Lecture Capture Policy

The following list provides definitions of the terms used in this policy:

  • Lecture: A timetabled teaching session which is focussed on the transmission of information from staff to students. For more information see Section 2 below.
  • Lecturer: member or members of AU staff presenting a lecture and creating a recording
  • Module: AU term for a credit bearing course.
  • Blackboard course: an area in the Blackboard VLE corresponding to a taught AU module.
  • Recordings: digital files containing, at minimum, the audio and any projected visual materials.

1.     Introduction

  • Aberystwyth University (AU) requires that all lectures are recorded and made available to students via the Blackboard VLE. Please see section 2 below for the definition of a lecture.
  • As a minimum, the audio of a lecture should be recorded. If lecturers are making use of PowerPoint or other projected material, they should also make sure that the screen is captured. See 1 for more details about what should be recorded.
  • Lecturers are welcome to use Panopto on their own devices to record lectures outside of the classroom or lecture summaries. If a lecture summary is being recorded, this should be outlined to students
  • Panopto software is centrally provided to enable easy in-lecture recording and integrates with Blackboard to help control access to recordings.
  • Lecture capture recordings are considered by AU to constitute a reasonable adjustment..
  • This policy will be made available on the Information Services website and reference in the Academic Quality Handbook.

2.      Definition of a lecture

  • AU defines a lecture as the transmission of information from staff to students. There is no requirement to record:
  • Any interactive elements of a teaching session, such as student discussions or question and answer sessions;
  • Seminars, tutorials or workshops.
    • AU recognises and acknowledges that:
  • Not all teaching styles are suitable for capture, e.g., if a high degree of in-class interactivity is used;
  • Staff are encouraged to use their preferred teaching style; there is no requirement to change teaching style for the purpose of recording as that can be detrimental to the student experience;
  • Ethical issues, or the use of sensitive material, may render the recording of some teaching and learning activities as being inappropriate;
  • AU is committed to investigating and implementing ways of capturing all teaching styles. If staff feel that their preferred teaching style cannot be recorded, they can contact the Digital Education Group to discuss specific requirements.
    • Lecturers leading sessions which are not required to be recorded should ensure that students have access to all relevant learning materials; such as PowerPoint slides, handouts, and other supplementary material. These should be made available to students in Blackboard. Staff are encouraged to record short summaries for these sessions and inform students about what will be available to them.
    • Students should note that AU does not consider use of lecture capture recordings as a replacement for attendance. Lecture recordings are provided to enhance the learning experience rather than to replace the requirement to attend.

3.     Use of Your Data

  • AU makes use of a cloud-based installation of Panopto. This means that a certain amount of information about staff and students is sent to Panopto. Such data includes name, email address and enrolments on Blackboard course, as well as recordings, slides and user activity. All this information is stored in Northern Ireland. Information about the data collected, who can see it and what use is made of it by Panopto, is covered by the Panopto Privacy Policies.
  • Data generated by using Panopto may be passed to other AU systems to monitor student engagement.

Data generated through the use of Panopto may also be used by AU staff as part of the AU Learning Analytics service. Information about Learning Analytics can be found on the Information Compliance web site.

4.     Creating and Editing Recordings

  • Panopto software is available on all AU teaching machines to record the audio, screen and video in a teaching room. As a minimum the audio of a lecture should be recorded. If lecturers are making use of PowerPoint or other projected material, they should also make sure that the screen is captured.
  • Lecturers may use other recording software but should record the same information as listed above in 1. Lecturers using software other than Panopto should also ensure that they provide access to their recordings via the relevant Blackboard course.
  • Lecturers should ensure that students are aware that a session is being recorded. This can be done verbally at the start of a lecture, by announcing on a presentation slide, or by posting in the Blackboard course.
  • Permission to be recorded should be sought from visiting speakers and other non-AU staff. A data authorisation form is available on the AU website.
  • Lecturers are not expected to edit recordings before making them available to students (although they may wish to edit the start or end of a lecture if required). The only exception to this is if the recording contains materials which would breach GDPR or could be considered sensitive or offensive. Examples of situation where editing would be required are:
  • Accidentally recording of conversations with students before / after the lecture
  • Recording of questions from students who are unaware that recording is taking place
  • Unplanned discussions which may contain personal information
    • Staff or students who believe that a recording requires substantial editing or should be removed from the Panopto platform should contact the Digital Education Group who will consider the request.
    • Students who have concerns over the content included in a recorded lecture should raise their concerns with their lecturer in the first instance.

5.     Use of Recordings

  • The purpose of a recording is to support the students taking a module. By default (and unless specifically changed by a lecturer) access to view a module’s recordings are therefore limited to students taking that module.
  • Staff or students with access to recordings should not share these, by any means (including downloading and sharing), without the permission of the lecturer.
  • Providing that the lecturer has given permission, recordings can be used outside of the module they are recorded to (for example to support co-taught modules or teaching at partner institutions).
  • Lecturers sharing their recordings are responsible for ensuring that the permissions for viewing these recordings are correctly set.
  • Permission to view previous years’ recordings may be given to staff new to teaching a module. This is to help with preparation and familiarisation with module content.
  • Lecturers should ensure that a link to the lecture recording is visible in the Blackboard course within three working days of the lecture taking place.
  • Links to Panopto recordings should be included alongside the relevant learning materials / activities. As an addition, staff may also create a link to the Panopto folder (so that students can see all the recordings in one location).
  • If there are pedagogical reasons for delaying the release of a lecture (for example, substantial edits are required, or material is delayed due to duplicate teaching sessions), students should be made aware of this by the lecturer.
  • AU will not use recordings to assess staff performance or to instigate disciplinary hearings or complaints. However, they may be used (with the permission of the lecturer) as evidence in such hearings.
  • AU staff may use their own lecture recordings as evidence of good practice in teaching, for example in applications for promotion, Advance HE applications, or at events sharing best practice.

6.     Access to Recordings

  • Access to recordings made for AU taught modules is controlled through enrolment on the corresponding Blackboard course. This means that only students enrolled on the module can view the content.
  • By default, access to recordings requires an AU username and password to view the content
  • Lecturers select the module in which the recording appears at the start of their lecture. By selecting the module, all students and staff enrolled on the module can view the content
  • Students will be able to view recordings for the modules that they were enrolled on for a period of five years or until their account finishes (whichever is sooner).
  • Panopto Administrators (Digital Education Group, and Applications and Integration Team in Information Services) can access, view, and edit all recordings made via Panopto.
  • Employees of Panopto may need to view recordings to provide support to AU; this may be for the purposes of fixing faults or restoring deleted recordings. Access to AU data by Panopto staff is covered by the Panopto privacy policies.

7.     Copyright

  • All material recorded as part of a lecture recording is subject to copyright legislation. Third party material should only be included if it constitutes ‘fair dealing’ (further information is available in the AU Copyright Libguide).
  • A full list of content that can be included in a recorded lecture is available from the AU Copyright Libguide.
  • All users of Panopto recordings are reminded that they should not be shared without the permission of the lecturer (see 2 above).
  • Any questions regarding copyright issues relating to lecture capture should be sent to the Information Governance Team (infocompliance@aber.ac.uk)

8.     Retention Period

  • Lecture recordings will be retained for five years. This ensures that students can view recordings of all the modules that they have taken during their course.
  • If staff want a different retention period, particularly for non-module recordings (e.g. conferences etc.) they should discuss this with the Digital Education Group (elearning@aber.ac.uk). Please note that there is a cost associated with long-term retention of recordings. IS reserves the right to charge projects needing extended access to recordings.
  • Recordings can also be copied or moved into the latest version of a taught module.
  • Further information on archiving and retention is available on the E-learning blog.

9.     Oral assessment

  • Oral assessments can be recorded using Panopto. If assessments are recorded, staff should create all recordings in a Panopto assessment folder which ensures that only staff and external examiners can view the recordings.
  • Students should be made aware that their presentation will be recorded and provided with information about who will be able to view the recording and how it will be used.
  • If it is not possible for two internal markers to attend an oral assessment, the assessment must be recorded.
  • Large-scale use of recording for oral assessment should be logged with Information Services to ensure that adequate support is available.

 

10. Recorded Presentations and Panopto for Assignments

  • Students may be asked to use Panopto to submit recorded presentations or recordings for assessment purposes via the course in Blackboard.
  • Lecturers should create a Panopto Assignment in the Assessment and Feedback folder in the Blackboard course.
  • Any recordings submitted to a Panopto Assignment are available to Lecturers and External Examiners on the course.
  • Students will only be able to view recordings they have uploaded.
  • The recordings will be retained for five years and removed as per the Retention Period (see section 8).

11. Opt-out

  • Lecturers whose sessions should be recorded, but who wish to opt-out of using lecture capture should discuss their concerns with their departmental Director of Learning and Teaching (DLT) in the first instance.
  • If the DLT believes that they have a valid reason for opt-out, they should agree strategies for communicating this decision to the students on the module. Reasonable adjustments for students with additional requirements along with any mitigating actions should also be put in place.
  • A record of this decision and mitigating actions should be logged with the Faculty. This information may then be used to address any concerns raised by students through mechanisms such as the Student Experience Survey and Tell Us Now.

12. Captions

  • Automatic speech recognition (ASR) captioning for both Welsh and English recordings is automatically added to all recordings made after 1st September Please note that the quality and reliability of automatic captioning varies due to the language and subject matter of the recording.
  • Staff are not required to edit ASR generated captions although they can be edited (guidance is available How to add and edit captions FAQ).
  • The ASR caption language is set in each Panopto folder. The language of each Panopto folder is taken from AStRA. All modules flagged as being taught 100% in Welsh in AStRA will be set to use Welsh language captions. All other folders will be set to English. Guidance on language settings including how to manage modules with recordings in multiple languages is available on the E-learning blog
  • Captions in a different language to the folder settings will need to be added manually following the guidance How to add and edit captions FAQ. Note that this is a recommendation and there is no expectation on staff to do this.
  • Students should be aware that ASR captioning is not 100% accurate. For clarification on captions, students should speak to their lecturer.
  • Transcripts of ASR captions can be downloaded. Staff and students with viewer or creator access will be able to do this
  • Some students may be given access to additional captioning software as part of their DSA Assessment. Students who have been given captioning software should speak to their Assistive Technology Training provider, as noted on their DSA2 letter, for help in setting this up; for (a) Capita – Tel: 01823 273060 or email: DSA@capita.com or (b) Study Tech – Tel: 0204 532 2084 or email: att@study.tech). Alternatively, students can contact the Student Enquiry Desk at Hugh Owen Library D Floor.

13. Student recordings

  • Some students may need to make their own recordings of teaching sessions. Students in these circumstances should inform the University Accessibility Advisers of their needs. This will assist the University in making appropriate adjustments and will also help the institution to facilitate the recording of lectures.
  • Lecturers can check whether personal recording devices are part of the student’s reasonable adjustments in the Reasonable Adjustments & Exam Provision tab in Aladdin.
  • Students are encouraged to inform the lecturer that they will be recording the lecture using their own device if this is their requirement.
  • The University assigns the IP in lecture content to the lecturers (although it retains the unconditional and perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to use and copy such material for academic, research and administrative purposes). This forms part of the learning agreement between the student and AU. As per 2 of this policy, students should not share this recording with anyone else.

Support

Information Services offer support and training for all staff on lecture capture. Information can be found on the Lecture Capture website.

References

Elliott, Caroline and Neal, David (2015) Evaluating the use of lecture capture using a revealed preference approach. Active Learning in Higher Education, http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/24540/

Feir et al (2013), Use of Echo360 generated materials and its impact on class attendance, 30th Ascilite Conference Proceedings, http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/sydney13/about/proceedings.pdf

Jisc (2022), Recording lectures: legal considerations, https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/recording-lectures-legal-considerations

King’s College London (2018), Lecture Capture and Recording Other Educational Activities Policy,  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/assets/policyzone/teaching/lecture-capture-and-recording-other-educational-activites-procedures.pdf

University of Glasgow (2018), Lecture Recording Policy, https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_359179_en.pdf

University of Huddersfield (2023), Audio and Video Capture Policy,  https://www.hud.ac.uk/media/policydocuments/Audio-and-Video-Capture-Policy.pdf

University of Manchester (2021), Policy on the Recording of Lectures and other Teaching and Learning Activities, http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=16559

University of St Andrews (2024), Use of Captured Content,  https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/policy/academic-policies-learning-and-teaching-lecture-capture-policy/lecture-capture.pdf

 

“This Policy is maintained by Information Services, was last reviewed by Quality and Standards Committee in February 2025 and is due for review in February 2026.”