Department of Physics
- The Second Year of Replay Revisiting Replay
Professor Steve Simon of the Department of Physics teaches a lecture series on Condensed Matter every year. This
series had been recorded in the past, but for the past two years Replay has been used to make recordings. The preReplay recordings are publicly available through the University’s podcasting service and ITunesU, but the Replay
recordings (which are more recent) are available through WebLearn only to students registered on the course.
This lecture series is compulsory for all students studying Physics. Professor Simon was originally open to
pedagogical innovation ideas, such as the ‘flipped classroom’. However, he was sensitive to student expectations of
the formal Oxford lecture experience, and the need to avoid overloading them with different pre-lecture work and
materials. Thus he decided to employ Replay simply as an extra revision tool for students to ‘replay’ the formal
lectures.
However, an analysis of the statistics reveals that students used the recordings as more than just revision material.
There are the expected spikes in usage before exams, but there is also evidence of students referring to lecture
recordings from earlier years before attending their own lectures; thus they used the recordings to help them prepare
for, and better understand, the upcoming lectures.
“I found it extremely useful”
Professor Steve Simon, Department of Physics
Context
 These recordings complement both the lecture
series and an accompanying textbook written by
Professor Simon. These all cover the same
materials.
 Access to the Replay recordings is through
WebLearn, and therefore restricted to Oxford
students registered on the course.
 Recordings consist of all three input streams:
video, audio, and slides. This was necessary to
capture the writing on the three blackboards in
the lecture theatre.
Key Challenges
 Professor Simon makes extensive use of the
blackboard during his lectures, and so it is vital
to capture this information so that it is readable
in the recording.
 The system should not interfere with existing
teaching methods, or require a change in course
content. It should be entirely unobtrusive.
 Its features should facilitate revision and review.
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“The recording quality was very
good”
“Being able to go through it more
than once is useful”
“I think it’s generally good to
have lectures recorded”
The Physical Benefits of Replay
Top Tips
Successes
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The system is entirely unobtrusive. The course
ran as it has done for several years, with no
change to content or teaching methods, and
the automated recording function meant
Professor Simon had to do nothing to run the
system.
It did not increase workload for either
students or lecturers.
Students expressed their satisfaction with
Replay to Professor Simon, and their usage
indicates that they employed it as a revision
tool, referring to recordings shortly before
exams. However, these figures also revealed a
surprising amount of use prior to lectures. It
seems students were using the previous year’s
recordings before attending the corresponding
lecture in order to prepare for it.
Increasing numbers of lecturers in the
department, inspired by the successes of the
early adopters, are opting to use Replay in
their own courses.
Future Plans
The department is expanding the use of
Replay to all courses, which will be
recorded by default. Thus ‘opt-in’ has
become ‘opt out’ for this department.
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Consider the needs, expectations and workload
of students when contemplating pedagogical
changes, such as the flipped classroom or
question and answer sessions.
Students are keen for the live lectures, online
recordings, and textbook to contain the same
information. They are worried that certain
changes may increase their workload, but they
are keen to have materials to supplement the
existing curriculum.
Students benefit from being able to pause and
replay the more difficult sections of a lecture.
When giving the same lecture series over a
period of several years, lecturers can refer to
earlier recordings in order to review the topic
and improve the lecture before delivering it
again.
Conclusions
The Department of Physics’ use of Replay has shown
that the system can benefit both students and
lecturers. They found that a collection of recordings
spanning several years can encourage students to try
and work ahead, thereby engaging with the subject on
a deeper level. While pedagogical changes are certainly
possible under Replay, they are in no way required.
Even on courses where students do not wish for
innovation, Replay has much to offer them and they
engage with it enthusiastically.
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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