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Dr Becky Quew-Jones from the Faculty of Business and Law explores the challenges and benefits of recording lectures

Becky Quew-Jones

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For decades, lectures have been a cornerstone of higher education, especially efficient with large audiences. Its design assumed that students would attend in person, engage with the material during the session, and revisit the slide pack for revision purposes. As we progressed from less didactic lectures, and with larger cohorts, students were encouraged to hold student led Q&As, enter digital activities and peer partners for discussion in real time and build understanding within the teaching moment.  

The shift to online learning, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, changed that dynamic significantly. The whole lecture began to be routinely recorded, referred to as lecture capture and uploaded to virtual learning environments like Moodle, offering students the flexibility to rewatch at their own pace. This offers inclusive advantages for students and reduces anxiety supporting mental health. For students with disabilities or caregiving responsibilities, they can revisit content in their own time. This access contributes to widening mobility reaching through distance learning; outside of Hampshire, internationally or in different time zones. What began as a practical response to an emergency has now become a default expectation among many learners, highlighted in a recent request during student voice committee in business and law faculty. 

Yet, we are again at a new crossroads. With the advent of AI-powered learning tools, students are not only replaying the lecture they have the capability to redesign their own learning experiences digesting complex materials to suit their needs: summarising lecture content, generating flashcards from lecture content, and even simulating test questions using platforms like ChatGPT or Quizlet. This transformation may offer both exciting opportunities and potentially some challenges. Despite the promise, familiar challenges remain, and some are intensifying in the current context.   

The most prevalent challenge is the assumption that students who skip a campus lecture to catch up later often for most proves unfounded. It assumes students are self-reliant and autonomous from our module Moodle sites consistently show lower activity and engagement with recorded lecture content often watching the first five mins or not at all; translating from 鈥淚鈥檒l watch it later鈥 to 鈥淚 never got around to it.鈥 This questions the value of full lecture recordings, often highlighted in the literature. 

Lecturers are understandably cautious about having their content recorded and then shared widely due to privacy issues. There is now a potential for content to be shared further via Gen AI applications. For example, students upload a video to transcribe or summarise a lecture without consent with little appreciation for intellectual privacy.  This raises serious ethical and professional concerns, especially when guest speakers or sensitive topics are involved, potentially compromising freedom of speech. To partially overcome concerns, lecturers could request that the University Copilot is acceptable to transcribe videos to avoid other Gen AI platforms.  

Additionally, many lecturers feel uncomfortable publishing a video that has not been rehearsed for purpose. Recorded lectures often flatten the spontaneity and responsiveness of live teaching. Socratic dialogue, in-the-moment clarification, or spontaneous discussion is hard to replicate in a pre-recorded environment. This stifles pedagogical flexibility, especially for student centered teaching where there is a necessity for a safe place to exchange ideas, building confidence to flourish.  

An option could be to produce high-quality recordings of the lecture, which takes time, not just the recording itself but editing, captioning, and uploading. For many academics, this adds significant pressure, particularly when there is an expectation to 鈥減erform鈥 both live and polished versions of the same content. Rather than discarding lectures or defaulting to full recordings, we propose a more balanced, intentional strategy: -  

Introduce Flipped Learning Elements

Short, focused videos (three 鈥揻ive minutes) introducing key themes or concepts can be released ahead of the lecture. This primes students to engage with the session and promotes pre-class preparation, possibly enhanced through AI-powered summaries or background research. 

Maximise In-Session Engagement

Share the output on Moodle from tools like Mentimeter or Nearpod that make the lecture interactive.  Ask a student to take notes of the main discussion points accumulated then using AI can be generated to make quick notes for all.  

Record Strategically, Not Completely

Rather than uploading the full lecture, consider short recaps, key takeaways, or a two-minute summary video with links to readings or class slides. This maintains accessibility for students who are ill, caregiving, or working, without compromising the authenticity of the live session. Perhaps provide students with a lecturer prepared summarised and edited version. 

Protect Privacy and Intellectual Integrity

Discuss with students about the use and limits of lecture recordings, and that unintentionally they are compromising intellectual integrity. Avoid recording sensitive discussions, which provides opportunity to discuss boundaries around AI usage and sharing of material. 

In a world where AI can rewrite, summarise, and gamify content, the real-time human lecture has never been more valuable. The interaction, the questions, the unscripted moments are the heart of academic teaching. They cannot be fully captured in a video, nor should they be replaced by one.  If students perceive live lectures as no different from pre-recorded performances, why would they show up? We must protect the ambience and spontaneity that make live teaching powerful. At the same time, we must adapt, thoughtfully to the evolving expectations and needs of our students.  

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