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Stephen Marquard
Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching
University of Cape Town
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The implementation of an Opt-Out Lecture Recording
Policy at the University of Cape Town
17 January 2019, Opencast Summit, Zurich

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UCT implemented a limited opt-out policy for lecture recording
after a number of years of organic growth in opt-in lecture
recording.
The opt-out policy led to a moderate increase in the number of
lectures recorded, with an opt-out rate of 41% in 2018.
Debates about the value of lecture recording continue.
17/01/2019 2
TLDR

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 Medium to large centrally bookable venues of 60+ seats (plus some smaller venues, some department-managed
venues, and some special-purpose venues)
 Cameras in all venues, tracking in larger venues (LectureSight, Track4K), 2 presentation streams
 Delivered to students on Opencast Theodul Player via LTI in Sakai LMS course sites
17/01/2019First name Surname (edit via “Insert” > “Header & Footer”) 3
What we record

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Feb 2012 Opencast launched as a production service (venues added each year until 2018)
May 2015 Presentation to Teaching & Learning Committee suggested opt-out as a possible model
Feb 2016 Simple opt-out pilot with two departments (Physics and Chemical Engineering)
Sep 2016 Student protest demand
Oct 2016 Academics’ Union counter-demand
May 2017 Proposal to Teaching & Learning Committee for Lecture Recording Policy including opt-out
Jun 2017 Meeting with Consultative Forum for Academic Staff Matters
Sep 2017 Draft Lecture Recording Policy presented to Senate Executive Committee
Sep 2017 Draft Lecture Recording Policy presented to Senate
Sep 2017 Revised Lecture Recording Policy circulated for final approval (no objections submitted)
July 2018 Opt-Out Provision of Lecture Recording Policy implemented
17/01/2019 4
The long and winding road to opt-out

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https://www.thedailyvox.co.za/continuing-feesmustfall-protests-shut-uct/

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2016 Demands
Students
Staff

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Opt-Out Provision of the Policy

|| 17/01/2019First name Surname (edit via “Insert” > “Header & Footer”) 8
Recording
numbers
Launched in 2013
Growth of equipped
venues from 2013 to
2018
Opt-out implemented
from July 2018
(Semester 2)
Up to 980 recordings
per week (typically 50
minutes each)
Campus
shutdowns
Opt-Out

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Scaling work
Streamlined or eliminated time-consuming processes
• Series creation and scheduling (moved from paper-based form to online self-service or automated)
• Presenter consent (changed policy; shifted responsibility to course convenor for timetabled lectures)
• Trimming (automating identification of start and end of lecture for unattended trimming)
• Smart workflows
Got access to the required information
• Course convenor field added to authoritative source for course information (Peoplesoft)
• Webservice for Syllabus+ timetable data
Improved performance, servers and storage
• >50K total assets, > 10K scheduled per semester, 250+ per day, 150-200 concurrent workflows
• Targeted fixes and larger improvements for pain points (e.g. scheduler rewrite for Opencast 7)
• More worker nodes, more storage (>100 TB), backup strategies, retention cycle (work in progress)

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 Course convenors (academic staff) set up course sites on Sakai LMS (Vula) at any time
(optionally scheduling their own lectures)
 2 weeks before start of term: emails to Heads of Department with department-wide opt-out
option, optionally update details of course convenors
 1 week before start of term: emails to course convenors with opt-out option
 Start of term: for courses that have not opted out:
 New series created in Opencast for the course
 Lecture Recordings tool added / updated to the course site
 Recordings scheduled for the semester (6 months) from the course timetable.
 Self service schedule updates are still available
 Timetable changes are propagated automatically to the Opencast recording schedule (events
scheduled from Syllabus+ are identified through Source DC metadata field)
17/01/2019 11
Process flow

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 Recording volumes went up by 17%. Student footprint did not change
significantly.
 Analysed the 4th week of the semester, so we could establish the impact of
self-service scheduling choices after the initial opt-out scheduling
 Lectures timetabled in 147 venues, of which 70 are equipped for recording.
 299 undergraduate courses timetabled in equipped venues
 88 courses opted-out: initial opt-out rate of 29%
 Some courses opted out late (cancelled recordings after start of term), some
opted-out courses opted-in (scheduled recordings after start of term)
 In week 4, 177 of the 299 courses recorded lectures, giving an effective
opt-out rate of 41%
17/01/2019 12
Effects of the opt-out policy

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Recordings per week in 2018

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Daily and weekly users in 2018

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Recording by Faculty
2016
Semester 2
2018
Semester 2

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 Policy flexibility not well understood (perceived as all or nothing)
 Misplaced blame on policy (for example, a concern raised in July 2018 was that
“the policy of opt out is having negative effects on attendance” but this was
before the opt-out policy was actually implemented.
 Evidence cited is usually anecdotal, and from the lecturer’s point of view
 Attendance anxiety
 Student demand
17/01/2019 16
Debates

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 Shape the debate on campus (foreground student perspectives; share recent
research; move past ”attendance and performance” initial concerns to focus on
teaching and learning process and the value of lectures)
 Proactively provide advice to students (for example recent paper: Lecture
capture: Practical recommendations for students and lecturers
https://psyarxiv.com/sd7u4, Nordmann et al)
 Add more value to lecture recordings (transcripts, captioning)
 Equipping new custom venues and venues in new buildings
17/01/2019 17
What’s next for lecture recording at UCT

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UCT Lecture Recording Policy
https://www.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/328/about/policies/Lecture_Recording_Policy_2017.pdf
Students present demands at mass meeting
https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2016-09-21-students-present-demands-at-mass-meeting
Academic Union’s Demands for Salary Negotiations 2017
http://www.au.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/207/AcademicsUnion/Issues/UCTAU%20Salary%20Demands%
20to%20UCT%20October%202016.pdf
Memorandum of Agreement for 2017 and 2018 between UCT and UCT Academics’ Union
http://www.hr.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/236/er/staffbodies/AU_agreement_2017_2018.pdf
UCT Student Mental Health Policy
https://www.uct.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/328/about/policies/Student-Mental-Health-Policy.pdf
17/01/2019 18
References

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http://source.cet.uct.ac.za/svn/sakai/peoplesoftIntgration/trunk/sPlusVersionedFast.pl
https://github.com/cilt-uct/optout-webservice
https://github.com/cilt-uct/tsugi-welcome-to-lecture-recording
http://slideshare.net/smarquard
17/01/2019 19
May the Source be with you
This presentation

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The implementation of an Opt-Out Lecture Recording Policy at the University of Cape Town

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