Prepare for new academic year guide

All taught sessions classified as lectures in the MyTimetable system will be automatically scheduled to be recorded using Lecture Capture if they are timetabled in a Lecture Capture enabled room. Lecture recordings will start to be scheduled from 5th August 2024 and recordings are scheduled 180 days in advance. Subsequent changes or cancellations will also be handled automatically. This helps City meet the default position under the Online Teaching Materials & Lecture Recordings Policy, that all lectures will be captured using Lecture Capture or other software. 

A small subset of timetabled ‘lectures’ are excluded from the automated process.
Current exclusions from the automated process are:

1. events more than 8 hours long
2. joint teaching activities
3. co-located activity taking place in multiple rooms

IT have been scheduling these activities manually using data extracted from MyTimetable every few days, and hope to have these integrated into the automatic process for lecture recording for the start of the new academic year. 

To facilitate the automatic scheduling Lecture Capture recordings, recording schedules need to be set consistently and reflect how most recordings are captured.

Lecture Capture recordings that are automatically scheduled will record the following sources:  

• Audio (A) 
• Data Projector (D) 
• Video Camera (V) 

Lecture Capture live stream will not be enabled on automatically scheduled recordings. If you need to change the sources to be recorded and/or to enable live stream you will be able to do this via IT Self Service Portal. 

Benefits of Video Camera capture

All Lecture Capture rooms have been fitted with professional high-resolution cameras that are adjustable from the Pod Controls and can capture in low light. Capturing the Video Camera has many benefits including:

1. Captures the lecturer/presenter close up or across the whole teaching zone.
2. Captures work on the whiteboard e.g. Maths equations, writing and diagrams.
3. Captures non-verbal communication.
4. Gives students reviewing the recording a sense of being at the lecture.
5. Creates a visual record of activities e.g. demonstrations, panels.
6. Provides visual cues for those watching and searching the recording.
7. Provides visual cues for those attending on live stream.

Review the screencast on Pod Controls, which covers how to check and change camera views when your teaching session is being recorded with Lecture Capture.

Request change of sources or enable live stream

Lecture Capture does not rollover, so you must add a Lecture Capture activity from Add an activity or resource on the relevant Moodle module. Lecture Capture recordings will be scheduled with a 1-day delay before becoming available to students. This provides staff with time to edit the recording or to request that the recording is deleted if the lecture did not take place as scheduled. 

Staff may want to record other types of taught sessions and make these recordings available for students. The Lecture Capture booking form on IT Self Service Portal will enable staff to request recordings of taught sessions not classified as lectures on MyTimetable. 

Remember to add your exceptions to the booking form for weeks you are not teaching the session - e.g. reading week. Otherwise the empty room or private conversations will be recorded and made available to your students via the Lecture Capture activity on Moodle.