Are you struggling with a video learning solution that’s more confusing than helpful? Or maybe there’s a jumble of them on your campus not working together. Well, you’re not alone.

Yale University had a similar challenge, wrestling with a disjointed array of video tools that frustrated students and faculty. This blog post will guide you through Yale’s journey to a singular campus-wide video learning solution—from identifying the challenges of a fragmented tech-scape to discovering seven essential features of a platform like Panopto.

This story is a must-read if you face similar hurdles or consider switching your institution’s video learning platform.

The Challenge: Navigating a Fragmented Video Ecosystem

Yale University initially embraced video technology in an ad-hoc manner, with faculty members independently adopting various recording tools to enhance their classrooms. While this grassroots approach led to some success, it also created a campus-wide problem. It resulted in a patchwork of disparate video tools across the institution, which meant different processes, training, and support.

To better understand their fragmented tech-scape, Yale’s Technology Architecture Committee commissioned a report. The findings were revealing: the university had an array of video services, including Echo360, Kaltura, Vimeo, YouTube, and iTunesU. This decentralized web of video tools resulted in no unified media library for the campus and no easy way to share instructional assets across courses.

And there were other drawbacks. It burdened instructors with maintaining multiple solutions while students navigated different tools to access course materials. These challenges underlined a critical need for a unified, user-friendly video learning platform at the institution.

7 Essential Elements for Video

For their campus-wide video learning platform, Yale identified seven essential features it must offer:

1. Ease of Use: The user experience should be simple and intuitive, minimizing the learning curve for both faculty and students.
2. Content Creation Tools: Comprehensive tools for video editing, annotations, and other enhancements are vital for facilitating learning engagement.
3. Accessibility: Features like closed captions and transcriptions make content accessible for all learning types.
4. LMS Integration: Seamlessly integrate with existing Learning Management Systems.
5. Responsive Support: Quick and efficient customer support that improves the campus experience, especially in time-sensitive educational settings.
6. Live Streaming: The ability to live stream and record lectures and events to repurpose as on-demand learning content.
7. Advanced Search: AI search for context-specific learning saves time and boosts engagement.
   

    

The Decision: Why Yale Chose Panopto

After evaluating multiple platforms against the criteria, Yale chose Panopto for their institution’s campus-wide video needs. It scored highest on Yale’s top priorities: ease of use, video creation and curation, and accessibility.

John Harford, Manager of Collaboration Technologies at Yale University Center for Teaching and Learning, noted Panopto as the clear choice.

“As we scale the use of video across campus, we must have an integrated system for video management and lecture capture. Panopto emerged as the clear choice.”

 

What Faculty Said About Panopto

The move to Panopto wasn’t just an administrative decision; it was also faculty-approved. After a pilot program where instructors used Panopto in their courses, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive:

Faculty Ease-of-Use

Douglas McKee, former Associate Chair and Senior Lecturer in Economics at Yale and currently Senior Lecturer at Cornell University, found Panopto exceptionally easy to use.

 “Panopto’s video library is much more usable than the other platforms I’ve used (MediaCore, Echo360, and Kaltura),” wrote McKee. “Likewise, Panopto’s search is miles better. I especially like that it automatically indexes every word spoken shown in my presentation and that the search results point to the exact moment in the video where the search term is used — my students would *love* that.”

Angela Lee-Smith, Senior Lector in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, also reported the video platform exceeded her expectations.

 “Panopto was very easy and convenient for course members to use, both faculty and students,” noted Lee-Smith. “I’d recommend Panopto to other instructors.”

Active Video Learning in Class

Sybil Alexandrov, Senior Lector in Spanish and Portuguese at Yale, was pleased with her ability to use Panopto to make her classroom more interactive.

“It was great to be able to use Panopto to comment directly on the videos, then open up a discussion for the students,” reported Alexandrov.

 

Switch to Panopto for Your Video Learning Goals

If you’re a higher education decision-maker wrestling with a less-than-ideal video solution, it’s time to change.

Struggling with a clunky interface, limited features, or multiple platforms isn’t just frustrating—it’s a roadblock to effective learning. These issues compromise student engagement and challenge your institution’s future success. As students increasingly use video asynchronously and learn on their own terms, designing a scalable and effective video learning model is essential now more than ever.

An intuitive EdTech tool doesn’t just make teaching easier; it makes learning impactful. That’s where Panopto comes in. Designed for educators, Panopto is trusted by top educational institutions globally.

When you switch to Panopto, you can:

• Streamline the Learning Experience: Stop fumbling with complicated settings, multiple tools, and disparate video content libraries.
• Power Learning with Functionality: From live streaming and lecture capture to advanced AI search, our feature suite powers learning at scale.
• Support Your Whole Campus: Train your whole institution with campus-wide support.

Ready to take your institution’s video learning to the next level? Schedule a demo or talk to one of our experts today.