dlc-faqs

DLC is often referred to as "lecture capture", but this is only one use case for this type of technology. While recording lectures is a valuable part of what DLC can provide for your students, recording other learning activities both inside and outside of the classroom is also possible. You can even allow your learners to record content to share with their instructors and peers if that provides some benefit to their education.

Numerous studies on the impact of DLC on student attendance have been carried out, and for every paper that suggests attendance will drop (for example, Drouin, M.A., 2014. If You Record It, Some Won’t Come) there is another stating that there is no (or negligable) impact (for example, Nordmann, E. et al., 2017. Turn up, tune in, don’t drop out: The relationship between lecture attendance, use of lecture recordings, and achievement at different levels of study).

Looking at attendance data from one particular institution, the University of Manchester, the introduction of lecture capture showed no significant impact on their room occupancy rates across the board. You can see information on this on their service web site. 

Impact on attendance may change from one cohort to the next, but most students appear to be of the opinion that recording classes would not negatively impact their attendance - in a recent CCCU survey, 70% of students that responded gave this opinion. 

Recorded lectures are NOT a replacement for attendance in class. While a recording will provide a certain amount of understanding, this does not replace the full experience of engaging in class with your lecturer and fellow students. DLC recordings will not replace direct contact time between academics and students.

As von Konsky et al (2009) stated "if students perceive that something is of value to their learning, they will tend to use it". This applies both to the use of recordings and the use of the classroom. If the opportunity to engage with academic colleagues and peers in the classroom provides understandable benefit to the student and their learning, they will be more inclined to attend.

As standard, most classrooms will be setup to record audio within the room and anything displayed on the projection screen. Video of the classroom space will not be available in most rooms initially, but will be presented as an option as video equipment is rolled out.

You will also have the ability to record on the go, with availability of the ReCap system on tablet, laptop and smartphone.

From January 2020, all lectures (i.e. classes defined as a "lecture" within the Syllabus+ timetabling system) will be automatically recorded without need for you to take action. You will, of course, have the ability to over-ride this if you have agreement within your school to opt-out of any given recording.

You will also have the ability to manually start and stop a recording at any time using the ReCap software. Training on both of these options will be provided.

Automated recordings will have a defined start and stop time, although again you can override these at any point.

If you are manually recording, you will select when to start and stop the recording.

In both cases you will also have the ability to pause/un-pause the recording at any time.

Recordings will be automatically made available to students via Blackboard 48 hours after the recording has completed. Again, you will have the opportunity to override this, stopping the recording from being published to students, or making it available sooner.

There is a built-in editor within the ReCap system that will allow you to undertake a variety of editing options should you wish. Training on how to edit the recording, and what you can do with this will be provided.

Yes, captioning is included within the system. Transcripts of the recording will also be available to be downloaded.

Digital Learning Capture is about much more than just lecture capture, so it is really down to you to determine how you want to use the system inside and outside the classroom. There are a number of additional usage cases you might consider, including blended learning, flipped classroom, screen capture, roaming capture, student reflection, and assessment.

There is a difference between using material in class and recording that material, as far as copyright is concerned. Wherever possible, it is recommended to use material that is open source, or licenced under an appropriate Creative Commons licence. Where use of copyrighted material is necessary, seeking permission from the copyright holder should always be considered. 

Library and Learning Resources have guidance on copyright on their web pages.

The role of the academic is much more than simply conveying knowledge, and a recording of a class only captures a part of the impact on learning that an academic provides. It should never be possible to replace a live academic with a recording.

That said, CCCU is committed to making their staff feel comfortable making recordings, and have created two particular elements of the University's Digital Learning Capture Policy to directly address this concern.

Firstly, recorded content will only be retained for a period of up to 24 months (unless the academic who made the recording requests to extend this). This allows students to look back on content that has been recorded for them over the last two academic years, while ensuring staff that their recordings cannot be re-used year-on-year without their specific permission.

Secondly, the rights to the recording are shared between the individual(s) being recorded and the institution. As with any content created by staff as part of their work for the University, recordings are subject to the University's "Intellectual Property Policy - Staff", which states that the University owns the Intellectual Property for those works. However, each recording is also considered as a performance, and as such the DLC Policy states that the Performance Rights for each recording are owned by the individual(s) being recorded. This means that recordings made by a staff member who subsequently leaves the institution could not be re-used by CCCU (beyond the original use the recordings were intended for, i.e. for the education of the original cohort) without the individual's express consent. Similarly, the staff member could not take the recordings to use for their next employer without CCCU's express consent. 

As previously mentioned, recordings will be retained for up to 24 months. More specifically, they will be retained for the remainder of the academic year in which they were recorded, and the entirety of the following academic year. 

LTE will undertake a process each summer to highlight to staff which recordings will be deleted, and give them the opportunity to retain their content ahead of the deletions taking place.