Update to the recording of taught content policy

The recording of taught content in courses (in lectures and other teaching activities) is covered by the policy:

Recording of Taught Content Policy and Procedures

This policy was approved by the University Council in December 2023 and replaced the former policy: Lecture Capture and Release Policy and Procedures.

Work on updating the policy commenced in 2022 owing to the implementation of the Panopto app for recordings.

• A number of references in the current policy needed updating to align with the technical capabilities of Panopto.
• Panopto introduced automatically-generated captions, and these needed to be included in the policy.

A draft updated policy was approved for consultation by the Teaching and Learning Quality Committee (TLQC) in early 2023, and it was made available to the University community in May 2023 – staff and students. 

A number of submissions on the draft policy (version 2023-04-13) were made by individuals by email, and by others through forums such as the Vice-Chancellors’ Student Consultative Group. 

The following table summarises the specific observations made in this feedback, and how the final version of the updated policy relate to these:

Individual submitters are not identified in the summary table.

TLQC considered the feedback from submitters and reflected further on the policy in the second half of 2023. 

A further innovation was to shift the focus of the policy firmly away from lectures and towards taught content, in order to emphasise that the purpose of the policy was to provide learning resources and in recognition of the way recordings are often used in courses (and especially in the post-Covid era).

 
This shift of focus recognises that learning takes different forms and that learning by acquisition is a common form in courses. Recordings of taught content necessarily support learning by acquisition by providing the opportunity for students to revisit the lectures in which content was provided, and to refresh their memories of core content.

The policy is scheduled for review in 2028 but may be amended earlier, if necessary. The Academic Quality Office (quality@auckland.ac.nz) can provide guidance on policy development in general; and the Associate Deans Learning and Teaching are key contacts in each faculty for commentary on the policy.