Sir could you repeat that please?

What is Lecture capture?

As discussed in my earlier post, lecture capture is an automated system for recording lectures and subsequently making them available via the web.  Lecture capture is the chosen service name for City’s installation of the Echo360 system and tends to be the common term used in the educational technology community though some institutions such as UCL and QMUL have adopted a variation of the terms to suit.

It is also useful to highlight that recording lectures can & will continue to be done with a number of tools and Echo360 can & will be used for more than recording lectures.

As an academic lecturer why should I consider recording my lectures?

As reported in educause, ‘Lecture capture systems offer three important benefits:

• an alternative when students miss class
• an opportunity for content review
• and content for online course development.

Lecture capture enhances and extends existing instructional activities, whether in face-to-face, fully online, or blended learning environments. Although many anecdotal reports about lecture capture circulate in higher education, only a few notable evaluation studies have investigated its impact on student learning. Stanford goes into this further. Do also look at my earlier post in which I provide some pedagogical evidence for recording lectures.

Lecture capture could also be seen as an exciting opportunity to consider flipping your lectures. For more information on flipping lecturers, please view an earlier post. If you are one step ahead and would like to flip your classroom then here’s how to do that.

What else do I need to be aware of?

Lecture capture is an opt-in so you would need to tell us you are interested in recording your lectures. Given the potential for recording failure, we strongly advise that lecturers make clear to students the system should not  be relied on as a replacement for lecture attendance. A lecture capture policy is in the midst of being finalised by the lecture capture working group.

Everything can be scheduled and recorded automatically, you won’t have to press record! And most importantly, only your students will be able to watch the recordings.

Can I see an example of a recorded lecture?

Here are some screenshots which will show you how it will appear on your moodle page. These are taken with the kind permission from Martin Rich one of our senior lecturers from CASS Business School.

There are four main sections to note:

1. Presented materials – in this case the presenters laptop, an Apple mac, is captured in its entirety, so they may use more than one application, or switch to a visualiser to present other types of resources – it’s all captured and displayed here. It will not display anything written on a white board, for example.
2. Camera – pointed at the front. The camera view is not always available due to room limitations or presenters preference. Often not clear enough to read the whiteboard, but shows you who is speaking and any live demonstrations. Does not move, or point to the audience but some individuals may occasionally be captured if in front of the camera. The camera, which in this room was mounted on the ceiling (the lecturer can choose not to have video at all).
3. Slide sorter (and other applications) – captured periodically and automatically every 5 minutes. This helps you quickly jump to the content you want to see (or use the timeslider in (4). Other applications exist here and may change over time, including a book marking and discussions function.
4. Timeslider and playback controls – use this to jump to sections and see how far through you are

Example  of a streamed lecture capture

A further example of a recorded lecture can be seen on the left. This is led by Mo Pamplin from the Educational Technology Team at School of Arts and Social Sciences(SoASS) and their use of lecture capture (If you want to know more about how lecture capture is being used at other institutions in the U.K and in SoASS then please do click on the screenshot to view the video.

You can see from the screenshot above, that you can quite neatly jump to the slides you want to watch. This is quite useful for students who may just need to go over bits that they have missed. Studies have found that lecture capture is particularly helpful for students to review material, for revision, and as extra help for students with EFL or with learning difficulties.

Where can I find the lecture capture system?

The Echo360 system is installed in the following teaching spaces for 60 or more.