Old English
- Dr Stuart Lee and Replay ‘Tolkien’ about Lecture Capture
Dr Stuart Lee is a lecturer and tutor in Old English, but also specialises in digitisation, humanities
computing, and e-learning. He is the current Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO), IT Services at
Oxford University. He is consequently well placed to participate in the Replay lecture capture pilot project.
Dr Lee has made recordings of his lectures under his own initiative for over a decade, using a handheld
recorder. This meant that audio recordings and slides had to be uploaded separately and students had a
hard time synchronising the two. Replay provides a better solution since it automatically synchronises
audio and slides.
Dr Lee used Replay to record four live lectures, and a shorter 20-minute one that he recorded in his office
to replace the fifth lecture which he was not able to deliver live.
Context
 The English faculty uses Replay predominantly
as a solution to its overflow problems (see
separate case study). There are only a handful
of other lecturers making recordings.
 Dr Lee has over a decade’s experience with
lecture recording systems.
 Replay was installed on his laptop, allowing
him to make recordings in his office.
“It’s for you to use in a way you think would
be really good for your teaching”
Dr Stuart Lee, Faculty of English
Key Challenges
 Dr Lee’s public lectures on popular topics
(such as J R R Tolkien) have proven extremely
popular, with thousands of downloads. Since
the University is paying for every hour of
viewing via Replay, it is important to restrict
access to student lectures via WebLearn.
 Dr Lee’s many roles within the University
place great demands on his time, preventing
him from giving all of his lectures live, and
from making recordings in lecture rooms.
 Replay had to prove easy and quick to use, and
be superior to earlier recording methods Dr
Lee had tried.
 Ideally, it should also open the door to
pedagogical innovation.
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“My initial finding, which has
been substantiated, is that
students still turn up”
“It’s not just about recording
lectures”
“I got it to work quite easily”
There and Back Again, a Replay Journey
Top Tips
Successes
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Dr Lee was initially given a brief guide to
Replay by a member of the Replay team.
Thereafter he was able to record, upload and
manage lectures without further assistance.
By making a recording in his office, Dr Lee
was able to ensure that no lectures in his
series were missed, and students had access to
all of the information they needed.
Recording a short lecture in his office allowed
Dr Lee to provide students with background
information, which meant that he could focus
more on literary matters during the live
lectures.
Possibly due to being well accustomed to
being recorded, Dr Lee did not note any
change in his lecturing style as a result of
using Replay.
Replay’s easy and quick to use editing
function reduced Dr Lee’s concerns about
copyright. He was able to “hide” slides that
contained text or images that may be
problematic, while maintaining the audio
track.
Dr Lee previously ran a lecture series in
Hilary Term, but due to time commitments
was forced to abandon it. Exported
recordings of the series were made available
via the podcasting service and continue to be
viewed by students and the public. Thus
interested students are able to view a lecture
series they might otherwise never have had
the opportunity to watch.
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Those planning to use the system should
attend a training session. Even a short
demonstration did much to help Dr Lee use
the system fully and efficiently.
In Dr Lee’s experience, concerns that student
attendance at live lectures would drop proved
to be completely unsubstantiated.
Future Plans
Dr Lee will continue to record his lectures,
using Replay as his solution of choice for the
foreseeable future. His satisfaction with Replay
is testament to its superiority over earlier,
simpler systems. He is keen to investigate
further pedagogical innovations that it may
enable.
Conclusions
Both Dr Lee and his students are very positive
about recording lectures. The long-lasting appeal
and use of recordings in this case study prove
that this is not some passing fad. It is a useful
tool that increasing numbers of students and staff
see as beneficial and expect as standard at higher
education institutions today.
Oxford plans to roll out Replay as a full service in 2016
Want to find out more?
Contact the Replay team at: replay@it.ox.ac.uk
Check out the latest Replay news at: http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/lecture-capture
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