The ‘Implementing lecture capture – what are we learning‘ event on Monday 11 September 2017 ended with a panel of staff and students from the University of Leicester, including representatives from Chemistry, Criminology, Medicine, IT Services, Management and Psychology. Questions were posted by delegates to the event’s Padlet.
Discussions covered how students use recordings, uses in different subject areas, how lecture capture is supported, and how long recordings will be retained.
The students on the panel felt that recordings were very beneficial, particularly at exam times for revision and to revisit concepts that you didn’t understand first time. They felt the system was worthwhile even if not used by all students, as it was very reassuring to know the recordings were there as a back-up, particularly for 1st year students.
The staff on the panel hadn’t noticed a drop in attendance at their lectures, but felt that it was important to add value to the live lecture by making it exciting and interactive and thus maintain attendance.
There were some good examples of how lecture capture has been used in different subject disciplines. For example, using the visualiser to record videos of how to build chemical models both before and during lectures, recording worked answers and how to answer exam questions, the use of bookmarks and comments to enable students to highlight areas they find difficult, and the use of visualisers to record live anatomy drawings during lectures. There were examples of students creating their own videos, for example on field trips.
We finished by discussing how long institutions planned to keep their recordings. Very few people present had deleted any recordings so far. In most cases, access to recordings is controlled via the VLE, meaning that students can access recordings as long as they have access to the module in the VLE. Staff can access recordings as long as they still exist.
Re-use of recordings and sharing with different courses can make it difficult to work out where recordings are stored and who can access them. It is best to plan for this from the start and an institutional repository may be helpful.
Staff and Student Panel
Panel members
Academic staff: Richard Blackburn (Chemistry), Gina Fox (Criminology), Steve Jacques (Medicine)
IT Services and Leicester Learning Institute staff: Jie Shen and Nichola Gretton
Students: Sally Michelle Scott (BA Management), Danielle Watkis (BSc Psychology)
Q: Allowing students to choose for themselves
From what can already be seen on this Padlet, there is a general notion that students are not responsible for their own learning. I’d like to ask the students; how do you think lecture recording benefits learning? Do you think that attendance behaviour changes dramatically as part of its implementation?
Also, the University has invested a lot of money in this service. Do you think this is something that should be provided, even if not all students choose to use it?
Responses
Panel Students
The lecture recordings are very beneficial especially at exam times for revision and to revisit concepts that you didn’t understand first time.
Some people don’t turn up to a lecture and say they will watch the recording, but they don’t actually watch it.
However a lot of students do still attend lectures. The recordings are very useful for occasions when you are unable to attend due to other commitments. People might not catch up straightaway, it might be a couple of weeks later.
The system is still worthwhile even if not all students use it. It is reassuring to know the recordings are available, especially for 1st years who have a lot of new things to get used to.
Panel Staff
The panel members haven’t noticed a drop in attendance in their lectures. In a Chemistry end of module survey only 15% said they were less likely to attend lectures as a result of having the recording available. To maintain attendance you need to add value to the live event by making lectures exciting and interactive and including things that won’t be experienced by watching a recording.
The panel feel that students are responsible for their own learning. It is the responsibility of staff to provide materials to support students’ learning.
Rather than relying on intuitive feelings, we need evidence to show whether lecture capture is truly benefitting students. More research is needed in this area.
Audience
Using your own recording device marks students out as disabled. Ensure all lectures that include disabled students have recordings, so those students can have anonymous access to recordings.
Q: Subject specificity
Are there any discipline areas where it has been particularly successful? (or unsuccessful?) Any differences in how it is used in difference disciplines?
Responses:
Panel Staff
Chemistry use lecture capture in a variety of ways: some staff just capture audio and screen, which gives the main sources of information; some also record video of themselves to capture gestures and facial expressions. Richard prints his PowerPoint slides and annotates them on visualiser so students can draw along with him. He also puts chemical models on the visualiser so he can project them to the display screen in the room and include in recordings. This works well as Chemistry is a very visual subject. He pre-records some aspects, for example a 3 minute instructional video on how to make a chemical model. As well as the pre-session materials, he also uses the system to create materials after the session, such as worked answers, and guides on how to answer exam questions. Students have created some short videos called “Chemical clips”. They found the system (Panopto) very easy to use.
Criminology do a lot of the same types of things. Flexibility in how to use the system is good as it allows staff to work in the way they are most comfortable and that works best for their students. Bookmarks and comments are useful to allow students to ask questions on areas that they are not clear on, so you can then focus on that area in the lecture.
Medicine have the advantage of two screens in the lecture theatre, so project the PowerPoint slides on one screen and the visualiser on the other. For anatomy teaching, they do live drawings on the visualiser and show the final image in PowerPoint, in response to student feedback that they sometimes find the live drawing hard to follow. Both displays are included in the recording. Most staff in Medicine don’t video themselves; Steve said this makes him feel more tied to the podium. However some colleagues just record everything and don’t worry if they move out of the
frame.
Panel Students
From the students’ point of view, the main things to capture are audio and slides, but video can be useful too. Students don’t mind if the lecturer goes off the screen. The main focus should still be on attending the live lecture – that’s what they’re paying for! They like the idea of pre-recorded materials although haven’t come across this in their own courses. They think it would be a good way to make lecture capture useful for everyone.
Audience
There were examples of students creating their own videos and uploading to the lecture capture system, for example students on field trips. Student presentations have also been recorded (in one case as an emergency measure as the person assessing the presentation was absent).
Q: What’s the advantage of using Panopto rather than YouTube?
Responses:
Nichola Gretton, University of Leicester
High stakes activities such as summative assessment shouldn’t be on YouTube, as validity and resilience are important here. Panopto is centrally supported and access is controlled.
You also need to consider access in different regions, for example people in China can’t access YouTube.
Always consider what is the most appropriate technology for the purpose.
Q: Support for lecture capture
How does support work at your institution?
Responses:
Panel Staff
The support phone number for problems on the day is clearly marked in teaching rooms. For problems afterwards, email the IT Service Desk.
Main problems people have encountered is when they have made a mistake. A couple of times they had to use last year’s recording instead. One person had a problem when opening slides from an email, as the recording then doesn’t upload properly, but IT sorted this out. IT Services proactively monitor for recordings that haven’t uploaded properly and contact the lecturer to ask for the slides so they can upload them.
Learning technologists and Educational Designers in the Leicester Learning Institute run training on lecture capture and advise on effective use.
Q: Retention times
How long do you (plan to) keep your recordings available for? For the session? The year? Duration of programme?
Responses:
Audience
Very few people present have deleted any recordings yet.
One retention plan is to keep recordings for 5 years.
Access by students is often controlled by the VLE – student can access recordings as long as they can access the VLE module, but staff can continue to access older recordings.
One institution used to keep recordings for a couple of years, then archive and then delete them later. They are revising this policy as they now have cloud storage so can keep recordings indefinitely, but need to take into account worries by academics about being replaced by recordings.
Flipped learning means you want to have access to previous years’ recordings. One panel member exports materials for re-use to his YouTube channel so he knows where it is. Students access the recordings via a link in the VLE.
Re-use of recordings gets complicated when recordings are shared by different courses. It can be difficult to disentangle the situation and work out where recordings are stored and who has access to them. It is best to think about this and make plans at the start.
It would be useful to have an institutional repository so recordings can be reused across departments and schools. The University of Edinburgh do this and find it a useful way to encourage academics to do flipped classroom teaching. Another advantage is clear licences for materials, as opposed to something like YouTube.
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