Lecture Capture Policy

The following list provides defintions of the terms used in this policy

Definitions:

  • Lecture: A timetabled teaching session which is focussed on the transmission of information from staff to students.
  • Lecturer: member or members of AU staff presenting a lecture and creating a recording
  • Module: AU term for a credit bearing course.
  • Blackboard module site: an area in the Blackboard VLE corresponding to a taught AU module.
  • Recordings: digital files containing at minimum the audio and any projected visual materials.

1.    Introduction

1.1 Aberystwyth University (AU) requires that all lectures are recorded and made available to students via the Blackboard VLE. Please see section 2 below for the definition of a lecture.

1.2 As a minimum, the audio of a lecture should be recorded. If lecturers are making use of PowerPoint or other projected material, they should also make sure that the screen is captured. See Section 4 for more details about what should be recorded.

1.3 Panopto software is centrally provided to enable easy in-lecture recording and integrates with Blackboard to help control access to recordings.

1.4   Lecture capture recordings are considered by AU to constitute a ‘reasonable adjustment’ for students who would, prior to funding changes, have been provided with a note taker.

1.5 This policy will be made available on the Information Services website and reference in the Academic Quality Handbook.

 

2.    Definition of a lecture

2.1 AU defines a lecture as the transmission of information from staff to students. There is therefore no requirement to record:

  • Any interactive elements of a teaching session, such as student discussions or question and answer sessions;
  • Seminars, tutorials or workshops.

2.2 AU recognises and acknowledges that:

  • Not all teaching styles are suitable for capture, e.g., if a high degree of audience interactivity is used;
  • Staff are encouraged to use their preferred teaching style; there is no requirement to change teaching style for the purpose of recording as that can be detrimental to the student experience;
  • Ethical issues, or the use of sensitive material may render the recording of some teaching and learning activities as being inappropriate;
  • AU is committed to investigating and implementing ways of capturing all teaching styles.

2.3 Lecturers leading sessions which are not required to be recorded should ensure that students have access to all relevant learning materials; such as PowerPoint slides, handouts, and other supplementary material. These should be made available to students in Blackboard. 

2.4 Students should note that AU does not consider use of lecture capture recordings as a replacement for attendance. Lecture recordings are provided to enhance the student learning experience rather than to replace the requirement to attend.

  

3.    Use of Your Data

3.1 AU makes use of a cloud-based installation of Panopto. This means that a certain amount of information about staff and students is sent to Panopto. Such data includes name, email address and enrolments on Blackboard module site, as well as recordings, slides and user activity. All this information is stored in Northern Ireland. Information about the data collected, who can see it and what use is made of it by Panopto, is covered by the Panopto Privacy Policies.

3.2 Data generated through the use of Panopto may also be used by AU staff as part of the AU Learning Analytics service. Information about Learning Analytics can be found at https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/infocompliance/dp/learning-analytics/

 

4.    Creating and Editing Recordings

4.1  Panopto software is available on all AU teaching machines to record the audio, screen and video in a teaching room. As a minimum the audio of a lecture should be recorded. If lecturers are making use of PowerPoint or other projected material, they should also make sure that the screen is captured.

4.2  Lecturers may use other software but should record the same information as listed above in 4.1. Lecturers using software other than Panopto should also ensure that they provide access to their recordings via the relevant Blackboard module site.

4.3. Lecturers should ensure that students are aware that a session is being recorded. This can be done verbally at the start of a lecture, by announcing on a presentation slide, or by posting in the Blackboard module area.

4.4.  Explicit permission should be sought from visiting speakers and other non-AU staff. A data authorisation form is available on the AU website.

4.5.  Lecturers are not expected to edit recordings before making them available to students (although they may wish to edit the start and end of a lecture if required). The only exception to this is if the recording contains materials which would breach GDPR or could be considered sensitive or offensive. Examples of situation where editing would be required are:

  • Accidentally recording of conversations with students before / after the lecture
  • Recording of questions from students who are unaware that recording is taking place
  • Unplanned discussions which may contain personal information

4.6 Staff or students who believe that a recording requires substantial editing or should be removed from the Panopto platform should contact the Director of Information Services who will consider the request.

4.7 Students who have concerns over the content included in a recorded lecture should raise their concerns with their lecturer in the first instance.

  

5.    Use of Recordings

5.1 The purpose of a recording is to support the students taking a module. By default (and unless specifically changed by a lecturer) access to module’s recordings are therefore limited to students taking that module.

5.2  Staff or students with access to recordings should not share these, by any means (including downloading and sharing), without the permission of the lecturer.

5.3  Providing that the lecturer has given permission, recordings can be used outside of the module they are recorded to (for example to support co-taught modules or teaching at partner institutions).

5.4  Lecturers sharing their recordings are responsible for ensuring that the permissions for viewing these recordings are correctly set.

5.5 Permission to view previous years’ recordings may be given to staff new to teaching a module. This is to help with preparation and familiarisation with module content. 

5.6  Lecturers should ensure that a link to the lecture recording is visible in the Blackboard course within three working days of the lecture taking place. Links to Panopto recordings should be included alongside the relevant learning materials / activities. As an addition, staff may also create a link to the Panopto folder (so that students can see all the recordings in one location).  

5.7 If there are pedagogical reasons for delaying the release of a lecture (for example, substantial edits are required, or material is delayed due to duplicate teaching sessions), students should be made aware of this by the lecturer.

5.8 AU will not use recordings to assess staff performance or to instigate disciplinary hearings or complaints. However, they may be used (with the permission of the lecturer) as evidence in such hearings.

5.9 AU staff may use their own lecture recordings as evidence of good practice in teaching, for example in applications for promotion, Advance HE fellowship applications, or at events sharing good practice.

 

6.    Access to Recordings

6.1  Access to recordings made for AU taught modules is controlled through enrolment on the corresponding Blackboard course site. This means that only students enrolled on the module can view the content.

6.2  By default, access to recordings requires an AU username and password to view the content

6.3  Lecturers select the module in which the recording appears at the start of their lecture. By selecting the module, all students and staff enrolled on the module can view the content

6.4  Students will be able to view recordings for the modules that they were enrolled on for a period of 5 years or until their account finishes (whichever is sooner).

6.5  Panopto Administrators (Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit, and Applications and Integration Team in Information Services) can access, view, and edit all recordings made via Panopto.

6.6  Employees of Panopto may need to view recordings in order to provide support to AU; this may be for the purposes of fixing faults, restoring deleted recordings etc. Access to AU data by Panopto staff is covered by the Panopto privacy policies.

  

7.    Copyright

7.1 All material recorded as part of a lecture recording is subject to copyright legislation. Third party material should only be included if it constitutes 'fair dealing' (further information is available on the AU Copyright Guide)

7.2  A full list of content that can be included in a recorded lecture is available from the AU Information Compliance web pages.

7.3  All users of Panopto recordings are reminded that they should not be shared without the permission of the lecturer (see 5.2 above). 

7.4  Any questions regarding copyright issues relating to lecture capture should be sent to the AU Data Protection and Copyright Manager (infocompliance@aber.ac.uk)

  

8.    Retention Period

8.1  Lecture recordings will be retained for five years. This ensures that students can view recordings of all the modules that they have taken during their course.

8.2  If staff want a different retention period, particularly for non-module recordings (e.g. conferences etc) they should discuss this with the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (lteu@aber.ac.uk). Please note that there is a cost associated with long-term retention of recordings. IS reserves the right to charge projects needing extended access to recordings. 

8.3  Recordings can also be copied or moved into the latest version of a taught module. 

  

9.    Oral assessment

9.1 Oral assessments may be recorded using Panopto. If assessments are recorded, staff should create all recordings in a Panopto assessment folder which ensures that only staff and external examiners can view the recordings.

9.2  Students should be made aware that their presentation will be recorded and provided with information about who will be able to view the recording and how it will be used.

9.3  If it is not possible for two internal markers to attend an oral assessment, the assessment must be recorded.

9.4  Large-scale use of recording for oral assessment should be logged with Information Services to ensure that adequate support is available.

 

10.    Recorded Presentations and Panopto for Assignments

10.1  Students may be asked to use Panopto to submit recorded presentations or recordings for assessment purposes via the module in Blackboard.

10.2  Lecturers should create a Panopto Assignment in Assessment and Feedback folder in the Blackboard course.

10.3  Any recordings submitted to a Panopto Assignment will be able to be viewed by Lecturers and External Examiners on the course. 

10.4  Students will only be able to view recordings they have uploaded. 

10.5  The recordings will be retained for five years and removed as per the Retention Period (see section 8).  

 

11.         Opt-out

11.1 Lecturers whose sessions should be recorded, but who wish to opt-out of using lecture capture should discuss their concerns with their departmental Director of Learning and Teaching (DLT) in the first instance.

11.2  If the DLT believes that they have a valid reason for opt-out, they should agree strategies for communicating this decision to the students on the module. Reasonable adjustments for students with additional requirements along with any mitigating actions should also be put in place.

11.3  A record of this decision and mitigating actions should be logged with the Faculty Academic Affairs Committee. This information may then be used to address any concerns raised by students through mechanisms such as the Student Experience Survey and Tell Us Now.

  

12.         Accessibility

12.1  All lectures will be recorded. This will enable students to listen back to content at their convenience.

12.2  Automatic speech recognition captioning is available as part of the Panopto service. Guidance on adding captions is available (How do I add captions to a Panopto recording FAQ). The quality and reliability of automatic captioning varies due to the language and subject matter of the recording. Therefore, captioning is not turned on automatically at AU.

12.3  AU Accessibility Service (accessibility@aber.ac.uk) may be able to help students review their reasonable adjustment needs in relation to captioning requirements.  

  

13.         Student recordings

13.1  Some students may need to make their own recordings of teaching sessions. Students in these circumstances should inform the University Accessibility Advisers of their particular needs. This will assist the University in making appropriate adjustments and will also help the institution to facilitate the recording of lectures.

13.2  Lecturers can check whether personal recording devices are part of the student’s reasonable adjustments in the Reasonable Adjustments & Exam Provision tab in Aladdin.

13.3  Students are encouraged to inform the lecturer that they will be recording the lecture using their own device if this is their requirement.

13.4  The university assigns the IP in lecture content to the lecturers (although it retains the unconditional and perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to use and copy such material for academic, research and administrative purposes). This forms part of the learning agreement between the student and AU. As per 5.2 of this policy, students should not share this recording with anyone else

  

Support

Information Services offer support and training for all staff on lecture capture. Information can be found at www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/it-services/elearning/lecture-capture/

 

References

Elliott, Caroline and Neal, David (2015) Evaluating the use of lecture capture using a revealed preference approach. Active Learning in Higher Education, http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/24540/

Feir et al (2013), Use of Echo360 generated materials and its impact on class attendance, 30th Ascilite Conference Proceedings, http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/sydney13/about/proceedings.pdf

Jisc (2018), Recording lectures: legal considerations, https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/recording-lectures-legal-considerations

King’s College London (2018), Lecture Capture and Recording Other Educational Activities Policy, https://www.kcl.ac.uk/governancezone/assets/teaching/lecture-capture-policy.pdf

Nottingham Trent University (2017), Lecture Capture Policy, http://www4.ntu.ac.uk/adq/document_uploads/teaching/195607.pdf

University of Glasgow (2018), Lecture Recording Policy, https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_359179_en.pdf

University of Huddersfield (2018), Lecture Capture Policy, https://www.hud.ac.uk/media/policydocuments/Lecture-Capture-Policy.pdf

University of Manchester (2015), Policy on the Recording of Lectures and other Teaching and Learning Activities, http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=16559

University of St Andrews (2017), Policy on the Recording of Lectures and Other Learning and Teaching Activities (“Lecture Capture”), https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/proctor/documents/lecture-capture-policy.pdf

 

This Policy is maintained by Information Services, was last reviewed by Academic Enhancement Committee in May 2024 and is due for review in January 2025.