Significant Changes Coming to Panopto
03/28/2025
Dear SLU Community Members,
We write today with important information about upcoming changes to Panopto and how SLU manages Panopto stored content. We know the email is lengthy, but we want to share what we know now and establish shared understanding about the work to come.
Action required of you at this time: If you use (or have previously used) Panopto to record course-related videos, meetings, or events, review the information below, and keep an eye out for the next communications. Beginning later this spring, any recordings that have not been viewed in at least 24 months will be identified for removal.
Background
Panopto has been SLU’s “lecture capture” tool since 2019. The tool allows individuals to record live sessions and to pre-record presentations, for use in coursework and other events. Until this year, Panopto did not have storage limits on the amount of recorded content SLU maintained. The company’s new licensing and fee structure now has storage limits, and they are well below the amount of stored content SLU currently has in the system. Further, the company instituted significant price increases. Rather than our usual three-year contract, SLU has signed a 15-month contract in order to reduce stored content and move toward a more financially-sustainable approach to storage management.
What This Means for SLU
SLU must quickly begin to reduce the amount of content stored in Panopto. Although we’ve been given a grace period to get below our current contract’s storage limits, we must implement an accelerated plan to significantly reduce Panopto content between now and the early fall semester.
ITS and the Provost’s Office are working together to finalize a cleanup plan. In the very near term, we will initiate a deletion process for the oldest content in the system that has not been viewed at least 24 months. These are primarily recordings migrated by ITS from Tegrity (content that was created prior to summer 2019) and from Blackboard (content that was created prior to fall 2021). Most such files are not accessible to individual users and have not been viewed in at least 24 months (in some cases much longer).
Later this spring and throughout the summer, we expect to mark for deletion all recordings that have not been viewed in at least 24 months. You will have an opportunity to preserve recordings you do not wish to have deleted. Beyond the initial storage reduction, SLU also must implement a regular content management process (similar to the one we had before we adopted Panopto, when we were on our old lecture capture system). We will return to a regular content management process next fall.
What All of This Means for You
Soon, we will share exact dates, a website with resources, and detailed instructions for how to preserve recordings you do not wish to lose. We had hoped to be able to provide those specifics today, but we’re continuing to work with Panopto to fine-tune our plans to ensure we offer you the least-labor-intensive approach to preserving content. We will do our best to automate as much as possible, to ensure you only need to take action if you have content you wish to preserve. Again, for the first round of cleanup, we will only target recordings that have not been viewed in at least 24 months. This means: recordings your students have viewed within the last 24 months will not be at risk of deletion (unless you choose to delete them).
We recognize this news will be stressful. We also recognize the timing is not ideal, since many faculty will be off contract starting in mid-May. However, our current contract with Panopto requires us to significantly reduce stored content in the coming weeks and months. In the current financial climate, the University simply does not have the option of waiting until next academic year to begin this work.
We have shared an initial plan with members of the University Learning Technologies Advisory Committee, who have endorsed the plan unanimously. We also consulted with the Deans and have the support of the Provost to move forward. Indeed, the Provost has charged us to do this work as quickly as possible to ensure we are able to meet the limits and pricing set forth in our current Panopto contract.
Please know, we are committed to providing as much information and support as we possibly can to make this process as smooth as possible. Although we are not sharing more details at this time, it’s only because we want to be sure we have the most efficient processes and clearest instructional materials to make this process as easy on you as possible. We are refining instructional materials now, and we are working with Panopto to identify any additional strategies we can adopt to make this process easier on you.
We will send another communication soon, with much more detailed information. In the meantime, if you have questions about your own Panopto content or how to prepare for the work to come, please email facsupport@slu.edu; this will create a ticket with the right ITS support team and someone will try to provide appropriate guidance.
Sincerely,
Debie Lohe, Ph.D., Associate Provost for Teaching and Learning
Mike Holmes, D.T., Director of Academic Applications, ITS