Panopto is primarily used to record lectures, in which case lecturers will usually make the recording directly into the folder for a particular module. When those recordings have finished processing they will be visible to students on that module. Sometimes, however, you may want to handle sharing of a recording in a different way. This post will explore the options.

Using ‘My Folder’

If a recording is not for a specific module, or you think you may want to edit it before it is visible to students, you can use the ‘My Folder’ instead of the module folder. Depending on how you are accessing Panopto you can choose ‘My Folder’ from:

• the dropdown list at the top of your Panopto library in any Canvas module;
• the main screen if you are using the Panopto app on your desktop or own computer;
• the session settings when you start a recording.

You can create extra sub-folders in your My Folder if you want to. Recordings in your ‘My Folder’ will not be visible to students until you move them into a module folder (see below), so it is useful if you want to review and/or edit the recording before making it visible to students. You may also want to add extra material and/or activities to a recording before you share it. Other blog posts in this series look at adding YouTube videos, Discussions and Quizzes in Panopto. Or you may want to record a presentation to a research seminar that you can then share in a website, blog or by email. Panopto provide this guidance on How to Use ‘My Folder’.

One recording for two or more modules?

Sometimes a lecture relates to two different modules (for example where there are core and elective versions of a module). There are two ways that you can make a recording visible in more than one Canvas module or other locations.

Copy and Move

This is probably the easiest and cleanest way to do this. It involves making a copy of a recording and moving the copy into another module folder.

When a recording is shared in this way, students see it in the list of Panopto Recordings for their module and can easily search in the recording and change their view. As the copy is a separate recording you can edit is separately from the original recording – so if you wanted to share only part of the recording with the second module, or add extra content for them, you could do that. Having 2 (or more) separate copies of the recording also means that you can see the viewing statistics for each recording. 

Copy your recording 

From your list of recordings, find the one you want to copy and click on Settings.

Then from the Manage tab, look for the ‘Copy’ button. You can give your copy a new title at this point if you want to, but if not it will have the same title as the original with (copy) at the end.

A confirmation box will pop up and as soon as you click OK a copy of your recording will appear next to the original. You now need to move your copy to the other module.

Move the copy into another folder

Click on the Settings button of the copy. You can then rename your recording and choose a different folder to put it in. Please be sure to Save any changes here.

Your copy will disappear from the original folder and appear in the new folder.

Embed

The other option is to embed a recording. This option would be useful for embedding a recording in a blog or website. You can also embed a recording in a Page in Canvas, but this gives students a reduced view and search options as well as restricting your editing options and merging viewing statistics. 

Panopto has guides on how to Share Your Panopto Video on Any Webpage and How to Embed Panopto Videos in a Canvas Page. You will find the Panopto icon here in the Rich Content Editor under the ‘More external tools’ icon.

More sharing options

You can also use a link to share a Panopto recording. Similar to sharing options in OneDrive you can share with:

• Specific People
• Anyone at the University of Sussex with the link
• Anyone at the University of Sussex
• Anyone with the link

When you click on the Share button for a recording you will see the link for the recording and the options to specify who can access it. This guide from Panopto shows you How to Share a Video.

What is the difference between sharing and setting availability?

When talking about sharing recordings in this post we have talked about them being ‘visible’ and avoided using the word ‘available’. That is because the availability of a recording is something rather different.

When a recording has finished processing and/or has been moved into a module folder or shared by a link or embedding it can usually be viewed by anyone who has access. The recording will remain visible unless it is removed or deleted. You may want to limit the visibility of a recording without moving or deleting it and you can do this by using the availability settings to specify dates and times when the recording is viewable. 

This guide from Panopto shows How to Publish Videos Using the Availability Workflow.

If you have any queries about sharing your Panopto recordings or would like to discuss how you might use Panopto to enhance your students’ learning please contact tel@sussex.ac.uk.