Case Study: Vrije Universiteit Brussel expands accessibility and adopts hybrid learning with Panopto

Vrije Universteit Brussel - Customer Case Study

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), a 185-year-old international university, had adopted Panopto in 2009 to increase lecture accessibility for its diverse, often working-student population. Despite this investment, VUB’s teaching remained classroom-centered and it had to rapidly adapt when COVID-19 lockdowns forced a shift to fully remote learning.

VUB used Panopto’s streaming, recording, and integrations with Teams and Canvas to tailor engagement by class size—streaming large lectures with Panopto plus chat and polling, and consolidating workflows for smaller interactive classes. The platform’s ease and stability enabled a smooth transition and a lasting hybrid, flipped-classroom approach where lecturers produce short “knowledge clips” for asynchronous study and use in-person/streamed sessions for discussion, resulting in 60 hours of content created per day, 3,000+ hours viewed per day, and a 200% increase in view counts in one year.

Vrije Universteit Brussel

Stijn Van Achter

Coordinator of Educational Innovation