theconversation.com: Universities across the world are considering whether to start automatically recording lectures. Some students are voting for it. And the IT industry has created some seductive products to record lectures, a process also known as “lecture capture”. Some onlookers expect a hesitant response from the higher education sector, which is often portrayed as cautious about taking up educational technologies.
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I'm torn on this idea. On one hand, I've had professors who have encouraged me to record their lectures before and I ultimately found it very helpful so it may be nice if that service was done already for the students, however; I agree with what the article says about this encouraging skipping class and/or binge studying. An aspect of this that was not covered in the article was the issue of evaluating professors on their competence. As it currently stands, professors typically know when a faculty member is sitting in on their class to observe them and so they can cater their class to that but if everything they did was recorded it would be easier to spot incompetent lecturers because tenure is, in my opinion, a terrible idea especially if the institution granting tenure hasn't very carefully monitored those classes for their quality. Unfortunately, the idea of being filmed could make some very competent professors feel uncomfortable which could result in their work suffering and it isn't fair to add that performance aspect to someone's career if they didn't sign up for it. The solution of incorporating this idea case by case which the author of this article discussed at the end seems like a solid approach. Test out this idea and figure out the kinks and evaluate its effectiveness and then go from there.
I have very mixed emotions on this debate about weather all university lectures should be all automatically recorded. I think that lectures open to the general public (such as guest speakers) should be recorded. This would allow for more people to hear the lecture as well as be source material for a wide variety of classes across multiple departments and school around the world. On the other hand, I truly believe that individual course lectures should not be recorded. Going to class is very important to one’s education. The videos would be a very good resource for students, but I think would make many students think that they don’t need to go to class anymore because they can just get a recording. However, what really concerns me is that these videos would be posted online for anyone to watch making the class virtually “free” for anyone which is a little rude to the students who are paying tons for these lectures.
I don't know that I necessarily can speak well on this subject, simply because the style of education that we receive here isn't necessarily based in large-scale lecture style teaching. However, I will say based on how some of my friends feel outside of the school of drama and even outside of cmu that recording is probably not the best idea. I know that many of my friends, if they know that a lecture will be recorded, will not attend just because they could watch from the comfort of their home instead of getting out of bed and having to go attend. It allows the lecture to fit into their own personal schedule, which is beneficial to those that really do need it if they aren't full-time college students but I argue is harmful to those who are in fact full-time college students, because it gives them an opportunity to use the recording as a crutch. When you're in a lecture and you're focused and taking notes, you're far more likely to get the most out of the lecture, instead of sitting at home where you're more prone to the distractions of real life as well as the internet.
It seems a lot of people are torn on this issue, but I'm afraid I am very far on the negative side of this topic. I think it is an awful idea to make it the standard to have recorded lectures for so many reasons. The most important reason is the loss of human interaction in a learning environment. It is an absolute shame to think of students sitting in bed and watching a lecture, hitting pause when they'd rather watch TV or get a snack or call their girlfriend, and then resuming when they are ready. What will this do to our attention spans that the internet and streaming television haven't already? What kind of message are we sending if we give students the option to sleep in instead of attending a lecture they've paid for? If they have the option to either do the work when it's given in real time or do it later when they feel like, what do you think will happen? I know exactly what will happen, and it's a real shame. By making class unnecessary and giving it a pause button, we'd be telling students that they can have priorities above their education. What will that do to students entering the work force? They will have no discipline, no sense of priority, and no attention span. Furthermore, we'd have a generation of people in even worse shape for interacting with (and therefore empathizing with) others. This is just one more step in turning young people into robots whose emotions are displayed with emojis while their faces remain blank. Not to mention how devalued the professors would be! It would no longer be a source of pride to be a professor at an esteemed university, because now you're just a professor on YouTube. If it wasn't obvious, I think this is a terrible move in the educational world and it would be an absolute shame to see it push forward.
If I was a college teacher, or any teacher for that matter, I would feel really uncomfortable if I knew every lecture I made was recorded. What if I did something wrong? Said something wrong? Of course, it would be good to expose the teachers that are actually really bad… but then it would be really scary and add a whole precedent to the recordings. I would be terrified I was doing something wrong even if I wasn't going anything wrong.
But on the other hand, as a student, it would be really, really awesome if I could rewatch a lecture I didn't understand, especially if I was in a major like engineering or math or biology or medicine.
I agree in the article in that students would stop turning up to the actual lecture and instead just watch it at their leisure. Only the students who are self motivated enough to get up to go to class would show up, and it would be easy to convince yourself that you don’t have to go. Also, answering in class would be even less enticing because if you get the answer wrong, it is on permanent record. Overall, I think this is a bad idea. What they could do instead is upload a teacher made video explaining the slides as a summary and then require attendance in class to turn in homework or for pop quizzes. There are many other options to live recordings.
I have mixed opinions about recording college lectures. On one hand being able to review footage from a lecture could be extremely useful if there are gaps in your notes, or if you forgot some key information needed to work your way through a study, but on the other hand I think it creates an opportunity for dependency that could be detrimental to effective learning. If everyone just has access to a video of the class, why take notes? Why invest yourself in a lecture? Why go to class? Also videotaping lectures and class sessions puts pressure on the instructors. Teachers probably wouldn’t feel as comfortable engaging their class in funny and spontaneous ways if they felt like they had all eyes on them and if they knew that the footage could easily be viewed by higher administration that might not understand their intentions. Video footage doesn’t properly capture all of the nuisances of being a pupil in class, in person, in real time. Learning is an experience, and while you can understand concepts from a video or online source, a personal structure is really the best way to ensure students and educators are on the same page, because in a classroom setting they can actively engage each other and navigate pit falls.
To begin this response, I have to admit that if all my lectures were recorded and put online, I would not come to class. Where's the incentive? However, since a lot of our learning isn't your typical lecture-based learning, I don't know if it would be even helpful for teachers to tape them. Furthermore, relying on lectures for learning prohibits you from answering questions in real time. If you don't understand something that the professor says, there's no way you can just electronically raise your hand and ask for a clarification. In addition, if you have a question about something, there's a good chance that one of your classmates has the same question too. Then the teacher gets swamped with emails all with the same question, and that's probably going to get old very quickly.
On that same line, learning isn't segregated to just lectures. Group discussions contribute so much to the total information you take in. With recorded lectures, you can't interact with your classmates as easily as you could in class.
However, I agree with Monica in that it would be useful to have the files on hand so you could go back and review them and re-watch certain bits that you maybe didn't quite get in class. When you're studying for normal exams like most of the collegiate world, this seems like a really good way to fill in the gaps of your learning. However, recorded lectures should no way be a substitute for being in class and learning.
I think there are many pros and cons of recording lectures at universities. For one, it would make a lot of professors more weary of what they say, which I arguably the worst thing for students. Professors are a wealth of knowledge and opinions and I have meet many that change lives and minds with their rhetoric. Stifling that with a camera, in my mind is too big a risk. Although, it would help students like myself who have a hard time taking notes in a class while still fully absorbing what a teacher is trying to get across. I know there have been several classes for me, where I felt like I had to choose one or the other and most teachers are uncomfortable with giving out the slide shows they use in class. There is also the prop of being able to get lecture to people who may not have the time in their schedules to take certain classes or who want to start in on introduction classes over the summer.
While I think there is a lot gained with some form of lecture recording--like as the author mentioned, an audio recording and images of the slides or graphs. This captures the material without pretending to perfectly reproduce the experience, like a filmed lecture may inadvertently do. Honestly, an aspect missing from this article I find extremely important is the rights of the professors to these lectures and what access consumers have to this material. This arbitrary recording of lectures could become another way in which institutions are profiting from the hard work of their underpaid professors (especially adjunct)--taking these lectures and turning them around for a small profit from the general public is unethical in my opinion without the said professor having full control over the lecture, its cost, and its availability. If you are going to sell someone's intellectual property they should benefit--it is like fair trade.
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