In the Dark

Long before the pandemic restrictions – was it really five years ago that all that started? – I posted an item about an innovation I encountered when I moved to Sussex in 2013, namely lecture capture facilities which

…allow lecturers to record videos of their own lectures which are then made available for students to view online. This is of course very beneficial for students with special learning requirements, but in the spirit of inclusive teaching I think it’s good that all students can access such material. Some faculty were apparently a little nervous that having recordings of lectures available online would result in falling attendances at lectures, but in fact the evidence indicates precisely the opposite effect. Students find the recorded version adds quite a lot of value to the “live” event by allowing them to clarify things they might not have not noted down clearly.

A few years later, when I did some teaching back in Cardiff, I discovered that lecture recording had become normal practice there too. The main difference was that Sussex had a proper policy on important matters such as who could see the recordings, and what they could be used for, which allayed some staff fears about snooping and the inhibition of academic freedon; the policy at Cardiff had not been fully developed in advance of the rollout of lecture capture, which I think was a big mistake.

Anyway, before the pandemic we didn’t really have any facilities at Maynooth University for recording lectures so it certainly wasn’t normal practice. With the onset of Covid-19 lecture recordings and live streams became the only way to carry out teaching and we lecturers made the best of what we had at home. A couple of years ago, after restrictions were lifted, I posted about a meeting between student representatives and staff in the (then) Department of Theoretical Physics during which students criticized, among other examples of inadequate teaching resources. Part of the reason for this is the drastic shortage of student accommodation which means many students have to commute long distances to campus and have difficulty doing that every day for lectures.

I – and I’m speaking personally here – wish we could offer lecture recordings as routine. Unfortunately, however, and much to my disappointment, Senior Management at Maynooth University has discouraged lecture recording as a matter of policy and has not invested in the technology required to enable it, so it is not practicable anyway.

In my view the benefits of lecture capture far outweigh the disadvantages, and we should incorporate recordings of lectures as part of our standard teaching provision, as a supplement to learning rather than to replace face-to-face sessions. Every student learns in a different way and we should therefore be doing as much as we possibly can to provide a diverse range of teaching resources so that each can find the combination that suits them best. Technology allows us to do this far better now than in the past.

Some really enjoy live in-person lecture sessions, especially the ability to interact with the lecturer and the shared experience with other students, but others don’t like them as much. Others have reasons (such as disability) for not being able to attend in-person lectures, so providing recordings can help them. Others still have difficulty attending all lectures because of a dratic shortage of student accommodation. Why not in any case provide recordings for everyone? That seems to me to be a more inclusive approach.

The problem with lecture capture in Maynooth is that we will need to improve the cameras and recording equipment in the large lecture rooms to make it possible for lectures with a significant mathematical content. The existing setups in teaching rooms do not easily allow the lecturer to record material on a whiteboard or blackboard. In Cardiff, for example, the larger rooms had more than one camera, usually one on the lectern and one on the screen or whiteboard (which has to be placed further away and therefore needs to be of higher resolution). In Maynooth we only have small low-resolution cameras in the teaching rooms. In fact I have far better facilities in my study at home – provided at my own expense – than my employer is prepared to provide on campus.

Anyway, the reason for mentioning all this is that I saw an article today in the University Times (a student newspaper based at Trinity College, Dublin). I can only infer that someone at Trinity has floated the idea of mandatory lecture recordings, because the piece argues against them even with

…established guidelines for their use, re-use, storage, and dissemination, and a ban of their use during industrial action.

I think a properly negotiated agreement with the Trade Union representing staff (e.g. IFUT, of which I am a member) covering these points would allow me to accept mandatory lecture recordings. Worries about covert monitoring or unauthorized dissemination on social media would hopefully be assuaged by such an agreement. A particular issue in the UK, given the current meltdown of its higher education sector, Senior Management may sack lecturers to save money but keep using their recordings. That would be unconscionable, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be tried.