All Student Vote (Spring 2019)

Universal Lecture Capture

This motion asks your SU to repeal policy “067 – Recorded Lectures”, and lobby the University to have a Universal approach to Lecture Capture and run a campaign for students and staff on the benefits of lecture capture.

This Union Notes:

1. That the University of Warwick has funded a Lecture Capture System since October 2013.[1]
2. That Universal Lecture Capture at the University has been a long-term request by students[2].
3. That Lecture Capture has no overall impact on student attendance[3], but can impact student performance if lecture capture replaces lecture attendance[4].
4. That the University has already installed Lecture Capture in 68 centrally timetabled room and in 41 locally timetabled rooms[5].
5. That between October 2013 and February 2015, over 3,500 lectures were captured with over 124,000 views by 7,300 students[6].
6. That the University of Warwick has said that ‘Lecture Capture recordings are published online so that students can study the lecture again, bookmarking particular points or filling in missing notes at their convenience, making it an ideal revision tool.’[7].
7. That the University of Warwick has also stated that ‘Students really value having access to recorded lectures for revision and review. Students use recordings as supplement rather than substituting for attendance, but where students are unable to attend due to illness, lecture recordings help them keep up with the course content.’[8]
8. That there is no universal policy across modules and departments regarding whether a lecture should be recorded and how it is distributed[9]
9. That lecturers and students can currently request that their modules are recorded by Lecture Capture[10], although for students this is no guarantee that they will be recorded.
10. That a high proportion of students live off campus and commute by public transport. The effect of public transport on lecture attendance makes lecture capture even more pertinent to them[11].
11. That the University of Warwick outlined the benefits of lecture capture to instructors, writing that: “• The system allows Instructors to spend more time engaging. • The classroom recording system is pre-scheduled and hands-free. • Instructors can provide students with content that is accessible with any Internet accessible device. • Instructors can "flip" their class by recording content with Personal Capture. • Aids in creating blended or online course creation and delivery initiatives.”[12]

This Union Believes:

1. That the principle of Universal Lecture Capture being implemented and made available online to University of Warwick Students is a good one and one that we should strive towards as a student and staff community.
2. That University of Warwick students should have access to recordings of their lectures, regardless of which particular module or course that they are enrolled in. 
3. That recorded lectures are a very useful tool for revision, note taking and preparing for assignments.
4. That recorded lectures will allow the students to be able to absorb more information in the lecture instead of concentrating on taking notes.
5. That Warwick’s teaching staffs’ intellectual property rights should be protected and respected.
6. That recorded lectures would particularly benefit students:

a. with disabilities, who often have greater barriers to education than non-disabled students.

b. that miss a lecture due to poor physical or mental wellbeing.

c. that miss a lecture due to extenuating circumstances, such as; failings in transport, sudden onset temporary illnesses etc.

d. who are parents/carers alongside their studies meaning they have more commitments than the average student.

7. That Lecture Capture should not replace but rather complement attendance to lectures

This Union Resolves:

1. To repeal Policy 067 ‘Recorded Lectures’
2. To mandate the Student Union President, Welfare and Campaigns’ Officer, Education Officer, Postgraduate Officer and Disabled Students’ Officer to: 

a. Work towards the creation of Universal Lecture Capture

b. Push for consistent standards of lecture recording and publication across modules, departments, and faculties.

c. Ensure that disabled students are not affected or unduly disadvantaged by departments or module convenors who enforce a minimum percentage attendance policy for recordings to be made available.

d. Support University consultation with staff about lecture capture and actively engage with and consider views of academics.

3. To mandate the Education Officer and Societies Officer to encourage and support academic societies who run revision sessions who want them recorded via the existing lecture capture infrastructure.
4. To mandate the Student Union President, Education Officer, and Postgraduate Officer to lobby the University of Warwick to implement an ‘opt-out’ system on lecture capture for instructors to replace the current automatic ‘opt-in’ system.
5. To mandate the Student Union President to work with the University to introduce a watermark with student’s ID numbers on lecture recordings as to dissuade dissemination outside the University taking data protection legislation and policies into consideration.
6. To mandate the Education Officer, Postgraduate Officer, and Welfare and Campaigns Officer to run a campaign for students informing them of the channels in which they can help the Universal Lecture Capture campaign (i.e. writing to their lecturers) and run a campaign for staff informing them of the benefits of Universal Lecture Capture & the process on how to set their lecture capture up.
7. To mandate the Education Officer, Postgraduate Officer and SU President to lobby the university to ensure that they have a clear policy relating to intellectual property rights around Lecture Capture. For example, with regards to disputes around intellectual property rights during the 2017 lecturers’ strike over pensions and paying conditions.
8. To mandate the Education Officer, Postgraduate Officer and SU President to lobby the university to ensure that this policy should include that Universal Lecture Capture should not be used to undermine any strike action.
9. To mandate the DDO and the SU President to lobby the university for further infrastructure to provide universal capabilities for Lecture Capture – for example, some rooms used by the Maths department do not have Lecture Capture technological capabilities.
10. To support the UCU and its members in securing an agreement with the University in relation to the use of lecture capture during industrial action.