Lecture capture can enhance students' work in your classes. As with all teaching tools, however, Kaltura lecture capture will only be as effective as you make it. Practice is an important component in raising your comfort level and integrating lecture capture smoothly into your classroom.
Lecture Classes vs. Discussion Classes
As you consider whether Kaltura use is right for you, please keep in mind that "lectures" and "discussions" have different pedagogical implications, and therefore, may not yield the same results when they are recorded. If you teach a course that is predominantly lecture (even interactive lecture, with students asking questions and participating in give and take with you), lecture capture might be a good tool for content delivery. If, however, you teach a class that relies heavily on student-to-student discussions and interactions, recording what happens in class could have a dampening effect on students' willingness to contribute openly and honestly. Particularly if you teach subjects that result in very emotionally or personally charged discussions, you might want to use Kaltura only for those portions of class that involve your delivering content. While there are potentially some privacy considerations when recording student discussions, there are even more significant pedagogical ones, if the fact that the discussion is being recorded serves as an impediment to open, honest exchange of ideas. Instructors should use their best judgment about how best to engage students in lively discussion as a group, while also protecting the identities and ideas of individual students.
Quick Tips
A few simple guidelines/suggestions for a good recording experience:
- Keep it simple: Do not over-complicate the process, especially in the beginning. To make a recording, all you need is a computer, a microphone and the ability to press Play, Pause and Stop.
- Prepare and setup before you click Record: Open all your PowerPoint slides, set up tabs for websites. It will make it easier to access the parts of your presentation once recording has started.
- Inform the class
- Use Pause instead of muting the microphone: If you want to put the recording on hold while you talk "off the record" or open up a new part of the presentation, use the Pause button. The big red PAUSED notation on the recording is much more obvious and you are less likely to forget to turn the recording back on
- Repeat the question: Audio pickup is usually not very good on the back side of the microphone. Repeat questions or comments so that they will be picked up by the recording.
Using Lecture Capture Successfully
Before you start, make sure that you:
Determine whether or not lecture capture is an appropriate choice to accomplish your objectives. Identify clear goals for your lectures and class time and consider how you want students to use recorded lectures and how you want to use class time.
Determine whether you have the time to prepare recordings consistently throughout the entire semester. Identify technology needs and concerns (will you record in your classroom? in your office? what equipment is installed? what equipment will you need to set up?)
Consider any copyright issues. Will you need release forms from your students?
Decide if you will want to re-use lectures in other courses. This will determine how and what you capture.
Decide on file formats for delivering your recordings to students (streaming, downloadable, some combination)
Take the time to experiment with recording quality. Make some practice recordings. Poor sound quality can ruin a recording.
Make recording available as soon as possible after a lecture or before exams. The default setting makes recordings available automatically as soon as they are processed by the system; you can modify this setting if you wish to review recordings before they are published to your students.
Consider annotating recordings to add emphasis and focus.
If students are assigned to watch a recording before class, provide them with content-related questions, applied problem solving or other learning activities.
Provide detailed instructions for accessing and playing lectures at the beginning of the course.
Consider making recordings accessible during the class so students can make notes.
Use student feedback to evaluate the use and effectiveness of lecture capture in your course.