The University of Edinburgh
College of Humanities and Social Science
Undergraduate Learning & Teaching Committee
9 February 2012
Paper 11/12 3E
For discussion
Disclosable
Recording lectures for video podcasting or screencasting
The Committee is invited to discuss the paper below prepared by Dr Neil Thin,
Director of UG Studies, SPS
Please note a 14-page version is available with fuller discussion and annotated
references – email lynn.hyams@ed.ac.uk for a copy.
Lynn Hyams
February 2012
Recording lectures for video podcasting or screencasting
1. Background
Many students (particularly students with disabilities or with English as a second
language) already make their own audio recordings of lectures for revision purposes.
Since affordable technology now makes it easy to make video recordings of whole
lectures, some argue we should provide these to students either via a virtual
learning environment (e.g. WebCT) or via open access on the web. Fears that lecture
capture will significantly reduce student attendance at lectures have generally
proved unfounded, as students tend to use the recordings for revision rather than as
a substitute. Still, many lecturers are understandably reluctant to opt for full
recording of lectures as this not only takes time to provide, but tends to change the
nature of the lecture by requiring more polished performances and inhibiting
discussion and ad-lib commentaries.
This note promotes consideration of the most effective and judicious use of lecture
recording facilities so as to provide at reasonable cost those recordings (audio, video,
text, and screenshots) that are likely to provide the most educational benefit. Video
capturing of lectures needs to be considered carefully in relation to other e-learning
developments (e-journals, e-books, and course digital libraries, lecture notes via
webCT, course blogs and wikis), and in relation to use of video and web-linking
within lectures. It would be helpful if all lecturers looked occasionally at some of the
advisory sources listed below to keep abreast of opportunities and trends in video use
and e-learning more generally.
2. Themes and issues for consideration

Duplicate, complement, or substitute? Watching a video of a lecture may be
used for revision by students who attended the lecture, but we must ask
ourselves whether duplication is worth the costs and risks, or whether our
podcasting efforts are better directed towards providing complementary
materials that offer additional value by being significantly different from what is
offered in the original lecture.

Videos of what? Do we want to podcast videos of lecturers, lecturers plus
students, or just the lecture slides with accompanying audio commentary?
Lecturing varies widely according to disciplines, topics, and individual lecturers’
style, and may consist of varying mixes of: the lecturer talking ad lib; the lecturer
talking in relation to structured notes; the lecturer reading a full text; powerpoint
slides (text, pictures, graphs, mobile graphics, etc); students questioning the
lecturer; discussions among students; student presentations, etc.

Demand and supply: Is the demand for lecture capture stronger (and more
reasonable) in some subject areas than in others? Would the demand for routine
lecture capture still be there if we invested instead in high quality online learning
materials, such as interactive powerpoint, ‘secondlife’ virtual tours, blogs, wikis,
and short thematic videos? Do enough students really want full-length lecture
capture to make this worthwhile, or is it better to invest in short videos and
other media such as interactive online powerpoint, blogs, etc? Even if lecturecapture is useful for information-heavy courses, does it really still make sense
nowadays to convey that information in lectures?

Pros and cons of spontaneity: What kinds of ‘camera-friendly’ quality would we
need to develop to make lectures recordable? How do these qualities vary in
different kinds and levels of course? To what extent are these qualities we would
want anyway? Or is better for at least some of our lectures (and student
discussions within lecture time) to be more spontaneous, informal, and one-off
ephemeral events which are less likely to tranfer easily into good video material?

Uses within UoE: apart from simple function of replacing lecture attendance (not
entirely desirable, but helpful for students who fall ill or whose employment
reduces their ability to attend), what other uses do recordings have – for
revision, provision of supplementary info, visual aids, etc.?

Production for whom? Would we be making lecture recordings just for oncourse students or will we have produced public goods worth sharing worldwide? Shouldn’t we at least extend access to current on-campus students, and to
future generations of students, perhaps including distance learners? Is our
objective in part philanthropic: are we hoping to provide Open Educational
Resources for free use by other academic institutions and nonacademics? If so,
do we want to make this clear, e.g. by submitting to Creative Commons, or by
specifying ‘Internal Access’ only for some items on iTunes-U?

Disability issues: Are the recordings going to be presented in a format that is
accessible to students with disabilities? (See the web site of the National Center
for Accessible Media http://ncam.wgbh.org).

Editing, obsolescence, storage, and digital video pollution: who will find the
time and have the expertise to edit videos into useful size and structure –
choosing, labeling, and archiving the best excerpts, syncing talking heads with
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screenshots, etc.? For how long will the videos we make remain useful? Who will
take responsibility for archiving and decluttering as archives fill up with mainly
redundant material? Is it responsible for Universities to contribute to the rapidly
mounting problem of digital video pollution on the web?

Expertise, training, and incentives: Is it realistic or sensible to expect all lecturers
to develop the ability to produce (and edit?) broadcastable video lectures, or is
this best done by a minority of lecturers who have relevant capabilities and have
devoted adequate time to learning about what makes for a good video lecture
and how to produce it? Should we develop (and enforce?) better training to
strengthen relevant expertise among our lecturers?

Unintended effects and opportunity costs: When lectures are recorded, what
impact does this have on lecturing style and preparation? E.g. are the benefits
enough to justify the loss of spontaneity, interaction, and dynamism, and the risk
of embarrassment, stress and reputational damage when it goes horribly wrong?
Are there some unexpected benefits, such as encouraging lecturers to improve
quality, to use new technologies, and to think about the different ways in which
students learn? Are the benefits really justified by the opportunity costs?

Alternatives to recording our own lectures: Before going to the trouble of
recording and broadcasting our own lectures, have we really explored available
online videos so as to avoid wasteful duplication? [see lists of resources below]

Copyright: How can we ensure that staff and students are fully aware of
copyright law and compliant with it when making and using videos? Is the effort
of ensuring compliance with copyright justified by the pedagogical value of the
videos? [see JISC and ERA sites below]
3. Sources of advice, software, video content, and inspiration
JING http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html free online tool for making 5min videos
or stills of screenshots. [alternatives: http://www.screenr.com;
http://www.techsmith.com/Camtasia; http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html].
Box of Broadcasts [BoB, University of Cambridge etc.]
www.boxofbroadcasts.com/bob_national.html [an off-air recording
and media archive service for UK university members.]
British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)
bufvc.ac.uk [try Moving
Image Gateway - bufvc.ac.uk/gateway – which links to over 1,000 websites
relating to moving image and sound materials]
Campus Technology campustechnology.com [covers technical but not pedagogical
aspects of lecture capture, video-based learning, and ‘webinars’]
Creative Commons: http://search.creativecommons.org [free site for Open
Educational Resources, with a searchable collection of short video clips]
JISC
www.jisc.ac.uk [promotes innovative use of digital technologies in Higher
Education, see esp:
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http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/movingimages/advice/planning-yourvideo-production-1]
The Copyright Toolkit http://copyrighttoolkit.com/ [guide on copyright issues]
UoE CHSS e-learning strategy
http://www.hss.ed.ac.uk/AcademicAdmin/LearnTeachStrategy/elearningstra
t.htm and associated wiki https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/CHSS/Home
UoE e-Learning Professionals and Practitioners Forum eLPP
http://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/eLPP [find out about learning events and
online guidance etc from this wiki; very little on video so far]
UoE Information Services audio and video resource guidance:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informationservices/services/learning-technology/audio-and-video [advice on technical
rather than pedagogical aspects of video]
4. Discussion/research papers and guidance documents:
Clark, Steve, and Lucy Taylor, 2007, ‘Using short podcasts to reinforce lectures’.
Office of Learning and Teaching in Economics and Business, The University of
Sydney. sydney.edu.au/science/uniserve_science/pubs/procs/2007/08.pdf
DeAngelis, K. (2009). Lecture Capture: Student Opinion and Implementation
Strategies. teaching.uncc.edu/files/file/.../LectureCaptureTipSheet.pdf [twopage summary of a study in USA.
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, 2008, Seven Things You Should Know About Lecture
Capture .http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7044.pdf
JISC, 2010, ‘Recording lectures: legal considerations’
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/tabid/243/ID/1608/R
ecording-Lectures-Legal-Considerations-28072010.aspx
Kannan, Rajkumar, and Frederic Andres, 2010, ‘Towards automated lecture capture,
navigation and delivery system for web lecture on demand’
International Journal of Innovation in Education 1,2: 204 – 212
McBogg, Duncan, 2010, ‘Successful strategic planning for your lecture capture
initiative’.
http://www.educause.edu/Resources/SuccessfulStrategicPlanningfor/213652
Odhabi, Hamad, and Lynn Nicks-McCaleb, 2011, ‘Video recording lectures: Student
and professor perspectives’ British Journal of Educational Technology
42,2:327–336
Toppin, Ian N., 2010, ‘Video lecture capture (VLC) system: A comparison of student
versus faculty perceptions’ Education and Information Technologies
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5.
Inspiring examples of educational videos
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) ‘Ideas Worth Spreading’
www.ted.com/talks [excellent source of inspiring video lectures by
world-famous public intellectuals]
YouTube Education www.youtube.com/education [also, on Youtube’s video
management facilities, see http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/12/checkout-new-video-manager.html]
Itunes-U www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/ [350,000 free lectures, videos, films,
and other resources — from all over the world, accessible using iTunes, no
subscription required to view; see Intro for UoE staff and students at
www.ed.ac.uk/about/video/itunesu]
Wikiversity
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Educational_Videos
Slideshare
www.slideshare.net/ [as well as lots of sharable powerpoint
presentations, this has a searchable database of sharable educational videos]
Khan Academy
http://www.khanacademy.org
Dr Neil Thin
February 2012
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