility
  • Insert a YouTube video, website URL, or PDF to your videos
  • Create interactive quizzes with multiple choice, checkbox, and true/false options. Watch this detailed video to find out how easy it is to add a quiz to your Panopto video - the scores will automatically appear in your Grade Center!

Captions in Panopto

Panopto utilizes Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) to generate captions for video content. This ensures accessibility and improves the searchability of video content across the platform.

  • How it Works: By default, Panopto processes automatic speech recognition captions for all recordings upon upload once audio processing is complete.
  • The Zoom Exception: If a recording is imported from Zoom and already contains a transcription file, Panopto will prioritize the Zoom file and will not generate separate ASR captions unless the Zoom file is missing.
  • Official Documentation: For a deep dive into Panopto’s captioning capabilities, please refer to the Panopto Support Guide on ASR Captioning.

FAQ

Q: If captions are generated automatically, will they show automatically? Yes (as of April 6, 2026). Panopto generates captions for all videos with clear audio. Captions require processing time after the video upload is finished. For most short-to-medium length videos, this takes just a few minutes.

For videos prior to April 6, 2026, you can order captions on specific videos you want to add captions to.

Q: Are machine-generated captions 100% accurate? While highly accurate, ASR can struggle with technical jargon or other discrepancies. Panopto includes a default disclaimer in the Panopto viewer notifying students that these captions are machine-generated. We recommend faculty review captions for high-stakes content.

How to Edit or Delete Captions

Flipping Your Classroom Using Panopto

A flipped classroom turns the traditional learning experience upside down. Lectures are recorded outside of class and then shared with students for review. Classroom time is then mostly reserved for students to engage in discussions, group work and activities. The principal goals of flipping are:

  • To make the classroom a more interactive learning environment
  • To enable students to learn at their own pace
  • To help the instructor tailor the course to individual student needs

By making lecture materials available on-demand, students can watch to review important or unclear details as often as needed until well understood. As a result, students can come to class with a better grasp of the topic and participate in discussions and activities applying what they’ve learned.

You can use Panopto to:

  • Create an intro video so the class can get to know you and why you are the expert.
  • Stress why you want the class to learn what you are teaching by recording your syllabus.
  • Set up student expectations by making short videos to introduce your class to what they will be learning.
  • Create a short video explaining key subject matters, correct answers, and assessments.

Here are some helpful links from Panopto to guide you through the process of what kind of video instruction may be right for you and making the most of the Panopto to help students with instruction.

Recording and Support

Once you are set with a Creator Role you can start recording, editing, or sharing your videos from anywhere. See the support tabs below to find out more about using Panopto in your pedagogy.