What is lecture capture?
Lecture capture is the recording of a
face-to-face classroom activity for
review at a later stage. The most benefit comes from having audio of the lecturer along with the slides or presentation material that is shown to students. Video of the lecturer often does not produce any additional benefit
over audio alone so the choice is up to the lecturer. There is no university wide solution for lecture capture at present. However, students are increasingly asking for this facility so the centrally the university is considering options
What is Echo 360?
In the Michael Griffiths Lecture theatre we have access to
‘Echo 360’. When programmed this software will automatically record audio (and if wanted video)
for a teaching session. Afterwards the lecture can be viewed online using the
Echo 360 software directly within Learning
Central. Or a file can be downloaded and then placed on the Cardiff Player
video-streaming service. The advantage of viewing the lecture through the Echo
360 software is that it is easy to get to a particular slide in a presentation
and hear the audio (or see the video) associated with that slide, whereas in
Cardiff Player it will display as one continual video that needs to be manually
skipped through by trial and error to get to a particular slide.
As a lecturer what do I have to do?
We will email you in advance of your lecture in the Michael Griffiths lecture theatre to remind you that your session will be audio-recorded. If you would also like video to be recorded please ask for this be reply. If you do not want any recording to be made please reply to say so.
When you come to the Michael Griffith Lecture theatre you teach as you usually do. You don't have to do anything extra because of Echo 360. The recording will stop and start automatically and there will be no indication that it is happening in the room.
Do students want this?
We do not know if students will access the lectures afterwards, or if they will find it valuable. We will track statistics on usage and we will evaluate whether it is worthwhile to keep on using this service.If there is very high uptake then it may be justified to set up similar arrangements in the other lecture theatres we use.
Copyright
Some people are concerned that they may not have permission for the images that they use in lecture slides to be stored in a 'lecture capture' format. It is very likely that if you have permission to scan the image to use in a presentation then you also have permission for storing that in a secure environment which only our students and staff have access to such as Learning Central, and Echo 360.
If you have any other questions please contact Dr Anne Marie Cunningham, lead for eLearning.
