For a number of years I worked for a company selling lecture capture solutions to universities on a global basis and some of the hurdles we faced was related to the policies and security for the recorded lectures. Beyond lecture capture solutions being challenging to setup, configure and manage, universities had to create new policies around many issues related to the recordings. Since the content was “portable” – it could be downloaded to mobile devices, faculty had questions about the trade-offs of student benefits versus their intellectual property. This weeks topics related to privacy, security and policy was like a walk down memory lane.
The concept of recording lectures seems as though it would provide great benefit to students for remedial purposes and if for whatever reasons they could not attend class, students could review their course content at their own pace. Students have been recording lectures for a number of years with tape recorders or digital recorders, so it is not a new phenomena, but for a university to centrally support lecture capture systems become disruptive for faculty, students and administrators.
Faculty had series concerns about the security of their lectures, their intellectual property. It was interesting to have discussions with professors who felt as those their importance was depleted by implementing a lecture capture solution; I would commonly be asked: if the university records my lecture why will they need me the next semester? I heard similar questions when universities were implementing learning management systems in the late 1990s. Questions about intellectual property were very common as it is important that content was secured so that it was not used inappropriately or rebranded as someone else’s lecture. For these types of inquiries there were technical solutions that added layers of security to the recorded lecture so it was less “portable”.
Another policy question that commonly arose was around who “owned” the recorded lecture, that question depended upon the country, the university and the contract the professor signed. In many instances the lecture was the professor’s, but in some cases the lecture was a possession of the university. This new technology raised many questions faculty and administrators needed to answer on the fly, yet policies did not exist. From a privacy perspective, many faculty felt as though an intruder had entered their lecture hall with the recording technology capturing their lecture. There were concerns that the recordings would be used for tenure and promotional considerations, yet for many universities this was never an intended consequence for implementing these systems and policies were need to ensure that the lectures were used for instructional purposes. Additionally, many institutions implemented an opt-in policy for recording lectures so that professors would choose to have their lectures recorded, however students did not always like this option since having accesses to recorded lectures in one or a few courses and not in all of their courses reduced their satisfaction with their student experience.
As the primary beneficiary of lecture capture systems were students, policies were commonly needed to make sure that this service was used properly and as universities intended. First and foremost was the concern about the recording itself and how it was to be used; in fact some universities made students sign academic use policies ensuring that they did not redistribute lectures to other students or other web sites. A secondary concern was related to student attendance in the classroom, would face-to-face classes remain relevant? For the most part this was not a significant concern versus the benefit realized for students, but this disruptive technology provided an opportunity for faculty to use the class time with students differently; instead of lecturing for the entire class period, students could review a previous semester’s lecture prior to coming to class and more group activities were utilized.
Working with many universities as they implemented lecture capture solutions was an interesting experience given that this new technology had significant policy and security implications that many universities were just beginning to grapple with as they implemented this service for their students.
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