Panopto Best Practices
Panopto
Contents
Creative uses for Panopto
Panopto is a software that can be used to go beyond simply recording a lecture. Below are just a few ways that you can stretch the uses of Panopto:
- Record demonstrations or tutorials that students would want/need to watch several times
- Record a guest speaker(s) who cannot make it to your scheduled class time
- Walk students through directions of an assignment or project
- Provide students with audio/video feedback about their assignments and papers
- Record a weekly summary of the class and give an overview of future assignments
- Have students record presentations, conduct interviews, complete oral exams, record reflective commentary, engage in a debate with a colleague
- Upload recordings from other sources to share with students (e.g., Zoom, mobile devices).
Recording with Panopto
Recording a video in Panopto can be as simple as hitting “Record” and “Stop”. However, there are a few things you can do prior to recording that can help save you time, effort, and help you produce a better recording.
Minimize environmental distractions
If you are recording from your home or office, it is easy to forget about small distractions that can turn out to be huge distractions on screen. To minimize these distractions:
- Close your windows and door (consider putting a “recording in progress” note on your door)
- Silence your cell phone and avoid sitting next to an office phone that might ring (or take it off the hook)
- Turn off/mute any sound coming from your music device, TV, radio, etc.
- Wear solid colors if recording with video. Patterns can be distracting and can show up as moving when recorded, such as Houndstooth or Herringbone patterns.
- Make sure there is nothing distracting behind you that could disrupt your video
Minimize technological distractions
- Eliminate desktop distractions (email pop-ups, Twitter feeds, etc.)
- Close all other applications on your computer, except what you are using, and try not to use more than one application at a time. Too much load on the computer can distort audio and video quality.
Tips & reminders
- Give yourself time for setup to ensure everything is prepared and working correctly.
- Make a small recording first to see if the audio, video, and presentation are correct. For instance, a laptop fan on your computer, which doesn’t sound very loud, can come across like a piercing whine on Panopto.
- Keep your recordings simple.
- Get comfortable with the basics of Panopto and keep practicing to familiarize yourself with the software.
- Do not chew gum or have any other food in your mouth while recording.
- Make eye contact with the camera.
- Sometimes slides don’t keep up with the audio in Panopto, especially if you skip around. Try to stay in the order of your slides to minimize the lag.
- Use a headset or noise-cancelling external microphone to reduce extraneous sounds and increase quality of audio.
Need Help?
If you need assistance, please contact the Academic Technologies team:
- Email: uwbdl@uw.edu
- Phone: 425.352.3906