Panopto or Narrated PowerPoint

With regards to the use of Panopto for instructional videos, a frequently asked question is, “why one would use Panopto instead of a narrated PowerPoint file or video?”

Instructors who are comfortable with using the “Record Slide Show” feature in PowerPoint are encouraged to continue to use it. However, someone who is new to recording slideshows or who is interested in learning a new way of recording instructional videos should consider using Panopto.

Reasons to consider Panopto over PowerPoint:

• One of the benefits of using Panopto is that it creates streaming video files. This means they can easily be viewed on any web-enabled device.
  • In order to view a narrated PowerPoint file, students need to be on a device with PowerPoint installed. FYI: All USask students do have free access to Microsoft Office

• Panopto will automatically transcribe the audio track, which makes the text on the slides and the words said by the instructor searchable. The transcription isn’t perfect, but it can be a nice side benefit. This transcription can also be used for closed-captioning.

• Panopto will record anything on your screen, so you can include things outside of your PowerPoint slides (such as a webpage, animation, ink layer, etc.).

• When students are viewing Panopto videos, they can easily see how long the videos are (allowing the students to budget their time correctly), change the speed at which they view it, and easily pause and restart at any point.narrated PowerPoint files don’t provide an overall runtime, can only be played at normal speed, and can be difficult to pause (depending on the device).

• Student access to your Panopto videos within your course can be automatically set up within Canvas: Setting up Panopto in Canvas.

• There is a built in Discussion tool within Panopto that you could use to have students ask questions.

• PowerPoint files with audio tracks can become really large. This may lead to issues uploading or downloading them.

One advantage of using PowerPoint is that when creating the video, you can easily do retakes of individual slides. This would be more difficult in Panopto, but editing after recording is quite simple. That being said, you would need to make sure to do you retake as part of the original recording.

One last thing to note is that if videos are already created in PowerPoint, they can be exported as a video and uploaded into Panopto which will still allow you to take advantage of most of the benefits.

Hopefully this helps you choose between a recorded PowerPoint and Panopto video. Again, it is encouraged that you use the tool you are most comfortable with, and if it turns out that neither of these are right for you, then please explore more alternatives. Sometimes a PDF and a discussion board will do the trick!

^{Title image credit: Tumisu on Pixabay}

This resource is shared by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), University of Saskatchewan, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.