Lecture Recording

The University’s lecture recording service is Panopto, fully integrated with Moodle, the University’s VLE. Panopto allows for the simultaneous capture of audio, video, and desktop applications such as PowerPoint. All videos uploaded to Panopto are automatically captioned in order to meet the University’s web accessibility obligations, and further details view the Captioning Guidelines for Recording Teaching Events.

Quick Guides

Editing Panopto Videos covers a wide range of topics on the Panopto help site including how to

Further help videos can be browsed on the Panopto website.

Where can I use Panopto?

A Panopto recording can be made from personal computers, managed laptops, and in any teaching room or staff computer.

  • Managed laptops – install the Panopto recorder from the software center as shown in Installing Panopto on Managed Laptops.
  • Personal computers – install the Panopto recorder as shown in this quick guide
  • Teaching computers – the Panopto recorder is available on the
    desktop of all teaching computers.
  • Staff computers – install the Panopto recorder from software centre.

There is an ongoing classroom refurbishment project to refit the lecterns, data projectors, document cameras, as well as fixed cameras and microphones required for recording purposes. The following rooms have been refitted, and details of the forthcoming refits can be found on the staff intranet:

  • Craiglockhart classrooms 1/06, 1/10, 2/06, 2/10, 3/11, and Lindsay Stewart and Riady lecture theatres
  • Merchiston classrooms F10, F11, F12, G2, H5 and lecture theatre A17
  • Sighthill classrooms: 2.D.04, 2.D.05, 2.D.14, 3.D.04, 3.D.14 and lecture theatres 1.D.02, 1.D.04/05.

For any other classroom there are portable recording kits are available to book using the AV Equipment Booking Form for your campus, and collected from campus Library Help desks. 

How do I inform students?

Students must be advised if the class is being recorded and that their voice may be recorded if in proximity to the microphone. Additionally, portable cameras must be positioned so that student images are not captured. Students must also be advised of their rights to have their voice excluded from the recording, and so the following information for students can be copied into an opening PowerPoint slide and adapted as required;

  • This recording is part of a PILOT and so not all lectures will be recorded.
  • Purpose of the recording (eg. for your review or for reuse with distance learners)
  • What is being recorded (eg. presentation slides, lecturer’s audio and video)
  • When available (eg. within 5 days after review or editing)
  • Where to access (eg. in the Moodle module)
  • Downloading and sharing the recording is not permitted.
  • If you do not wish your voice to be recorded then inform the lecturer
  • Lecture Capture student guidelines https://ask.napier.ac.uk/article.php?id=915

You have the ability to pause and resume recordings so that student contributions can to be made to the lecture without being recorded. The recording can be edited to remove sections before being made available to students.

What are the benefits for students?

When students adopt the two approaches that maximise the educational impact of classroom recordings then a wide range of benefits can be realised. Firstly, attending the lecture and viewing the recording as soon as possible after it has been made available ensures that key frames of reference are maintained. Secondly, focussing on specific sections of the recording rather than replaying the whole recording ensures that their time is used to good effect. The benefits of classroom recordings are well established in the sector as being an inclusive approach to curriculum support and which include the following,

  • allows students to revisit complex material that is difficult to understand, and at their own pace
  • students who do not speak English fluently can rewatch recordings and even slow down sections
  • supports effective note taking after the lecture allowing students to ‘write what they think’ rather than what is said by the lecturer
  • aids the revision process and preparation for exams.
  • access for distance learning students helps with a sense of belonging to the learning community
  • catching up on lectures missed due to illness and other personal issues

This page on MyNapier provides a briefing for students on how they can maximise the educational impact of classroom recordings.

What is the impact on academic staff?

Evidence from the sector report benefits for staff who embrace classroom recordings within their teaching practice, and these include,

  • access to reports that identify which students viewed your recordings, and the specific areas students spending most time which is suggestive of concepts they are struggling with
  • a shifting of note taking emphasis from verbatim content to ‘write what you think’ that promotes deeper engagement with the concepts during the lecture
  • a reusable resource that can be made available to other students, and form the basis of a flipped classroom in future delivery of the module.
  • absent students have a greater resources to allow them to catch up on their own and less need of the academic’s time.

A common concern of recordings is the impact on attendance however the evidence from the sector suggests that students will not substitute lecture attendance with viewing the recordings, and that access to recordings has little or no impact on attendance (Nordmann and McGeorge, 2018).

There are no automated recordings available during the Panopto trial and so staff are required to launch the Panopto recorder from the network applications, and then start and stop the recording as required during class. Publishing to Moodle is also a manual process and so the video can be edited if there are sections of the recordings to be removed. The sooner the recording can be made available to students the better so that they can review it while still fresh in their minds.

Nordmann, E. and McGeorge, P. (2018). Lecture capture in higher education: time to learn from the learners.10.17605/OSF.IO/UX29V. Available from www.researchgate.net.

 

For more information contact the Learning Technology Support team.