We meet many academic staff who are concerned about the impact lecture recording might have on the attendance of their day-to-day lectures as well as what to do when their sessions aren’t appropriate for recording. Usually this is down to the perception that everything must be recorded – which isn’t the case.
Whilst lecture recording works well for didactic style lectures, it is not always suited for teaching sessions where group work or active learning is happening. In both these scenarios, communicating to students on how recordings can be utilised effectively, as well as why parts of a session might not be recorded, can help students study smarter with the resources they are provided with.
To help academic staff in this dialogue with students, Nordmann et al. (2018) have conducted research to uncover evidence ractical advice for lecturers and students on the use lecture recordings. The use of recordings in this study are viewed as an element of effective self-regulated study.
A pre-submission version of this study is available here.
The findings have been neatly summarised in a freely available infographic that you can share with your students to help them understand how using lecture recordings can enhance their studies whilst highlighting the need for attendance and note taking. For example:
Images taken from Nordmann et al. (2018)
The full infographic ‘Using lecture recordings: A guide for students’ is available: LC Guide dark
Alongside this, it is also good practice to set student expectations around which elements of their course will be recorded. Sessions that are active, or feature sensitive information for example, may not be appropriate for recording in full – let the students know this. In some cases, staff have recorded summaries of these sessions, or created standalone recordings that omit sensitive information.
The full Nordmann et al. article contains many recommendations for staff and addresses the common concerns we are often approached with. It’s worth reading, and staff who would like any advice on lecture recording can contact the CELT team.
Author: Rob Higson (Learning Technologist-Curriculum Devt)