Department of Economics
- Moving Towards Lecture Capture An Economical Use of Replay
Professor Ian Crawford of the Department of Economics has found that students are increasingly
expecting lecture recording as a standard feature. In the absence of an officially implemented system, many
students were making their own recordings on their mobile devices. To maintain control over their
materials while addressing student demands, the department approached IT Services and, following their
advice, began using Replay.
At present the department is experimenting with the system, and has employed it only for recording
lectures – considering it to be primarily a revision tool for students. Nevertheless, they are interested in
exploring other uses of the system and pedagogical innovation which it may allow. Professor Crawford has
used it on two courses, and other lecturers who give talks in these series have also been recorded. The
department is presently operating an opt-in system – allowing lecturers to decide for themselves whether
or not to have their lectures recorded.
“It’s been pretty good”
Professor Ian Crawford, Department of Economics
Context
 The department has a very large number of
undergraduates, so recordings take place in
some of the largest lecture rooms in the
University.
 These rooms are well equipped for lecture
recordings, and local AV/IT Teams can
provide technical support.
 Only slides and audio are recorded – there
is no video recording.
 Second year students are not examined until
the end of their third year, so recordings are
made available to them via WebLearn until
the relevant examinations are complete.
Key Challenges
 Some lecturers are reluctant to use the
system, and the department has no desire to
insist upon it. Their philosophy is that the
system should not necessitate changes, but
provide additional learning support.
 The system should be straightforward to
implement and require no effort or
specialised skills from lecturers.
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“Students seem to like it”
“The entire thing was automated,
so as far as the lecturer was
concerned, it wasn’t there”
“Students often record lectures on
their smart phones anyway”
A Baseline Standard
Top Tips
Successes

Lecturers using Replay have been happy with
its performance, and their satisfaction is
encouraging more lecturers to opt in.

The scheduling of automated recordings has
allowed Replay to function entirely
unobtrusively, and lecturers have presented
their lectures exactly as before.
At first, lecturers were required to start and stop
recordings manually. While this is a quick process,
it does require action on the part of the lecturer.
The ability to schedule recordings to start and
stop automatically according to the timetable was
a great enhancement to allow seamless recording.
Future Plans

Replay has created no extra work for lecturers,
nor has it forced any pedagogical changes.


There were some concerns that recording
lectures would reduce lecture attendance. The
department found that there was no noticeable
decline in attendance, with the exception of a
few particular lectures. Notably, those lectures
are on difficult topics that students can avoid
on the exam, and thus usually have lower
attendance anyway. It appears that the
existence of recordings, at worst, only
reinforces current trends in attendance rates.



Professor Crawford notes that he was more
careful about exactly what he said when he was
aware of being recorded, and claims that this is
probably “not a bad thing”.
Students are very positive about the system,
and increasingly expect recorded lectures as a
standard feature on all of their courses of
study.

The department plans to continue using Replay
for the foreseeable future.
If current trends continue, then it expects more
lecturers will opt in to the system – convinced
by the positive experiences of their peers and
the demands of students.
The department is open to opportunities for
pedagogical innovation made possible by the
system. They think the system may offer a
means to improve the effectiveness of lectures
as a teaching method.
Conclusions
The Department of Economics views lecture
recordings as something that students expect, and
is thus something they will inevitably have to
adopt. They are pleased with Replay as a
response to this demand. It offers a solution,
without placing extra strain on lecturers, and
even makes pedagogical innovation possible,
without demanding it.
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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