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Better Tutorial Videos

More of a suggestion than anything. There is nothing sweeter to admins or IT folks who have to provide training materials then to have a vendor/partner who provides solid, well recorded and clear user tutorials...then there's nothing more frustrating then having a vendor/partner who provides recordings that you just can't share with your users so you have to create your own.

The suggestion, 30 second to 1 minute quick video tutorials like "How to record using Panopto Capture"...if you cant explain a basic function in 30 seconds to 1 minute then you have to rethink how that function works it may just be too complicated.

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As Adam pointed out, we keep an updated repository of how-to videos on this site: https://howtovideos.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Folders/DepartmentHome.aspx?folderID=4b9de7ae-0080-4158-8496-a9ba01692c2e

Comments

  • There are a bunch of these on the support site: https://howtovideos.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Folders/DepartmentHome.aspx?folderID=4b9de7ae-0080-4158-8496-a9ba01692c2e

    Are you thinking they should be shorter?

  • I have access to those videos but the question is, who is the intended audience? Would anyone on the admin side honestly say they are comfortable sending something like this

    to their user base as training material on how to record videos using Panopto Capture? This video can be broken down into three separate videos if you ask me: general how to, advance and admin guide...can't send this to users


    1. The video is over 7 minutes long to explain a process that 90% of users would not spend more then 1 minute trying to figure out
    2. Instead of just showing the basics and saying "Here's how you share one screen", the video goes into more advanced functions that 99% of the time will not be used like sharing up to 4 screens...for the purpose of this, keep it short, simple and provide additional videos for more advance functions in small bits no more then 30 seconds to a minute...it's just a lot more effective then this.
    3. My problem is, we were trying to remove one video creation app from our tool kit and replace it with Panopto since Panopto already has this functionality but it's just not worth it at this point...there's no media from Panopto that I feel is geared towards the 99% in terms of how to...these videos seem to be wedged between advanced users who understand video editing and functions that maybe don't want to launch a big video suite for these tasks and a level above basic users but these videos are not for most people who aren't trying to spend a lot of time learning how to and just want something simple and intuitive and maybe just need help with one specific function. I'm just not sure who Panopto's audience is with these vids and if they know they should make it more clear.
  • Have you considered creating your own video?

  • I absolutely send people that video, and IMHO this is a great opportunity to point out the table of contents to end-users and how it will display for their embedded content. "Here is a video with everything to know about Panopto Capture. You will be interested in the sections on launching Panopto Capture, sharing your screen, and the post-recording menu. You can navigate through these sections by selecting the up arrow at the bottom of the player. If you want to learn more about Panopto Capture, the remaining sections can be very helpful in using more advanced features."

    With the note on multiple screens, we have a ton of faculty that create content with 3 or 4 sources (Webcam, two displays, and a doc cam). The bulk of the content is two sources, but to say that the average user doesn't need to know about the functionality would just be missing the mark on my campus.

    Beyond that, for Panopto Capture at least, we are in the process of making our own user-facing videos because they are going to be highly institution-specific. I wouldn't expect Panopto to make a video about how to reply in Canvas to a discussion thread using Panopto Capture because no matter what they do, it won't be 1:1 with our environment and that is what we are seeking. I just spend half of a day to record two three min. videos (one for instructor set up, one for student submission), edit, and distribute them.

    That being said, there are some videos that could use some love: https://howtovideos.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=8140368b-3167-4bbe-87b3-4af8c15e76b7 (the feature needs some love too)

  • I can see where you are coming from if your work is in an educational organization...but knowing what we know about the average youtube viewer for instance, it takes less ten 10 seconds to completely turn someone off from watching a video...if my intent is simply to see how to do the very basic recording (which is most people outside of education or some form of learning media org) there's no way I'm sitting through a 7 minute video even with table of contents because what happens is that video generates more questions then answers...I would recommend checking out Loom's instructional videos, they are bright, clean and to the point and their platform does very little compared to Panopto and yet they are quite popular and the number one feedback from users is "it's easy to use" and also easy to learn.

    I think a great middle would be if Panopto had very detailed videos like the one we are discussing now but also broke it up into bite sized videos that are very specific to the point (one subject at a time) that are palatable for most users. So in this example you would have one video that shows only how to record a Panopto video and show your content...a more advanced how to recording three to four different screens and so on.

    Overall I think the presentation of the tutorials could use a facelift. This is the Mac vs PC argument, these videos are very PC...yes they are detailed but just look at the overall esthetics and you are made to feel they are catering to a very videos heavy user. Brighten them up, add some personality, make them quick and short, make them Mac...people don't buy Macs because they are better then PCs they buy Macs because they are esthetically pleasing and provide a user experience that doesn't require much knowledge outside of the purpose the user is looking to use them for...I approach everything through that lens, what is functional isn't always what's pleasing and if it's not pleasing then the functionality gets missed.

    I agree on your videos that could use some love...I would challenge Panopto to let its users like us create these tutorials for them...that could be a cool feature in itself...let those who use and love the app be the ones that train others, might give it a lot of different perspective.

    So funny after typing all of this, I went to suppot.loom.com just to see what their actual tutorials were like (I had never needed to visit their site before) and low and behold exactly what I was saying...nice quick short less then 2 minute small bite videos each covering a function that could have been covered in one longer video but it makes it much more watchable https://support.loom.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015714197-Getting-Started-Video-Tutorials

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