Lecture Capture

Sandy Carpenter, PhD Candidate, Course Instructor

Courses: HIS308 History of Women Pre-1800 and HIS310 History of Women Since 1800
Class Size: 30-90 students
Duration of Class: Half-year
Class Style: Lecture/Seminar

Sandy is completing her PhD in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. Her teaching interests include medieval and women’s history as well accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom.

For all her lectures, Sandy uses lecture capture technology on her personal computer to record her lectures, which she then shares with students. Lecture capture technology allows students to make different choices about how they want to learn. For example, students in the class might be able to relax and just listen to the lecture in class, knowing it will be available online later. Or a student might need to miss a class or two due to a mental health concern and knowing the lecture will be posted later is one less thing to worry about when in crisis.

It also provides an opportunity for students, who have difficulty keeping up with the concepts in class, with a chance to review the lecture at a later time, at their own pace. It’s also helpful for instructors who may have to miss a class for unforeseen reasons, and who still want to review that week’s materials in a lecture style. For those concerned, lecture capture does not reduce the level of participation or attendance in class.

HOW TO:
The lecture capture technology, available to all University of Toronto instructors, is called TechSmith Relay and is an easily downloadable software program.

To download the software, visit the Academic Technology Information and Quercus Help webpage.

Under “Help Resources”, click on the link for “TechSmith Relay Instructions”

Follow the instructions for “Downloading and Installing”

Come back to TechSmith Relay site to learn more about how to record and share a session and to troubleshoot any issues you may encounter in the process.

All the recorded sessions will be uploaded to, and saved in your “MyMedia” file which is accessed using your UtorID.

Support is available from the Academic and Collaborative Technologies (ACT) team.

PRO TIP:
Once the software is up and running on your computer, do a test run, ideally in your classroom.

Consider including a “recording policy” in your syllabus to inform students that they may be recorded and that you are open to having conversations with any concerned student.

To safeguard students, and your own intellectual property, make recordings only available to “view online” (and not downloadable) and restrict access to individuals with a UtorID. These settings are all programmable in “MyMedia”.

Explain to students why you are using lecture capture and some of the benefits. It will help them understand how they might use it and that it is not a substitute for in-class participation and discussion.