Lecture Capture. Item 16a (i) Education and Student Committee

Transcription

1 Item 16a (i) Education and Student Committee Lecture Capture This paper describes the current scope of the Echo360 lecture capture system and outlines the considerations and actions; recommended by the Lecture Capture Working Group (LCWG) and the Learning Environment Committee, that are important for City to note if further investment towards an expansion of the service is to be made. Recommended action Education & Student Committee is asked to: i. discuss the paper ii. agree proposed actions in section 3 Doc Title: Subtitle Learning Environment Committee, 14 February 2017 Page 1 of 7

2 Paper C: Growing Access to Lecture Capture at City Learning Environment Committee is asked to by the 23rd of May 2017 Members to consider the recommendations and action plan. Agree for these to be proposed to City s Education and Student Committee as LEC's response to the identified need to grow the provision of lecture capture at City. There will be time for discussion and feedback on during the meeting. Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 2 of 7

3 Summary This paper describes the current scope of the Echo360 lecture capture system and outlines the considerations and actions; recommended by the Lecture Capture Working Group (LCWG), that are important for City to note if further investment towards an expansion of the service is to be made. 1. Background where are we now? Currently City provides the Echo360 lecture capture system in learning spaces that seat 60 and above, this equates to 53 lecture rooms and theatres. The DALI project is in the process of updating the majority of learning spaces, which will either upgrade lecture capture provision in the 53 existing rooms or add functionality to all other spaces that enables the addition of lecture capture technology e.g. control panel and ceiling microphones. It should be noted that the scope of the DALI project is to provide the enabling infrastructure for lecture capture and does not extend to the installation of the lecture capture equipment into the rooms (that do not currently have it). The University lecture capture policy 2013, introduces the system and directs users to the other relevant policies, Data Protection, Copyright and Intellectual Property. It advises users on how to give / gain consent to record from academic staff, students and guest speakers. City staff give consent as they book their recordings, or those booking on behalf of staff will request consent in advance. Reports generated by the Echo360 system show an increase in the number of captures made and in the amount of views per capture, from its launch in 2013 (appendix 1). There has been an increase in users across all schools since 2013, with programme-wide coverage in Cass and City Law School. Lecture capture requires support from a number of professional service teams in IT, LEaD and PaF. Academics and course officers cover the tasks of booking recordings via ServiceNow and editing. There have been operational challenges at City, however the teams supporting it have addressed these and we are currently providing a robust service. City Schools all have plans to expand use and to direct any future expansion of the service, in a LEaD review in April 2016 the following requirements were noted as enabling this expansion of use (Paper I LEC April 2016). Capture across a programme all taught material Enable automated scheduling of recordings Capture in spaces of less than 60 seats Ability to pause and resume recordings Improve the quality and range of audio and video capture City students have used the Your Voice 2016 survey to inform City of their rising expectation of the use of lecture capture, this has been picked up in the manifestos and aims of the current and future SU Vice Presidents of Education " to ask for the benefit of students, to allow lecture capture to take place in every class room so students always have the opportunity to look back at lectures and help with revision" Malek Arab, Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 3 of 7

4 The Learning Success team at City have noted the benefits of lecture capture for learning e.g. for students whose first language is not English, or to accommodate learning differences and it s rise in use at our comparator universities, to increase inclusivity in learning. 2. Scaling up lecture capture Considerations The Lecture Capture Working Group (LCWG) were asked by LEaD to consider the implications of growing lecture capture at City and make any recommendations for the Learning Environment Committee to support. The LCWG was formed in June 2016 and is made up of representatives from IT and LEaD and aims to establish and develop the service at City. Five areas for consideration emerged after a review and discussion. 1. Following a discussion with Timetabling, the group established that there is some tolerance within the amount of rooms we have for more strategic booking of lecture capture enabled spaces e.g. for cohorts of less than 60. Schools can request to prioritise cohorts or programmes via their timetable representative. 2. They have observed that the DALI design has greatly improved the audio quality and control quality of the lecture capture experience in spaces of >60 and those rooms are now in demand. The DALI design has added features to all spaces that anticipates and will enable the addition of capture technology. However the final design of a system for spaces of <60 and has not yet been approved by LEaD and it would be useful to carry out a requirements gathering exercise with schools before investing. 3. The group has noted that to be effective and offer the service more evenly across City then investment will be required to lower the 60 seat threshold which currently covers 53 of the 193 centrally bookable learning spaces at City. They recommend that any planned expansion of the service should align with the DALI programme of works that will transform the teaching technology in City s learning Spaces over the next few years. 4. The existing policy is in need of a refresh, e.g. an update to enable bookings to be made on behalf of whole programmes or departments is required. This will enable a more flexible approach to managing bookings and recording consent. 5. An approach that aimed to record all sessions across the timetable e.g. all 53 rooms by term and from 9-6pm daily would require a considerable extra resource in professional services as the booking and scheduling is not currently automated. This would also place a burden on Academics teaching in the 46 non DALI rooms, to check and edit their recordings post session as they do not have the ability to pause and restart recordings (this number will reduce to 31 rooms by January 2018). It would be advisable to move to a more automated booking system with any expansion. Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 4 of 7

5 3. Recommendation to Education and Student Committee A, The LCWG and LEC is principally in favour of a University policy and investment that aims to: Positively encourage the use of lecture capture for the benefit of our learners Widen the availability of lecture capture across City s learning spaces Build on the success of the DALI design of technologies for learning and teaching Deliver a stable, controllable and high quality lecture capture service B, in order to achieve this, we propose the following actions: Action Responsible Timescale 1. Strategic timetabling: Raise awareness of how to a request lecture capture enabled room. LEaD PaF (Timetabling) September Policy: Review and recommend updates to the current lecture capture policy. LCWG September Increase the number of rooms: Install lecture capture into all Year 1 (summer 2016) and Year 2 DALI (summer to January 2017 rooms that do not already have this, numbering 16 in total. IT LEaD January Consult with Schools, Professional Services, DALI board and other stakeholders on how to grow lecture capture from 2018/19 onwards and make a recommendation in time for budget planning. LEaD January 2018 Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 5 of 7

6 Appendix 1: Echo 360 System Report September 2013 to March 2017 Total captures by month since Sep LECTURE CAPTURE CAPTURES BY MONTH (ESS LOGS) SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG Total views by month since Sep LECTURE CAPTURE TOTAL VIEWS (ESS LOGS) SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 6 of 7

7 Learning Environment Committee, 23rd May 2017 Page 7 of 7