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As lecture capture and classroom recording has become increasingly widespread at universities, colleges and schools, the ability to direct students to exactly the content they need to review and revise within the recording has become ever more critical. With some institutions now recording tens of thousands of hours’ worth of content each term, challenges have arisen in how this video content can be curated and managed to enable students to access and absorb it effectively.
Up until this point, it has been possible to search recordings that include PowerPoint slides for keywords that feature in the slide deck as well as in notes and comments on the recording or captions added in post-production. Panopto’s latest release builds on this with the launch of Smart Search which adds Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to the existing search options. This means that students will now be able to search their recorded lectures, seminars and flipped classroom content for any word that is spoken or shown in their videos, and fast forward to that precise moment.
Eric Burns, co-founder and chief product officer at Panopto comments: ‘We’re all used to searching for information on the Internet, in email, and in documents, but video remains a black box full of valuable information that can’t be easily accessed.
‘Panopto is tearing down the biggest hurdle to video adoption, introducing video search capabilities that are more sophisticated than those offered by video giants like YouTube, and making it easy for anyone to find and share knowledge.’
With over 500 institutions already using Panopto technology, millions of student users will be able to benefit from the new search capabilities. As lectures usually run at around an hour in length, rather than watching an entire session back, Panopto’s technology will empower students to hone in on the content that really matters to them. The technology works just as well with shorter flipped classroom-style clips. Recent research emerging from institutions that are using video suggests that the ability to play back recorded lecture or classroom content is already having a positive impact on student results. The opportunity to refine this further and revise a key topic, isolated through a keyword search across multiple recordings, can only enhance the learning experience even more.
As well as the introduction of Smart Search, the latest release of Panopto will also offer universities, schools and colleges the ability to brand their video experience in less than 60 seconds. This will allow them to quickly match the look of their video library to their brand without design experience. The company has also created a new Android app for tablets and smartphones, providing students with interactive viewing options and inside-video search. This builds on the company’s commitment to helping students access learning materials whenever, wherever, no matter what device they are using. Along with the existing iOS app, Panopto’s mobile apps now extend to 94% of the worldwide mobile device market.
To find out more about Panopto’s Smart Search and all about the latest release, you can read more on their blog here: https://panopto.com/blog/panopto-4-6/ or email to book a demo.
