Evolving lecture recording practice

Student interest in hour long lectures decreases after 18 minutes and is even less in a recorded lecture watched online.  Schools are flipping units to promote active learning on campus and developing brief multimedia resources to convey concepts for students to watch online. But it hasn't always been this way…

The current Lecture Recording Policy sets out how the University encourages and guides the use of lecture recording and publication of content. The policy focusses on automatic recording of lectures for delivery in vUWS as standard practice with language around the exceptional circumstances only where lectures are not to be recorded. This policy, created in 2014, evolved from an 'opt-in' approach to lecture capture to an 'opt-out'. Student focus in live lectures has been measured as peaking between 10-18 minutes after a 3-5 minute settling down period. Regardless of how engaging the remaining time in the lecture (and the lecturer) is, audience attention typically remains 'lost' until the last few minutes of the lecture. For recorded or digitised lectures, student attention has been calculated at between 6 and 15 minutes of passive listening. Good practice in produced video content recommends that recordings be between 6-15 minutes in length.

It is no longer standard practice across all schools to deliver or capture lectures as one or two-hour recordings. In many disciplines, flipped pedagogies and more active student-centred learning activities have replaced lecture recordings or lecture delivery entirely. LaTTe is developing a new policy to replace the current Lecture Recording Policy with a focus on engagement instead of lecture capture.

Connect and Collaborate

For support with strategies in filming lectures, contact your School Blended Learning Advisor and Designer (BLADES). For assistance with flipping units, connect and collaborate with your School Curriculum Advisors or School Blended Learning Advisor. You can also visit our site to find the latest Curriculum Resources (opens in a new window).

Learning Futures.NOW. Issue 1.

-November 2017-