Category Archives: Proposals

ACTT Proposal for the Adoption of Panopto

Why

The ACTT recommended a fall 2016 Panopto Pilot, following the spring 2016 evaluation of streaming media and video asset management services. 10 Undergraduate and 8 MIIS courses used Panopto for video streaming. Students that also used Canvas in their courses could access video from Panopto, however they had to log in again. Some faculty at MIIS also used the webcasting feature successfully, including interactive discussion and note-taking features. Sharing videos via Canvas site embedding and through a link has resulted in a good user experience, however it currently requires separate logins to Canvas and Panopto platforms.

Panopto has indicated that it would add the following features to the video streaming service by December 17th:

  • Quizzing — Instructors can add multiple choice, multi-select, and true/false questions into any video using the Panopto editor. Viewers can take quizzes in the interactive player, and instructors can access real-time reports of all responses.
  • Captions — Users can access Panopto’s machine-generated speech-to-text captions and modify them in the video editor. In addition, users can customize the color, size, and position of captions during playback.
  • Primary Video Switching — For multi-camera recordings, video creators can switch between primary video feeds using the Panopto editor.
  • Enhanced Editing — Adding the ability to upload custom thumbnails, and to upload and manage slides within the video timeline.

A shortcode plugin for WordPress has been added to sites.middlebury.edu/sites.middlebury.edu. Currently it is not possible to add a Panopto video to Drupal, but other schools have solutions for embedding in Drupal that they are willing to share.

Feedback on Panopto has been generally good, and it has been useful for the classes that did use it. Departments are interested in the service that Panopto provides.

 

Recommendation Summary

The Academic Cyberinfrastructure Transformation Team recommends adding Panopto to the ITS fiscal year 2018 budget.

  • Middlebury contracts a Panopto enterprise license for 3-5 years
  • Middlebury encourages Panopto to provide better integration with Canvas
  • This will enable the decommissioning of Middmedia, Muskrat, and other video streaming services in a separate project. This should be considered at the end of FY19.

 

 

Implementation Timeline

Most of this work has been accomplished during the Fall 2016 pilot of Panopto. There is some work being done by Panopto technical staff to provide better integration with Canvas, they have let us know it is scheduled to be completed by December 17, 2016.

What Who When
Budget Proposal January 2017
Budget Decision May 2017
Panopto Pilot continues Spring 2017
Test LTI – Pilot Spring 2017
Implement Panopto including SSO and Canvas LTI Media Services and Academic Technology June-July 2017
Train Middlebury and MIIS HelpDesk & Media Services staff June-July 2017

Support

Outline of responsibilities

What Who
Panopto Support available to users 4 authorized contacts may receive support via: phone, email

General users may use chat and web tickets
Pedagogy/Instructional Design-related support Primary: Academic Tech, DLC, DL

Backup Support: Media Services
Administrative-use support (core functions) Primary: Media Services*
Other academic support (creativity & innovation project, student internship w/ or w/out credit, faculty research, symposium) Primary: Media Services

Backup Support: Academic Tech, DLC, DL
Training Media Services, Academic Tech, DLC, DL

 

* Conversations are occurring to identify course-related and administrative department support for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

 

ACTT Proposal for the Adoption of Zoom

Why

We investigated alternative web conferencing services for remote work, collaboration, and online learning. Our Adobe service provider will be discontinuing their education pricing for Adobe Connect licenses, doubling our costs.

A number of services were identified; some of them were also being investigated through the IT Unified Communications project. We first inventoried the features of each service and then identified the top three services to compare with Adobe Connect. 15 people from ACTT Core group and extended ACTT at Middlebury and Monterey groups compared the user experiences of the three services with Adobe Connect and each other.

Zoom was selected because it had the best user experience of the services identified after having tested it in all three categories named above: remote work, collaboration, and online learning. It had a good reputation amongst users and was being successfully implemented in a variety of mission-critical contexts: an online class, in an Envisioning Middlebury community initiated conversation attended by 30 people on the topic of distance collaboration and remote work, in a global virtual nonproliferation education forum coordinated from Monterey, and in a variety of other use cases. The enterprise license cost was also comparatively lower.

Integrated access to reliable, scalable, and flexible web conferencing for all Middlebury students, faculty and staff will be realized by adopting Zoom at the enterprise level (all Middlebury). The potential impact of this investment in shared resources include improved communications, outreach, and teaching innovation.

 

Recommendation Summary

The Academic Cyberinfrastructure Transformation Team recommends adding Zoom to the ITS fiscal year 2018 budget, replacing prior services.

  • Middlebury contracts a Zoom enterprise license for one year
  • Middlebury contracts with CirQ LTI to allow Zoom-based web conferencing for online and hybrid courses to be available through Canvas

 

Cost

Proposed FY 18 Zoom cost: $41,000 annually

Host licenses for all Middlebury users, 470 100 capacity meeting rooms and ten 500 capacity meeting rooms. In addition to offering a web conferencing solution, Zoom has the potential to phase out and replace existing video conferencing services, a significant savings for Middlebury over the next few years.

Comparative cost of Adobe Connect:

Actual FY 17 Adobe Connect Cost: $18,000

Proposed FY 18 Adobe Connect Cost: $36,000

  • (discontinuing educational discount)
  • 80 host licenses and 2 webinar rooms accommodating 500 users

 

Implementation Timeline

Most of this work has been accomplished during the Fall 2016 pilot of Zoom. Also, the pilot license will be extended during Spring 2017 to transition users from Adobe Connect to Zoom.

What Who When
Budget Proposal January 2017
Budget Decision May 2017
Extended Zoom Pilot, Transition people away from Adobe Connect Spring 2017
Test LTI – Pilot Spring 2017
Implement Zoom including SSO and Canvas LTI Media Services, CSNS and Academic Technology June-July 2017
Decommission Adobe Connect January-May 2017
Train Middlebury and Monterey Institute  HelpDesk staff June-July 2017

Support

Outline of responsibilities

What Who
Zoom Support available to users Tier 1 Vendor support via: phone, email, chat
Course-related support Primary: Media Services*

Backup Support: Academic Tech, DLC, DL
Administrative-use support (core functions) Primary: Media Services*
Other academic support (creativity & innovation project, student internship w/ or w/out credit, faculty research, symposium) Primary: Media Services

Backup Support: Academic Tech, DLC, DL
Training Media Services
Academic Consultation Academic Tech, DLC, DL

 

* Conversations are occurring to identify course-related and administrative department support for the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

ACTT Panopto Pilot Proposal

Evaluation

Video has become a platform for course work and new pedagogies, co-curricular projects and more. It is also becoming a tool for internal and external communication (including for College governance). Our current solutions do not meet the expectations and needs of our academic community and administrative users, and do not scale cost effectively. We are going to implement a reliable, scalable and secure video streaming solution.

 

Last summer, the Curricular Technology Team evaluated services to meet Middlebury’s needs. A service was chosen, but was discontinued after being purchased by another company. The ACTT Video Streaming Service Project Team was charged with revisiting the evaluation. Included in the charge, they were asked to come up with an interim plan until a long-term solution could be determined by July 2017. To meet the charge, the ACTT evaluated three services: Panopto, Ensemble, and Arc.

 

Recommendation Summary

The Academic Cyberinfrastructure Transformation Team recommends piloting Panopto for Fall 2016.

 

  • Middlebury contract Panopto for one year
  • Middlebury pilot Panopto during fall term 2016
  • Panopto provisioning happens via the Course Hub
  • Faculty may access Panopto collections via Canvas

 

Why a Pilot?

  • Middlebury has not used an enterprise level vendor-hosted video streaming platform, and we will need to assess how we would use it.
  • Panopto would be a new service to Middlebury, also Canvas will be moving to the Enterprise stage. Middlebury academic support will be limited while all of us are learning.
  • Some schools have adopted both Panopto and Ensemble, each for different needs, and have had good experiences.
  • Arc integrates directly with Canvas, but is still in beta and does not meet all of Middlebury’s needs.
  • The recommendation at the end of the pilot should include needs that are not being met.

Recommendation: Middlebury pilot Panopto during fall term 2016

 

Timeline

Faculty will be more likely to use a new service if it is available for fall, winter and spring terms. Also, the extra time will provide us with more information on how Middlebury would use this kind of service. Web Technologies and Services need time to integrate Panopto with the Course Hub, this will allow ease of use for the open pilot and avoid conflicts should Middlebury decide to adopt Panopto in the future. It is possible for faculty and students to access content in Panopto from Canvas, allowing us will help us to better understand how these systems work together.

 

What Who When
Negotiate terms for pilot and purchase in FY’16 Academic Technology and ITS June 2016
Add Panopto to Course Hub and Canvas Web Technologies and Services June – July 2016
Implement Panopto, add authentication and organization schema Academic Technology,
Web Technologies and Services

 

 June – July 2016
Work with courses that self-select during open pilot Academic Technology,
Digital Learning Commons,
Digital Learning		 July 2016
MIIS Pilot Digital Learning Commons August 2016 – classes begin August 29, 2016
Middlebury Pilot Academic Technology September 2016 – classes begin September 12, 2016
Budget Proposal   January 2017
Budget Decision   May 2017

Recommendation: Middlebury contract Panopto for one year

Recommendation: Panopto provisioning happens via the Course Hub

Recommendation: Faculty may access Panopto collections via Canvas

Support

Escalation levels and SLAs would be similar as they are currently for Moodle and MiddMedia.

 

Outline of responsibilities

What Who
Course-related support Primary: Academic Tech, DLC, DL

Backup Support: Media Services
Administrative-use support (core functions) Primary: Media Services
Other academic support (creativity & innovation project, student internship w/ or w/out credit, faculty research, symposium) Primary: Academic Tech, DLC, DL

Backup Support: Media Services

 

 

 

Notes for Panopto Proposal May 24, 2016

  • There is a proposal to pilot Panopto for one year with existing funds. This will not be a comparison pilot. We have looked at Panopto (demos 1 and 2), Arc, and Ensemble. Arc is still in beta and not viable to use in pilot. Based on our research, it seems like we can do the most with Panopto (content capture, lecture capture, streaming). Feedback from other schools: faculty are using it themselves with little help. We have determined through research that Panopto is best of breed and affordable. The ACTT team supports the video streaming recommendation.
  • Panopto would be available for one year. The recommendation on continuing will need to be made after the first semester. If we recommend Panopto, we should also recommend a term for continuing (e.g., 3 years).
  • Is this a pilot or a staged rollout? Using the term pilot might be most appropriate, helps educate users on the process we use to evaluate systems, and gives us flexibility if we decide not to adopt it. It also clarifies the support expectations and how new to all of us this service is. Pilots are often considered to be part of staged rollouts. A pilot was planned as part of the MediaCore rollout. Team tentatively agreed to consider this an open pilot in the Fall with a more widespread rollout in the Spring, pending the decision at the end of the pilot.
  • MiddMedia will be available through the pilot.
  • The focus of the pilot will be academics and instruction. We are also interested in testing out its streaming capacity for events.
  • Parameters of the pilot will be determined later. Will it be limited to specific classes or openly available? Should we limit it to instructional needs or to other use cases? Who should we reach out to specifically? We might set up workshops or intro videos to introduce the product. What model should we adopt as far as the contract is concerned? Enterprise (more expensive) or limited license (more management and limited use). Team felt it should be made available to the entire community.
  • Should it be hooked into Course Hub during the pilot? (Anticipation of one and half months of calendar time / 1-2 weeks of work to integrate, similar to Canvas.) May be better to integrate to avoid messy cleanup with accounts if Panopto is adopted. Classes begin at Monterey during the 3rd week of August. June: begin integrating with Course Hub. Could Panopto set up a test account for Web Technology to tinker with?
  • How to create shared libraries? Automatic provisioning or by request only? Who has permissions? Suggestion to have a request form to make sure the appropriate conversations happen in each case.
  • We’ll need to determine an exit strategy if we don’t adopt Panopto.
  • We’ll need to come up with criteria for evaluation. Asset management capability will need to be assessed during the pilot. What are our needs in this area? How will we organize our directories and assign permissions? How will we assess this?
  • End of June: establish contract with Panopto.

Feedback from other colleges

Skidmore, Hamilton College, Holy Cross, Lake Forrest, and Gettysburg.

Skidmore and Hamilton are using Panopto and Ensemble for different purposes. Panopto for lecture capturing and Ensemble for video asset management. Both are happy with both products and say they are easy to use.

Holy Cross has been using Panopto for the last 2 years and they are happy with it.

Gettysburg College has been using Ensemble since the summer of 2014. It is used primarily to store videos for their library reserves (75%) and the rest for faculty created content (mostly flipped classrooms). For the most part happy with it.

Lake Forest College has had Panopto for 2 years and are pretty happy with the decision. Several faculty have done a lot of screen-casting, and they were able to get started with minimal hand-holding.

Middlebury will Adopt Canvas

In January, 2016, the ACTT (formerly CTT) submitted a recommendation for Middlebury to adopt Canvas. We have received budget approval, and will begin the work of moving Middlebury into the Canvas service.

Thank you to all of the faculty and students that participated in the pilot. Your participation and feedback (Midd and MIIS) helped to make a strong recommendation. And thank you to Joe Antonioli, Bob Cole, Bill Koulopoulos, Stacy Reardon, Shel Sax and Heather Stafford for supporting these classes during the pilot.

Also, thank you to all of the schools that provided us with insight and the benefit of their experience with Canvas. We learned a lot from you.

There is a lot of work still to be done to move Canvas from pilot to enterprise, but we do hope that you take a moment to celebrate this milestone and the collective effort to get to this point.