Lecture Capture practice guidelines

In 2013 Academic Board approved the change that all lectures conducted in University teaching spaces that have lecture capture facilities would be automatically recorded and published online via the University’s internal systems. Automatic lecture capture was subsequently trialled with two faculties, and the technical infrastructure to enable automatic lecture capture has now been established.

This document outlines some background, guiding principles and practice guidelines associated with automatic lecture capture at the University of Melbourne. It sets out the relevant University legislation and provides advice on the circumstances under which staff, departments and/or graduate schools could elect for lectures not to be captured and published.

Scope

All lectures conducted in University teaching spaces that have lecture capture facilities will be automatically recorded and live streamed and made available to students via the LMS. In the context of subject timetabling, Lectures are one of several key event-types alongside tutorials, workshops, and seminars. All timetabled events labelled as a lecture or lecture recording are automatically recorded and published. Similarly, where scheduled in a venue with Lecture Capture capabilities, Seminars are recorded and published. By contrast, tutorials and workshops are not recorded by default.

With approval from their Faculty or Graduate School’s Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) or equivalent, individual academic teaching staff may elect to opt‐out of automatic lecture capture, live streaming, or publishing.

Definitions

Lecture

For the purpose of these practice guidelines, a lecture is defined as the traditional mode of instruction – ‘teaching by telling’ ‐ where an instructor (lecturer) delivers information, which is often accompanied by visual aids, to a classroom of students. A lecture may involve some elements of interactivity, but this is not the substantial mode of instruction. The lecture is typically 45 to 90 minutes long and is delivered to large groups of students. Under this definition, student activity is generally limited to taking notes and/or brief participation.

Guiding principles

The guiding principles informing the provision by the University of lecture recordings are student equity and accessibility, enhancement of the student experience, and student responsibility.

Principles informing automatic lecture capture

Student equity and accessibility

Flexible access to digital lecture recordings is a service provided by the University to support a diverse student cohort with differing backgrounds and ability levels, including:

  • Students with disabilities
  • Students with English as a second language
  • Part‐time students
  • Students in rural or remote locations
  • Unsupported students with significant work commitments
  • Students with unavoidable clashes in their timetable.

Teaching, learning and the student experience

The provision of flexible access to digital lecture recordings aligns with the principles of the Student Charter that all students are entitled to “have reasonable access to appropriate learning resources”. The provision of digital lecture recordings provides opportunities for students to:

  • Clarify and review lecture content
  • Complete assignments
  • Catch up on the occasional missed lecture (e.g. due to illness)
  • Revise subject content.

Students are able to complete these activities in their own time and at their own pace, thereby enhancing their University educational experience.

Student responsibility

Equally, the student charter sets out the responsibilities expected of students in their partnership with the University. Particularly, that in taking joint responsibility for their learning, students will prepare for and actively participate in learning experiences provided by the University (e.g. attending lectures).

Acceptable and unacceptable criteria for opting out

Individual academic teaching staff wishing to opt‐out of automatic lecture capture are required to apply for approval from their Faculty or Graduate School’s Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) or equivalent (as determined by the Faculty or Graduate School). Applications to opt‐out should be based on the following criteria.

A series of criteria are listed below that may constitute acceptable reasons to opt‐out of automatic lecture capture.

  • A class is being conducted as an active learning session, which makes substantial use of a question and answer format, break‐out discussions, or similar. In this case it may not be possible to capture the entire educational experience because sounds occurring in the teaching space away from the lectern microphone (i.e. student questions and responses) will not be audible on the recording.
  • Scheduled lecture time is being used for graded assessment, for example, a written test.
  • A visiting or guest lecturer who is not an employee of the University and does not wish to be recorded.

A series of criteria are listed below that constitute unacceptable reasons to opt‐out of automatic lecture capture.

  • Claims that the copyright of a lecture is owned by the academic staff member who created the lecture materials. Copyright in any teaching material created by academic staff after 12 March 2007 is owned by the University. Copyright in any teaching material created by academic staff before 12 March 2007 is owned by the academic, however, the University has a non‐exclusive license to use these teaching materials for teaching and research, subject to preservation of the rights of the author (see copyright ownership).
  • Claims that the lecture contains copyright material. The Copyright Act allows academic staff to show or perform copyright materials in lectures (see copyright and teaching). If lectures are recorded, copyright material is subject to the same restrictions as if you were making material available on the LMS (see using copyright material in lectures).
  • Claims that the intellectual property of a lecture resides with the academic staff member who created the lecture materials. The University’s IP Statute 13.1 specifies that teaching materials created or used for the primary purpose of teaching and education at the University are owned by the University. Refer to the University of Melbourne Statute and the Intellectual Property Policy (MPF1320) for more information.
  • Claims that recording and publishing lectures will decrease lecture attendance. While there is anecdotal evidence that the introduction of lecture capture results in reduced lecture attendance by students, this does not constitute sufficient reason to opt out of automatic lecture recordings. While there is limited published research in this area, there is little empirical evidence to suggest a negative relationship between lecture capture and diminished lecture attendance.
  • Claims that recording and publishing lectures will undermine students’ pedagogical experience. While there are few empirical studies in the area, the evidence from the literature suggests that the most successful students are likely to have adaptive study strategies that typically include the use of lecture recordings to supplement other study activities, but some students will use lecture recordings as substitutes for lecture attendance, typically to the overall detriment of their learning.

Opting-out

The process to opt‐out of automatic lecture capture involves logging into the Scheduling Assistant tool and submitting a request. Opt-out requests can be made for live streaming or live streaming and recording. For detailed steps, follow our guide on the opt-out process.

Note: Opt-out requests for lecture recordings are subject to review and approval by your Faculty’s Associate Dean. Once opt-out requests have been received, Teaching and Learning Innovation will contact Associate Deans for approval.

Relevant legislation

This is an updated version of a PDF originally published in 2015 (PDF 174.4 KB)