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Policy on Audio or Video Recording for Educational Purposes

Contents of this page:

Section 1: Information about the person completing this assessment
Section 2: About the policy, procedure or practice
Section 3: Involvement and Consultation
Section 4: Gathering data and evidence
Section 5: Assessing the impact
Section 6: Addressing any impact: action planning
Section 7: Approval & Publishing

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Section 1: Information about the person completing this assessment

Name: Neil Morris
Job title: Dean of Digital Education
Faculty/Service Area: Faculty of Education Social Sciences & Law
Email: n.p.morris@Leeds.ac.uk

Section 2: About the policy, procedure or practice

Title of the policy, procedure or practice: Policy on Audio or Video Recording for Educational Purposes

Please describe the aims and purpose of the policy, procedure or practice in roughly 100 words or less:

The Policy deals with the recording by the University, its students or others, of activities with an educational purpose (which may include research activity/repurposed research activity). All types of audio or video recordings are covered all in media.

Recording of these activities is an important part of the University’s strategy to enhance the quality of the student experience and ensure an inclusive, accessible experience for all students.

Proposed updates to the Policy:

  1. reflect the importance of recordings of learning and teaching activities, the role of audio and video recordings to support inclusivity, and providing access to recordings for accessibility
  2. clarify the exceptions to recording
  3. include statements around the use of lapel microphones, introduction of automatic captioning of audio and video recordings and meet the requirements of the EU Web Accessibility legislation coming into force in September 2020
  4. amend the automated publication time from 72 hours to 2 working days
  5. reflect the recording of all educational activities using any system
  6. to address specific issues, such as student recordings and ownership, lecture capture retention/deletion policy, and access to recording downloads.

Other partners/decision-makers involved in the development of the policy, procedure or practice (if any):

Faculty Taught Student Education Committees
Taught Student Education Board
University Executive Group
Senate

Who will this policy, procedure or practice apply to? For example, staff, students, visitors, the general public:

This policy will impact on all taught UG and PGT students, teaching staff and visitors of the University of Leeds.

Section 3: Involvement and Consultation

What involvement and consultation activity has been undertaken or is planned in relation to this policy, procedure or practice? For example, you may have used focus groups, surveys or one to one interviews, to collate feedback from relevant groups about the policy, procedure or practice.

  • This Policy was originally introduced in 2014, and updated in 2016
  • A revised Policy was drafted in early 2020, and reviewed at a number of institutional student education committees, including Lecture Capture Multimedia Management Operational Group, Captioning Task and Finish Group, Digital Education Committee, Pro-Deans Group, Taught Student Education Board.
  • Consultation on the revised policy was carried out in May/June 2020 with: Faculty/cross-institutional Taught Student Education Committees; campus trades unions; Services; Leeds University Union
  • An all staff open consultation was provided via For Staff in May / June 2020 and all staff were able to complete a web form providing their comments/feedback on the proposed policy

Section 4: Gathering data and evidence

Have you identified relevant evidence (qualitative and quantitative) to establish whether this policy, procedure or practice could potentially affect some equality groups more than others? This might include analysing equality data for each of the groups identified in Section 5 and/or identifying/researching anecdotal or alternative evidence. Please include any relevant evidence when submitting this assessment.

  • A large-scale longitudinal research study of Leeds’ staff and student perceptions of ‘lecture capture’ use of recordings, and the impact of recordings on lecture attendance was published in 2019. The findings demonstrated the strong demand, and use of recordings, by students, particularly students with disabilities and students whose first language is not English. The findings showed universal positive support for lecture recordings by students. The study also included analysis of staff surveys on perceptions of lecture recordings, who had a mix of positive and negative perceptions about lecture recordings.
  • Since the policy was introduced in 2014, Disability Services have received and logged numerous complaints from students with disabilities about the lack of availability of recording of educational activities. The University has over 3500 taught UG and PGT students who have reported disabilities, and Disability Services estimate that at least the same number again have disabilities such as Dyslexia who are not registered with them.
  • Analysis of ‘lecture capture’ recording policies across the Russell Group shows that the majority have adopted ‘opt out’ policies and are increasingly reducing exceptions for recording, to ensure all students have access to learning materials (eg, students with disabilities). In particular, disabled students do not feel they should have to take recording devices to the front to ask lecturers to allow a recording, which causes them embarrassment and requires them to disclose their needs, and is sometimes challenged by staff. Other students (eg, those with dyslexia or learning / processing difficulties) have stated that recordings allow them to rewatch and pause lectures which they couldn’t capture notes from in the time available.
  • The introduction of automatic captioning of audio and video recordings is currently being piloted, as a requirement of the EU Web Accessibility legislation. Evidence shows that students perceive high value in closed captions and transcripts for learning, and they provide essential access to learning materials for some students with particular educational needs (eg, students with hearing impairments).
  • Consultation with the Campus Trade Unions suggested that some staff may be negatively impacted by the AV recording policy, eg, disabled staff, part-time staff. This may affect 3% of the academic staff who have registered as disabled, or the 24% of staff who have declared as having caring responsibilities (and may be more likely to work part-time).

Section 5: Assessing the impact

Using examples from the evidence you have collected and using the list below for reference, how might different equality groups be affected by this policy, procedure or practice? Where possible please describe the impact as ‘positive’, ‘negative’ or ‘neutral’.

Age                                                    

Staff and students - Potentially negative

  • Some mature students may not be as technically adept as younger students, so may initially require extra support to access and become confident with using recordings. Support for all students on the use of lecture recordings is available via Skills@Library.
  • Older staff may find learning new technologies more challenging. Professional development is available for all staff to support use of the digital education systems at the University.

Disability

Students - Positive

  • Recordings can be invaluable to those students with disabilities (eg, learning or processing difficulties, visual impairments, hearing impairments, physical disabilities), allowing them to fully benefit from the recorded educational activity. Recordings support the Inclusive Teaching Practice baselines.

Staff – Potentially negative

  • Staff who use a wheelchair or who have difficulty physically pressing the button (eg, individuals with arthritis) may have difficulty reaching the pause button on lecterns in teaching spaces to allow live editing of recordings using the Mediasite system. Staff Facilities Directorate are working to ensure that pause buttons on lecterns are easily accessible and reachable, and are working through a programme of replacement of all buttons.
  • Staff with visual impairment may have difficulty using screen readers to navigate the University’s digital education systems. The University is working with all system vendors to ensure compliance with the EU Web Accessibility Legislation, and compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
  • Staff with speech impediments may find that automatic captions are consistently poor quality, and feel pressure to manually edit these. The University is providing the ability to re-submit poor quality captions for human captioning (by a third party) to reduce the workload on staff.
  • Staff with physical disabilities may feel anxious about video recordings of educational activities. The University’s digital education systems allow for recordings to take place without video, and to only record screen and audio.
  • Some staff with disabilities may find it difficult for them to review recordings before the 2 working day auto-publication. The University’s Mediasite site system allows staff to easily prevent auto-publication of recordings (in a matter of clicks), which staff would be able to do immediately after the recording is made available to them.

Gender reassignment

Staff – potentially negative

  • Staff may feel anxious about video recordings of educational activities. The University’s digital education systems allow for recordings to take place without video, and to only record screen and audio.

Marriage and civil partnership

Neutral

Pregnancy and maternity

Students – potentially positive

  • Recordings may be helpful to students who are pregnant or who are caring for babies and small children, as they can access the learning activities at a time of their choosing.

Staff - Potentially negative

  • Some staff may have caring duties or who work part-time that make it difficult for them to review recordings before the 2 working day auto-publication. The university’s Mediasite site system allows staff to easily prevent auto-publication of recordings (in a matter of clicks), which staff would be able to do immediately after the recording is made available to them.

Race

Students - Potentially negative

  • There is some evidence to suggest that students of colour are more likely to lack the home technology or access to participate effectively in digital learning. Students are able to access laptops for loan (without cost), and all students have access to IT induction training, and advice/guidance about using digital technology effectively for learning.

Students - Positive 

  • For students who do not have English as their first language, recording will offer them increased opportunity to access, understand and digest the learning.

Religion and belief (including no belief)

Students - Positive

  • Access to learning activities for students who may not otherwise have been able to attend due to religious commitments, allowing them to fully benefit from the recorded educational activity at a time of their choosing.

Staff and students - Potentially negative

  • Some staff and students may have religious beliefs that prohibit them being filmed; however, clear ‘opt out’ guidance is given in the Policy and in ‘In room’ notices. All individuals who are recorded have a right to Edit in the policy.
  • Staff who are lecturing about sensitive topics (eg, Middle East politics) may feel recording of their views may be harmful if published outside the University. The Policy, and the University’s digital education systems, have clear publication and ‘content ownership’, and recordings can only be published and shared by the staff recorded. External publication of recordings requires explicit opt-in. The University has a clear take-down policy for any material published on external websites without authority, and has a clear disciplinary procedure for students found to violate its policies.

Gender

Neutral

Sexual orientation

Neutral

Caring responsibilities

Students - Positive

  • Recordings can be helpful to students with caring responsibilities, allowing them to access and fully benefit from the recorded educational activity at a time of their choosing.

Staff - Potentially negative

  • Some staff may have caring duties that make it difficult for them to review recordings before the 2 working day auto-publication. The University’s Mediasite site system allows staff to easily prevent auto-publication of recordings (in a matter of clicks), which staff would be able to do immediately after the recording is made available to them.

Section 6: Addressing any impact: action planning

Please describe any actions you will take as a result of undertaking this assessment, including the timescale for each action and who will be responsible for the action.

Action 1: Gathering feedback from staff and students, particularly from those who have one or more protected characteristics, via the following mechanisms:

  • Logging of reported issues/complaints to Disability Services.
  • Staff to report concerns to Head of School / Service, who should pass them anonymously to HR for collation.
  • Digital Education Systems User Group – available to all staff and students to provide feedback on digital education systems – advertised via For Staff and Students website. Meets termly.
  • Bi-annual student survey on digital education experience, including digital education systems, with results published widely.
  • Staff to report technical problems with in-room equipment or digital education systems to relevant Service – Facilities Directorate (email: eshelp@leeds.ac.uk) and Digital Education Service (email: digitaleducation@leeds.ac.uk).

Timescale: With immediate effect
Responsibility: All teaching staff

Action 2: Provide guidance for staff on the operation of the digital education systems with recording functionality

Timescale: With immediate effect, via Digital Practice Website
Responsibility: Dean of Digital Education

Action 3: Provide guidance for staff on the Audio-Video Recording Policy

Timescale: By September 2020, via Secretariat and Digital Practice websites
Responsibility: Dean of Digital Education

Section 7: Approval & Publishing

Signature of person completing this Equality Impact Assessment (an electronic signature will be accepted):
N. Morris (Dean of Digital Education)
Date: 16 June 2020