Content that is recorded and shared for educational purposes using the Re/Play system falls under the remit of the University Recording Educational Activities Policy. This Policy has been written to support, enable and promote the recording of educational activities, it applies to all students (undergraduate, taught and research postgraduate) and is updated annually.
Aspects of the Policy which are particularly useful to consider relate to copyright, opting out, ownership of recordings, consent forms and accessibility.
Staff have responsibility to ensure they comply with copyright legislation relating to their lectures and educational activities. Staff acknowledge their responsibility to ensure that use of third party copyrighted materials in the recordings is not in breach of data protection legislation or of any confidentiality obligations and does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property rights.
If you have any concerns about materials within a presentation, you can press the lectern button in the lecture theatre to pause and restart the recording as necessary.
Library Services, in conjunction with Digital Education Office, provide advice about the use of third-party materials. Further queries relating to copyright should be directed to your Subject Librarian.
For anyone considering opting out of recording, it is important to read the Policy carefully. Opting out of recording may be possible in certain, limited circumstances, but not in cases where recording is required for reasonable adjustments. All requests to opt out must go to IT Services via the Unit Director, as do requests to opt back in.
Staff own the performance rights in the recording of their teaching activities. By recording their teaching, staff give permission to the University to capture the educational activities and use the rights in any performance solely for educational purposes.
Therefore, the staff member who made the recording will own it in the Re/Play system, and it will appear in that person’s ‘My Mediasite’ area. The exception to this is if a timetabled session has more than one staff member associated with it, as then the ownership will default to the Unit Director in absence of a clear owner. It is therefore important to ensure timetabling information for lectures is correct. A staff member can decide to share ‘editing’ rights of a recording with other relevant staff and students, while still maintaining the ownership of the recording.
Where technically possible, recordings with their accompanying materials made for educational purposes will be made available to students for the duration of their programme of study. Recorded teaching materials may be made available to subsequent cohorts at the discretion of the unit director, though not with the intention of replacing live teaching. However, recorded teaching materials created by former members of staff will not be distributed to subsequent cohorts unless the member of staff had been employed specifically to create media or resources for long-term use. The University will withdraw recordings which are no longer in use, and dispose of them, save any retention for archival purposes or historical interest at the School’s request.
Schools must always obtain a signed External speaker recording release request form (Office document, 28kB) before recording a lecture. This applies to non-honorary staff or those lecturers who are here on "One-off or very short term arrangements (lasting less than 4 weeks)" whereby there is no need to sign a contract with the University. Guidance can be found on the University HR website, which has more information on contract types if you are unsure. It is advised that Schools add consent form checks to local induction procedures. It is suggested the consent form is sent to guests in advance of their visit, along with an explanation of why it is needed.
All recorded video content must be captioned to make sure it is accessible by meeting the international WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standard. In addition, reasonable adjustments will be made for disabled students which may include but are not limited to the provision of recordings of teaching with subtitling where this is required. In these circumstances, students must contact Disability Services in the first instance to ensure they receive the correct support.
Is it good practice to ensure what is recorded will be accessible for your students, aside from providing captions. See more information about creating accessible content.
