Author: Andrew Smith

How long is content saved after someone leaves Colgate? Who has access to it?

A user’s Panopto content remains in Panopto indefinitely, even after the user has lost access to the system.  This means that content shared with other users is still accessible even if the original video owner has left the institution.  All content is subject to the content retention rule, and will be archived 20 months after the last viewing. 

What are audio descriptions and should I be adding them?

Audio descriptions provide visually impaired viewers with visual context of what is being presented in a video.  These descriptions will be read out loud during the video’s playback.  Writing good audio descriptions is an art, so learning more about audio description is a valuable starting point.  See Turning Sights into Sounds: The Art of Audio Descriptions and Description of Visual Information.  There are also vendors who provide audio descriptions, but they are quite expensive and often do not have enough knowledge of the subject matter to create meaningful descriptions.  See How to Add Audio Descriptions in Panopto.

How do I caption my videos?

All videos uploaded to Panopto, transferred from Ensemble or created using the Panopto recorder are automatically captioned in Panopto using computer generated captions.  The accuracy of computer generated captions can vary considerably depending on several factors including the quality of the microphone, background noise, the accent of the speaker, etc.  Captions should be reviewed for accuracy and edited as needed.  See How to Edit or Delete Captions.

Highly accurate captioning is also available from third party vendors.  Contact ITSHelp@colgate.edu for more information about how to request paid captions from a caption service.

When importing an existing Moodle course to a new semester, will the links to videos still work?

Importing Panopto activities and links into a new Moodle course will continue to give students access to those videos, as long as you provision the new Moodle course in Panopto.  This is done by adding the Panopto block and selecting “Provision” from the block.  See How to Add the Panopto Block to Moodle Courses. 


Please note: If you are using the interactive features of Panopto, such as Quiz or Discussion, the process will be different.  You will need to login to Panopto and make a copy of the video which will clear out previous quiz results and discussion posts.  Then, in the new Moodle course, link to the video copy rather than the original video.  Each Moodle course that you provision with Panopto will have a course folder in Panopto.  Suggested best practice is to organize videos that have interactive features in the Panopto Moodle course folders to avoid confusion between video originals and copies.  Please contact ITSHelp@Colgate.edu for assistance as needed.