Lecture capture is the live recording of a class-based teaching event, which is then made accessible to students onliine. The recording usually consists of screen capture and the lecturer’s voice, but can also include a video feed of the room, where available.
Anything the lecturer says and any text presented on screen can be used to search the recording.
The recording can be used by the students for catching up on missed sessions or as complementary to the session they have attended. It can also be used for distance learning.
There is a strong demand for lecture capture. Student expectation, coupled with significant changes to the Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) and the EU Web Accessibility Directive, mean that universities are increasingly adopting lecture capture solutions or repurposing existing provision to help provide inclusive learning environments. UCISA (2018) reports that 75% of responding HEIs now have lecture capture systems.
Lecture recording has been widely used in high education in a variety of contexts.
Depending on purpose of the use the recording, a lecturer can fully record the whole session or part of the session. The presenter can edit his/her lecture or can leave it as raw.
- Institutional consideration:
- Demands from students
- Supplementary, not a replacement for lectures
- Pedagogical reasons
- University outlook-towards world university
- Promote equality in education
- Students’ perception and use of lecture recording:
- Positive
- Supplementary, not a replacement
- Learn at their own pace
- Use it as a revision tool
- Enables them to engage more in class without having to take verbatim notes
- Complement to the live lecture
- Mixed opinion on the effectiveness, compared to attending a lecture
- Mixed opinion on the effect of attendance
- Very few studies (if any) have been able to directly correlate lecture capture to a drop in attendance
- Perception of lectures and use of lecture recording:
- Believe it is good for promoting equality of education
- Concern about limiting teaching styles
- Concern about lowering attendance
- Concern about lowering students’ performance
- Challenges:
- Fear of the red light
- Concerns over performance management
- Concerns over copyright and IP
- Future considerations:
- Whiteboard capture
- Stronger policy to dispel myths
Best Practice Tips
Talk to students at the start of the year about how you intend to use lecture capture. Are you going to record all of your sessions, some, or none?
If you decide not to use lecture capture, explain your reasoning to your students. Many students rely on lecture recordings to revisit difficult concepts, fill in gaps in notes and to revise, particularly if they have a disability or English isn’t their first language.
If you don’t intend to record lectures, students are still able to make audio-only recordings using their own devices but this is likely to be of poor quality and means that a useful device that could be used for learning will be being utilised as a recording device.
Advise students that lecture capture is a supplementary resource and not a replacement for attending classes.
Encourage students not to write extensive notes during the lecture. It is better for them to utilise this time to engage in the materials and ask questions. Students should note down key points and, if needed, revisit the recording to fill in any gaps in their notes after the lecture.
You can use the recording indicator light to pause the recording at any time, e.g. if you’re covering come sensitive materials or a student wants to ask a question but doesn’t want to be recorded.
Don’t worry about editing the recording after the lecture unless it’s absolutely necessary. Research shows the vast majority of students do not watch the recordings through in their entirety (Nordman et al.). Instead, students target specific parts of the lecture where they need to revisit difficult concepts or fill in gaps in their notes.
Wear the lavalier (lapel) microphone. Not only will this improve the quality of the audio, but it also feeds into the induction loop for any students with hearing difficulties.
Repeat any questions asked by students during the lecture so it is picked up on your microphone. This will ensure all students have the benefit of hearing the question when they revisit the recording.
Resources
Encore good practice guide for staff.
Point students towards the online guidance on using Encore. You may find the studying with lecture recordings guide particularly useful.
UCISA (2018). 2018 Report on the Technology Enhanced Learning survey.
Addressing common academic concerns around the use of lecture capture.
Further Reading
Aldamen, H., Al-Esmail, R., & Hollindale, J. (2015). Does lecture capturing impact student performance and attendance in an introductory accounting course? Accounting Education, 24(4), 291–317.
Briggs, L., 2007. “Can classroom capture boost retention rates?” Campus Technology.
Edwards, M.R. & Clinton, M.E. High Educ (2018).
Franklin, D.S., Gibson, J.W., Samuel, J.C. et al. Med.Sci.Educ. (2011) 21: 21.
Mayer, R (2001) Multimedia learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sarsfield, M & Conway J (2016) “What can we learn from learning analytics? A case study based on an analysis of student use of video recordings.” Paper 1247 presented at ALT-C 2016. Slides available here.