What about Camtasia, Canvas' video, or the video production department?

tl;dr

Use Panopto to record full classroom lectures. Use Camtasia for short, focused presentations, if you plan to do a lot of editing and already are familiar with Camtasia. Use the video production group for off-computer demonstrations.

Why not Panopto? 

Panopto is ideal for recording full classroom lectures to make them available for students to review after class. It's easy to start recording before a class, finish at the end, and have it automatically post the lecture. It does not have a strong editor, and can't do highlights, call-outs, or other attention-getting actions. 

What about Camtasia?

Camtasia records the computer screen or PowerPoint, your audio, and can record video. It is ideal for short, focused presentations, particularly if creating them requires some editing (e.g. smoothly combining PowerPoint and a software demonstration), or if you want to use call-outs, highlights, and have arrows point to important parts of the presentation. 

For online and hybrid classes, we recommend short videos to illustrate or emphasize important concepts. It's easier for students to commit to watching a short video than watching a long one. Do students have a short attention span when it comes to watching videos? It's likely not the video itself -- students can handle a 2-hour Avengers movie -- but the content. ("Where does that 15-minute attention span thing come from then?" From a 1978 study on notetaking Links to an external site..)

What about Canvas video?

Canvas video records your webcam or built-in camera and audio. It does not record the computer screen. Also, there is no editing, and it is difficult to copy the video from one class to another. The process for captioning is also complex. 

This tool can be useful for delivering one-to-one feedback for students on assignments, or delivering short (less than 5 minute) prompts for highlights for students.

What about the video production department?

The video production department can help you create short instructional videos, showing lab or patient procedures, focused instructional activities that can best be described by video, and the like. They are not available for regular recording of classroom lectures. 

Video productions are particularly useful for complex procedures, especially those that need to be shown every quarter, or should be reviewed by students on a regular basis. See an example of a recent production.