Automated Lecture Capture

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This article covers the following topics. Click on the topic to go to that section of the article.

Lecture Capture Overview
Requirements Overview
Configure Panopto as a Media Source
Configure Courses, Users, & Events
Monitor & Manage Lecture Captures

Lecture Capture Overview

Use Elentra to automate the process of scheduling learning event recordings and posting those recordings to the associated events. By integrating a lecture capture tool, such as Mediasite or Panopto, with Elentra, your learning event schedule in Elentra becomes the source of truth for the scheduling of recordings based on the course, event type, and the room in which the events take place. Elentra 'speaks' with the lecture capture tool's scheduler and tells it when the next event has been scheduled to be recorded. The lecture capture tool records the event, then pushes the recording back to Elentra which, in turn, automatically posts the recording to the associated learning event as a resource for learners.

Requirements Overview

To use the Lecture Capture tools, you must provide the appropriate information in various parts of the platform.

Configure Media Sources via Admin > System Settings > Media Sources. Each recorder will need to be configured as a Media Source.
Ensure that you have defined your sites, buildings, and rooms via Admin > System Settings > Location Management; particularly those rooms that have recorders you wish to use to capture learning events. For the Rooms that have recorders, ensure that you define the Resources available in each room (e.g., Capture), you will need to match the room to the media source you have previously configured.
Enable Lecture Capture on Courses & configure the event types that should be captured. This is configured on a course's Setup tab.
Ensure faculty have consented to recording their sessions. By default, your organization settings will require each faculty member to check off a consent box on their profile to consent to being recorded. This can be disabled via a database setting, contact Elentra Support to disable this requirement.
Events that meet the criteria to be recorded must be created. Once created, from the Content tab, the event must be further configured to allow the recording to be added as a resource automatically after the event concludes.

Configure Panopto as a Media Source

You will need to have administrative access to a folder in your Panopto instance or the ability to create root folders in your Panopto instance to integrate with Elentra for lecture capture. As a Panopto admin, you will need to create a new API client for each recorder. You will also need a remote recorder set up in your Panopto instance.

Step 1: Navigate to System Settings > API Clients page in Panopto. Click on New.

Step 2: Complete the form as follows:

Client Name: Name your recorder API something descriptive that will make it easy to configure to a recording device. For example, "Lecture Hall 1 Recorder Elentra API"

Client Type: Select Server Side Web Application

Redirect URL: The redirect URL should be your institutional Elentra URL followed by /admin/settings/manage/mediasources?section=add&step=3&org=organization_id . For example, if your Elentra URL was https://ABCschool.elentra.cloud, and you wanted to use your first organization, you'd fill that field with the following: https://ABCschool.elentra.cloud/admin/settings/manage/mediasources?section=add&step=3&org=1 .

Warning: This URL must be exact for this to work. The only part that should change is the institutional Elentra URL which comes before the /admin part and the organization ID which comes after the last equals sign. The /admin/settings/manage/mediasources?section=add&step=3&org= portion will remain constant.

Step 3: Once you’ve correctly set the redirect URL, you can click Create API Client.

PanoptoAPI

Your screen should look similar to the image above. Save the client ID and secret in a safe place. You’ll need to provide them when creating the media source in Elentra.

Step 4: Repeat Steps 1-3 for each recorder you want to set up within Elentra.

Step 5: Once the recorder set up is complete, then as a Medtech:Admin in Elentra, navigate to Admin > System Settings and select the organization you configured the Redirect URL to point at.

Step 6: In the side panel, click on Media Sources Management. Click on Add Media Source.

Step 7: From the Media Source Type list, select Panopto. Complete the form information using the API and recorder ID information as follows:

addpanopto

Media Source Name: Name your Media Source something descriptive that will make it easy to configure to a room in Elentra. For example, "Lecture Hall 1 Recorder"

Client ID: From the API you created in Panopto

Recorder ID: To get the recorder ID, head back over to Panopto and navigate to System Settings > Remote Recorders page. Find the recorder you want to use and copy the Recorder ID. Paste it into this field in Elentra.

Client Secret: From the API you created in Panopto.

Panopto Instance URL: The Panopto instance URL can be found by going to your Panopto instance and copying the URL in the browser from the start to the domain (com) as seen in the screenshot below.

Root Folder Name: The Root Folder Name field is an optional field where you can specify a different folder to use as the root folder to store all the recordings in Panopto. You’ll need to use this if you do not have permission to create root folders in your Panopto instance. The value used for this field must be the name of an existing folder in your Panopto instance that you have administrative access to. The name is case-sensitive.

Step 8: Click Save to complete. Repeat for each recorder.

Step 9: Next, navigate to Admin > Manage Locations and navigate to the room where the recording device lives. Click on the pencil icon to edit the room.

Step 10: Under the Room Resources section, check off Capture, then set Media Source Type field to Panopto. Then select the media source in the Media Source field you have previously configured for the recording device in this room.

Step 11: Click Save.

Configure Courses, Faculty, & Events

Courses

Each course you wish to have connected to Lecture Capture features must be enabled from within the course's Setup tab.

Lecture Capture Support: Turn on or off as needed. Having it turned on will allow consenting faculty to be recorded in eligible rooms.

Default Recording State: This dictates whether or not all events will automatically be recorded (on) or not (off).

Allow Faculty Override: This dictates whether or not faculty can change the default setting on their events (on) or not (off) via the event Content page.

Event Types Capture Permitted: This allows you to specify which event types you want to automatically record (e.g. lectures, etc.). You can select more than one event type per course. To delete a selected event type, click on the small x to the right of the event type.

Faculty

Next, you will need the consent of your faculty members in order to automate lecture capture. This can be accomplished in two different ways.

Option 1: Faculty members will need to navigate to their Elentra profile by clicking on the person icon, then My Profile.

At the bottom of their profile page, there is a checkbox that must be checked off to indicate consent for lecture capture recording:

Each faculty member would need to check this off and save their Elentra profile to enable lecture capture.

Option 2: If you have acquired your faculty's consent in some other way, ask Elentra Support to disable lecture capture consent within your organization, or file a ticket with Elentra Support.

Events

Once all of the above conditions are configured, individual events can be managed from the learning event's Content tab, if the course settings allow faculty override.

Use the toggles to adjust the default settings for each event as needed. If you have set your course settings to not allow faculty override, Medtech & Staff: Admins must adjust event settings from within Admin> System Settings> Media Sources Management.

Monitor & Manage Lecture Captures

Lecture Capture

Administrators can use the Lecture Capture tab of the Media Sources Management page to monitor, synchronize, and adjust the recordings that satisfy the lecture capture conditions set on each course for which lecture capture has been enabled. Navigate to Admin > System Settings > Your Organization > Media Sources Management.

The table will display all events and their details for which lecture capture has been enabled and that meet the lecture capture conditions set on courses. For these events the table also displays whether or not the event has synced with the media source (Sync State), whether capture is enabled for the event (Capture Enabled), and whether the recording will be added as a resource to the event automatically (Automatic Resource Enabled). Clicking on the title of the event will open that event in a new tab.

There are five buttons on the page detailed below:

Synchronize Now: Click Synchronize Now to initiate synchronization with the various media sources associated with your events and update all outstanding synchronization records.
Enable Capture: Select an event or many events by placing a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the Event ID(s). Click Enable Capture to enable lecture recording for the selected event(s).
- If an event has already occurred, changing this setting will have no effect.
- If an event has yet to occur, the recording schedule will be synchronized automatically in a few minutes.
Enable Auto-Resource: Select an event or many events by placing a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the Event ID(s) column. Click Enable Auto-Resource to add a resource to the selected events with a read-only link to the recording. When the recording takes place, the resources will be automatically populated with the appropriate recordings.
Disable Capture: Select an event or many events by placing a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the Event ID(s). Click Disable Capture to prevent the selected events from being recorded (for the relevant media sources).
- If an event has already been recorded, the corresponding resource (if it was generated) will be hidden.
- Recordings are not deleted and can be made visible again by re-enabling Lecture Capture.
Disable Auto-Resource: Select an event or many events by placing a checkmark in the checkbox to the left of the Event ID(s). Click Disable Auto-Resource to remove the automatically generated resource for the selected events. They can be re-added any time by clicking on Enable Auto-Resource.

Schedule Recording Details

The Schedule Recording Details will display all pertinent details for all scheduled recordings.

Transaction Log

The transaction log will show all transactions with media sources and what the response was (e.g., if there was an error or if the recording was successful.)