FREQUENTLY ASK QUESTIONS ON AY2010/11 LECTURE RECORDING
HOW IS THE APPROACH FOR LECTURE RECORDING IN AY2010/11 SEM I & II DIFFERENT
FROM THE PAST?
Prior to AY2010/11 Sem I, School Clubs will approach the School Dean to identify lecturers
who wish to have their lectures recorded. The School Clubs will then recruit members to
participate in the project and schedule them to record the lectures. CELT provides the
lecture recording facilities, support and training to the School Clubs to enable them to fulfil
their tasks.
In AY2010/11 Sem I, the lecture recording is done from within a Centralized Command
Center for Lecture Recording (CCCLR) located at CELT. Student assistants recording the
lectures do not need to be on site (in the LTs' Control Room) to record the lectures. They
may not be recording only the lectures from their Schools either. Hence, CELT has offered
the service to recruit and train the student assistants involved the project. Payment to the
students will also be handled by CELT via the respective schools' funding or a centralized
operation fund.
WHY IS THERE A CHANGE IN APPOACRH FOR LECTURE RECORDING?
The BRC Implementation Plan for lecture recording calls for recording of all the lectures in
NTU. To establish this as a regular service for all the Schools and in all the LTs, including
school-based LTs, will be an unattainable goal with the previous (before AY2010/11 Sem I)
approach due to:
1. Funding Issues: Based on past records, about 25% of undergraduate courses are recorded
every semester. To increase the coverage to 100% required four times the current budget to
pay the student assistants to provide the lecture recording service.
2. Man-power Constraints: Even if the funding is provided. It will be a challenge to recruit
and provide training to the huge number (about 400) of student assistants involved in the
project.
3. Accountability Issues: The previous setup for lecture recording requires student
assistants to record the lectures on site from the Control Room of the lecture theaters.
Giving access to the huge number of student assistants involved will increases the
vulnerability of things in the Control Room get mantled, messed up or even stolen.
4. Quality Assurance: As the knowledge and skill level in the operation of the video camera
to capture the lecture differ from one student assistant to another, it is hard to achieve
consistency in the quality of lecture recording if so many student assistants are involved.
Inevitably, the problems associated students turning up late or absence for his duty or
seemingly not paying attention to synchronize the video source with the presentation slides
will remain hard to address.
HOW WILL THE NEW APPROACH IN LECTURE RECORDING IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF
LECTURE RECORDING?
In AY2010/11 Sem I, all the common LTs (LT 1 to 29) and school-based LTs (SBS, SCBE, SPMS,
WKW-SCI) will be equipped with the AV facilities to capture the lectures/seminar/events in
the LT either from a remote site or based on a schedule entered to the recording PCs in the
LT. This reduced the man-power required and, hence, addressed the funding, support and
training issues. This will also reduce problems associated with student assistants since they
will be on duty at a centralized location under the supervision of a full time staff.
HOW IS THE LECTURE BEING RECORDED?
The lecture recording involves capturing and synchronizing video from two sources - an
auto-tracking camera capturing the presenter and the data video from the LCD projector.
The recording will start and end automatically based on the lecture schedule provided by
the Schools or presenters concern.
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY LECTURE HAS BEEN RECORDED SUCCESSFULLY?
Once recorded, the lecture recording will be uploaded to the video server. An email
notification will be sent to the the lecturer concern or the Subject Coordinator (if the
lecturer information is not provided) to inform him of the web link of the recording.
DO I NEED TO POST THE LINK OF THE LECTURE RECORDING IN THE EDVENTURE
COURSE SITE?
Once recorded and uploaded to the video server, the link of the recording will also be
posted in the Recorded Lectures content area of the respective course sites in edveNTUre.
By default, the link of the recording will be made available to the students when it is posted
in the course site, unless specified by the Course Coordinator or lecturer concerned.
The lecturer concerned will also receive an email notification on the web link of the
recorded lectures. The email notification also includes a web form that allows the lecturer
to make the link of the recorded lectures available to students.
WHY AM I ASKED TO LOGIN TO EDVENTURE WHEN I TRY TO VIEW THE LECTURE
RECORDING BY CLICKING THE LINK OF MY RECORDING IN THE EMAIL NOTIFICATION?
By default, all lecture recordings has been set to accessible by Course Users only. Hence,
you have to login to edveNTUre before you can view the recording.
DO I NEED TO SUBMIT OR HAND OVER MY PRESENTATION MATERIALS LIKE
POWERPOINT FILES TO SOMEONE BEFORE I START MY LECTURE?
The lecture recording involves capturing and synchronizing video from two sources - an
auto-tracking camera capturing the presenter and the data video from the LCD projector.
The data video will capture the presentation materials used by the lecturer. Hence, there is
no need for the lecturer/presenter to submit or hand over his/her presentation materials
before the start of the lecture.
IF I AM USING THE VISUALIZER, WILL MY LECTURE BE RECORDED?
The lecture recording involves capturing and synchronizing video from two sources - an
auto-tracking camera capturing the presenter and the data video from the LCD projector.
The data video includes the input from the visualizer. The lecture will be recorded as usual.
IF I AM USING THE OVERHEAD PROJECTOR FOR TRANSPARENCY (OHT), WILL MY
LECTURE BE RECORDED?
The lecture recording is monitored by a group of student assistants at the CCCLR. When the
student assistant noted that the lecturer is not projecting his presentation materials through
the LCD projector, he/she will change the setting of the video recording to capture the
lecture using the tracking camera manually to capture the projected overhead transparency.
However, based on past experience the quality of the video from the visualizer is much
superior than from the OHT. Hence, we strongly encourage staff to use the visualizer in case
written work like solving tutorial questions is required to be recorded
WHAT CAN I DO TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE LECTURE RECORDING?
Lecturer can help to improve the quality of the lecture recording by:
- using presentation materials projected through the LCD projector
- putting on the microphone during lecture
- not dimming all the lights, esp. the front row, during lecture
- in LTs that have multiple projection screen (e.g. LT 22 to LT 29, LT 1, TCT-LT, LT 1A, 2A,
19A) , display the presentation materials on the projection screen that will be captured in
the lecture recording
WHO IS ABLE TO ACCESS/VIEW MY LECTURE RECORDING?
By default, all lecture recordings has been set to accessible by Course Users only. That is, the
viewers have to be enrolled into your course site in order to view it. Login to edveNTUre will
also be required in order to view the recording.
I CONDUCT LECTURES IN THE EVENING AND/OR AT NIGHT FOR POST GRADUATE
COURSES. CAN I REQUEST FOR THESE LECTURES TO BE RECORDED?
The lecture recording services is only available from 8.30am to 5.30pm. The recording of
classes after 5.30PM can be added to a Schedule Recording System to start and stop the
recording on the specific time required. However, the recording will not be monitored by
the student assistants at CELT. This may result in failures in recording the lectures if the
auto-scheduling system runs into error.
Please mail your request, including information on the Course ID, Course Instructor's Full
Name, Course Instructor's Username, Date, Time and Venue of the lectures to
CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg.
HOW DO I INFORM CELT IF THERE IS ANY CHANGES OR DISCREPENCY IN MY LECTURE
SCHEDULE, E.G. RECORDING OF MAKE UP LECTURES?
Please mail your request, including information on the Course ID, Course Instructor's Full
Name, Course Instructor's Username, Date, Time and Venue of the lectures to
CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg.
CAN THE LECTURE RECORDING BE EDITED?
Yes, the lecture recording can be edited though it is only limited to trimming the unwanted
video segments.
HOW CAN I EDIT THE LECTURE RECORDING?
Please email your request, including the following information -- Course ID, Date, Time and
Venue of the lectures and the Start Time and End Time of the video segments to be deleted
from the recording to CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg.
If you prefer to edit the lecture recording on your own, please email your request, including
the following information -- Course ID, Date, Time and Venue of the lectures to
CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg. We’ll send you the recorded file and information on how to edit the
recording duly.
CAN I REQUEST FOR THE SOURCE FILE OF MY RECORDED LECTURE?
Please email your request, including the following information -- the Course ID, Date, Time
and Venue of the lectures to CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg.
CAN I OPT OUT OF THE LECTURE RECORDING PROJECT?
Well, the answer is why should you? The lecture recording will be able to capture your tactic
knowledge and experience in your field and, thus, is a much richer teaching resource than
the static presentation slides or notes available to the students. Besides, the recorded
lectures can be used as a digital archive that can come in handy in the event when the
regular lectures cannot be conducted due to unforeseen circumstances.
If you still prefer not to take part in the Lecture Recording Project, please email us at
CCCLR@ntu.edu.sg, stating the reason(s) for opting out. Your preference and reason(s) will
be compiled and submitted to the School, CIO or Associate Provost as and when the
information is required.