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.
From 2019-2025, SLU signed two consecutive three-year contracts with Panopto. Licensing fees were reasonable, and the company imposed no storage limits.
However, as our new contract came up for renewal in January 2025, we learned that Panopto has adopted a new licensing and fee structure. In addition to significant price increases, all licensing tiers now come with storage limits. Even at the highest tier, these storage limits are significantly below the amount of stored content SLU currently has in the system.
Rather than our usual three-year contract, SLU signed a 15-month contract in late-January. The contract period allows us to do three things:
Align our contract period with SLU's fiscal year (rather than the calendar year), and
Significantly reduce stored content in order to prepare for a lower-cost licensing tier (or for moving to a new lecture capture tool), and
Re-institute file retention procedures to ensure regular reduction of stored content (similar to the approach we took when we were with Tegrity, SLU's former lecture capture tool).
Ultimately, SLU must move toward a more financially-sustainable approach to recorded content management, whether we remain with Panopto or change to another product.