Welcome to the University of Pittsburgh Teaching With Panopto course. We understand that there is a lot of information to take in about creating, editing, and sharing videos with Panopto, and this course is designed to allow you to learn how to use these features at your own pace, to determine which elements of your teaching would most benefit from Panopto, and to be selective about which of these features to focus on. Feel free to browse the resources available in this course without logging in or enrolling, but to gain access to the exercises and discussions designed to help you practice and reinforce what you learn, please enroll in the course by clicking the +Join this Course button at the top right of this page.

It is recommended that you use either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome whenever using Panopto or Canvas, so please consider using one of these browsers when taking this course. If you are using Safari, Internet Explorer, or Microsoft Edge and experiencing issues with Canvas, Panopto, or any other online tool, consider using one of these other two browsers instead.

Before we get started, let's cover some basics:

What is Panopto?

Panopto is the University of Pittsburgh's secure video recording, hosting and streaming platform. You can use Panopto to:

Record your lectures, with or without PowerPoint slides
Create a demonstration of a technique or skill
Upload videos you already have in a digital format
Embed quiz questions into your videos
Archive and share your recorded Zoom meetings
Manage your video files so that they are only seen by the people you give permission to

Panopto is integrated closely with Canvas, but can also be used stand-alone. Panopto also plays an integral role in managing your Zoom recordings as well. You control the share settings on your videos in Panopto, so they can be viewed only by the people within or outside of Pitt that you designate. The Canvas integration automates these share settings so that when a video is presented in a Canvas course, the share settings are automatically updated to give all currently-enrolled students of that course viewer access, and all enrolled teachers and TAs creator access.

What are the Components of Panopto?

The Panopto Focus Recorder: a free video recording application you download to your own computer and can use to make your videos
The My Pitt Video website: the cloud storage and streaming platform for all Panopto videos
The Canvas Integration: creates a folder in My Pitt Video for each of your courses in Canvas, allows easy sharing of videos in your courses, and dynamically updates video share settings based on Canvas course enrollments
The Zoom Integration: recording Zoom meetings to the Cloud automatically creates a Panopto recording in the My Pitt Video website.
The Panopto Editor: a rudimentary editing tool built into My Pitt Video that allows you to trim your videos, add captions, quizzes and more.

Instructor Info

The Teaching With Panopto by Sera Thornton and Daryl Putman from the University Center for Teaching and Learning Educational Technologies unit.

Co-Instructors:

Sera Thornton

Sera Thornton, Learning Scientist and Teaching Consultant

Daryl Putman, Educational Software Support Specialist

Virtual Office Hours with your Panopto instructors will be offered through Zoom. Reach out to one of the instructors via email to schedule a one-on-one session. You can also use the Anonymous Feedback survey in this course if you wish to report or inquire about anything anonymously.

Let's Begin!

To begin the course, head on over to the Course Outline to get started. You can also click the Modules area on the top-left to get a birds-eye view of the full course outline.