What’s the Difference Between Kaltura, Panopto and Zoom?

Emporia State has licensed three video products from many years, starting with Panopto in 2008, followed by Kaltura in 2014 and Zoom in 2016. Each product is intended for very particular verticals but are now beginning to expand their portfolio to include features that overlap with one another. Video is extraordinarily popular at ESU. In any given month several terabytes of video are captured and replayed. Canvas is not well suited to support that much video content, so we direct users to one of these other solutions.

Panopto (Ancient Greek for All Seeing) was originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University as a lecture-capture product used in medical schools. It is the workhorse for recording and uploading didactic presentations that are replayed later for review and study – mostly PowerPoint and web sites with a video insert. Panopto is unique in that it is one of the few products in its class that supports two cameras. ESU first adopted Panopto to be used in the Earl Center for recording counseling sessions. Later, it was rolled out across campus into every Learning Space and every office. Faculty can even record at home. Like all our products, Panopto is mobile friendly and provides automatic closed captioning. Panopto can also be used for live broadcasting events. It is not a product that is intended for synchronous web-conferencing.

Kaltura is the granddaddy of video hosting and streaming. It is used by many major corporations and universities, including the University of Washington, KU, and Indiana University. Think of Kaltura as a YouTube for the university but used primarily used for academics. ESU adopted Kaltura because Panopto did not afford video upload from non-Panopto sources at the time we conducted a review. (That since has changed.) Kaltura’s vertical is serving video content through Canvas and through a public facing portal called Kaltura Media Space. It also includes a desktop capture utility called Kaltura Capture that offers native screen recording. Kaltura also supports some of our best accessibility features using an add-in called Reach that not only captions, but also provides an automatic transcript of the video dialog that can be downloaded and printed. Kaltura is attempting to broaden its portfolio into lecture capture and web-conferencing. Kaltura Mobile allows faculty to capture and upload video from  their smartphones directly onto Canvas.

Zoom is the latest entrant to our portfolio. Zoom replaced Adobe Connect a few years ago when we saw Flash being deprecated by the browser vendors. This product’s primary vertical is web-conferencing, although it is commonly used for all manner of lecture capture given its ease of use. Our license for Zoom is underwritten by KanREN – our campus Internet provider. Zoom recordings are stored on Zoom Cloud for 60 days, and simultaneously stored on Kaltura using a product integration. Zoom is perhaps one of our more popular products given its ‘frictionless’ product interface. In a typical month we will see upward of 600 Zoom meetings. Zoom can even be used for desktop capture recordings. It is perhaps the most versatile of the products we license, but the storage limitations provide challenges.

Rob Gibson
Director

Learning Technologies

Across Campus 1: Student Roundtable

Across Campus is a new series brought to you by ESU IT! In this series, we're going to discover how IT impacts you — the students, faculty, and staff across the Emporia State campus. Sometimes technology is front and center, while other times it is almost transparent--and we want to explore those scenarios with you.

We invite all types of members from the ESU community to talk about a variety of different topics.

Last week, Dakota Taylor and I had the opportunity to sit down (virtually, of course) with a few ESU Students to discuss their transition to online learning.

• Simon Stewart, Sophomore - Statistics major
• Luiz Felipe Maia, Sophomore - Economics major
• Taylor Nelson, Computer Science Junior
• Martin Okonkwo, MBA + MSIT, Graduate Assistant, IT Project Assistant
• Katelyn Flynn, Graduate Student - Public Relations major

Student-athletes, student employees, international students, and members of the FSL community; our student panel was filled with student diversity to make sure we could cover just more than one perspective.

The first episode of Across Campus will cover topics such as online classes, professor adaptation, working from home, and much more! 

Want to keep up with all this fun content and more? Head over to our Hornet TV YouTube Channel!

Tyler Parker
Social Media & Marketing Student Assistant

Web & Digital Strategies

Staying Motivated

During these difficult times when you have to stay inside for most of the day or don’t have a job to go to, it may be hard to stay focused on what is important for your future. In my opinion, experience is what brings you to the highs in your industry. Getting there is very hard, but it is always doable when you make a great use of your free time. During this pandemic, most people have more than plenty of time to do useful things for improving or getting new knowledge about something within the industry they are already in or going to be in in the near future. Here are some useful tips on how to stay motivated and get or improve knowledge you need:

Motivational tips:

• Doing extra work on top of what you get assigned to at work, school or college is not always easy, but your priority is what you should strive to achieve in your life. When you have a hard time motivating yourself to increase your knowledge or learn something new instead of, for example, watching your favorite show, just think about your future and how good it would be if you had a job you always dreamed of. Think of things you wouldn’t get if you didn’t stay motivated. That would be a great start on the way to success.

• Try to manage your time well. Not only does it help getting a great position after college, but also keeps you organized. Set aside an hour of your day for "extra" work. You will soon realize how helpful it is for your future. At first, it might be a little frustrating or boring, but once you start seeing the result, the motivation will come right away. It will soon become your habit and you won’t want to stop.

• When it comes to becoming successful at something, be the first in line. Take every opportunity you get, especially when you have free time. Don’t be scared to try new things. Eventually, you will look at yourself as a completely different person, because you will be proud for what you achieved.

We have all been through hard times and this pandemic is definitely not the easiest time to get through.  It is up to you to decide how you want to use your free time. From my experience, extra practice helps in any industry and any situation. Don’t wait until last minute to prepare for your future, start now and you will achieve great things.

Anton Levanovich
Student Web Developer

Web & Digital Strategies

Emporia State University Student Billing on Hornet 365!

Here at Emporia State University, we provide you with a 24/7 online student account center for fee payments, this can be accessed through your university portal, Hornet365!

The Financial Center give you access:

As an authorized users (parents/guardians/spouse) can log in here. 

To additional forms, by visiting the student form central page.

The Student Account Center is your one stop shop to: 

Check your student balance Get an itemized breakdown by semester, from the time you’ve been here. 

Make a payment towards your balance.  
Pay using major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American Express). Pay using an electronic check, all you would need is your bank account and routing number. This option does not have any extra convenience fees. 

Enroll in a payment plan 

View your payment history Print it out or export it as an excel or pdf file. 

Store your payment methods securely for quick and easy payment 

Provide permission to others (parents, guardians, etc.)  This way authorized users can view your bill, view your 1098-T tax statement and make payments. 

Direct deposit your excess funds into any US bank account 

You must complete the direct deposit authorization form online, and activate two-factor authentication, prior to the processing of excess funds. 

📹 Want a video tutorial? Emporia State University Student Billing on Hornet365

Got more questions? Find out more at emporia.edu/studentbilling

Ready to pay your fees? Get started at hornet365.com

Saandhyarag Sasidhar
Web and Media Specialist
Web and Digital Strategies

Asking Questions/Finding Answers

Are you seeking help?

Can’t meet up with anyone to resolve your issue?

Is your professor or manager not providing you with enough information to succeed?

Fret not Hornets! Where there's a will, there's always a way! We're going to help you find the solutions and online platforms, where you can find all the answers to your important questions.

Schoolwork:

• Many courses have discussion boards on Canvas! This is available for you to ask and answer course related material. If you don’t understand something, ask for help.
   
• Schedule a Zoom meeting with your classmates! Zoom is probably your best option, because you can share your screen and showcase what you are trying to figure out. Zoom also has the functionality for remote control access. This allows the person who is trying to help, control your machine until the issue is resolved.
   
• If you're still having trouble understanding the material, don’t forget that you can email / virtually meet with your professor on Zoom, to clarify your questions and get a better understanding on the material. Professors are here to help you succeed!

• You can always check the ESU Learn Anywhere site for campus resources or reach out to us and we'll help direct you to the person who can answer your question.

Job tasks:

• The best option when it comes to finding a solution to your work related question, is to communicate with your team on the established communication channels.  Is that email?  Teams? SharePoint? Perhaps now is the ideal time to establish that channel!
   
• Schedule a meeting with a manager or coworker(s). This will give you an opportunity to ask all your questions and get the answers. Make a list of questions before the meeting so you don't miss anything.
   
• If no one is available--that's not a problem! You have the greatest invention known to us, GOOGLE.  Ask Google any question you have, and you are most likely to get an answer. Use it with caution!

It's important to realize that these are unprecedented times for all of us! So, don’t be scared to ask for help!

Anton Levanovich
Student Web Developer

Web & Digital Strategies