Recording meetings

[CocoaX]

Have you ever had a student ask to record a feedback meeting?

Students can record lectures, there is a clear policy around that and what can be done with it. But recording supervision meetings is a new one on me.

Any thoughts?

I'm a student, and I've been considering asking my Supervisor for my final year project if she would mind me recording our meetings. I haven't asked yet, as the project hasn't officially started.

For me, it would be brilliant to transcribe the important points raised in the meeting. If I try to make notes during a one-to-one meeting it always feels awkward (like I'm taking too long to write!) and I feel like I'm less engaged in actually talking to them.

If I do ask to record the audio, I'd make it clear that she's perfectly fine to say no if it makes her uncomfortable.

No but I can't see why it would be a problem. The student may want to go over the ideas raised in their own time, may have special learning needs, etc.

It's recommended in one of the PhD guide books. My supervisor said he doesn't feel comfortable being recorded, so I decided not to. But it would have been good to keep him on his toes a bit

Thanks for your replies.

In theory I don't see it as a problem, but having been subject to a student complaint (it was judged to be unfounded - but it was very stressful and I was very glad to be able to produce paperwork to show the level of support I provided), my concerns relate to the potential use of information should there be problems. In short, if a recording of a meeting is made, all parties should have access to that recording, rather than it being for the students sole use.

Our PhD system is that a written record of each meeting is produced with action points to be taken. The student produces the record and the supervisors add comments/points missed or misunderstood and additional thoughts. Both parties create the record, and the postgrad office store it.

I totally get the student concern to capture all the information but I also think a valuable skill is note-taking. I don't need to be kept on my toes, the students I supervise are doing projects I am interested in and invested in their doing well.

I worked with someone who allowed PhD students on non-English speaking background to record their supervisions, on the proviso that the recordings were for the student's use only.

I think I might have a problem with undergraduates doing it as sometimes they can be quite thoughtless or disrespectful - recording sessions without asking and so on. Our disability service hands out "permission to record lectures" like smarties - and that's OK for lectures I suppose (although academic staff IP is rarely thought about) as it's usually just the lecturer. But I do have a problem with students recording seminars where most of the discussion is by their fellow students. I tend to sit back in seminars, directing traffic & opening up discussion, but letting them get on with the meat of the discussion.

Rambling, but in short: I don't think there's a one size fits all answer. IT may depend upon the individual student & the context.

And sympathies about a complaint - sadly, going by threads in this forum and the Higher Ed forum, that mind set is becoming more prominent. IT's awful.

I'd have loved this during my PhD. Though I'd also have felt a bit awkward.

I have similar reservations to addicted when it comes to undergrads, though. I have often had people come into my lectures and tell me, there and then, that they are entitled (or, worse, required on behalf of a student) to record my lecture. The most worrying example was when I was lecturing on sexual violence and had planned a whole lecture (with previous students' consent) to include participation and personal responses. A learning support worker showed up (for a student who had never attended the course previously) and started trying to browbeat me, insisting they had to record the lecture and had been given permission already by the disability office (who don't have authority over me, anyway). They were completely unable to understand why this might be a problem. And, worryingly, the first response was that I was lucky they'd 'asked' in the first place, as they could have 'just recorded it anyway and not told you'.

This was from an adult whose job, supposedly, was in student support.

That's outrageous , LRD. I hope you made a complaint to your university's disability services, or through your Department's Director of Studies.

I ought to. Being busy, I just gave her a piece of my mind, and haven't lectured anything quite like that since. In future I'd need to be cautious, though.

FWIW I doubt that the disability office had told her she must record - but you're asking people to do a job for which they don't get a great deal of training. Amanuenses are the same - some are great and some don't understand that it's not part of your job to provide them with lecture notes and a glossary.

I allow recording of my lectures and individual supervisory meetings or advice (not on personal matters, just academic study skills), in fact, I encourage it and record my own lectures for my students to use later, releasing them a couple of weeks after the actual lecture so as not to deter attendance, but still making them useful for essays or exam revision.

I don't allow recording where lots of people are present and interacting (seminars) as seminars are places people should be able to speak freely, try out idea, say controversial things, get on taboo topics without fear of being recorded. I would never allow recording in that situation LRD and can't understand that the support worker couldn't get it, I think you did the right thing in just saying no.

Many thanks for all your thoughts

I can see the benefits of recording - many a time one is sat in a meeting with a student making no notes whatsoever - but I would not like to see it overtake note-taking, as this is a skill (to be able to distil down key points) so I would see any recording as supplementary to that and not a replacement.

I like the idea of recording ones own lectures and posting them up - this was discussed a couple of years ago at departmental level and staff were against it as a rule, but there is no reason why one staff member could not do it. We do have a policy on lecture recording now, which places limits on the uses of materials, which was not in existence beforehand. This does not extend to one-to-one meetings.

In terms of LRD's example, we have a list of students with support needs circulated at the start of the semester, so I have to plan my lecture around the needs I know - including the need to record if that was stipulated. If I were to say that I would not record it, then I would anticipate planning a suitable alternative in advance. I personally think that there are so many ethical and pastoral issues around a lecture on sexual violence which includes personal testimonies from previous students (and/or participation by current students) that I would not do it without the appropriate consents for that material to be anonymised and shared in public. The Disability person, whilst rude, hints at a point you can't control - that people record the lecture anyway and don't let you know.

In some ways, I think this example does get at my concerns - a lecture is planned in advance, so you know the parameters it will cover. If you do a qualitative interview, you get appropriate consents and you have considered the ethical implications of creating and using the material and sought consent. An ad-hoc request to record a meeting is problematic as the implications have not been thought through - there may be no implications, but I think it still behoves on us professionally to give them consideration. And I agree totally that recording a seminar is inappropriate, unless all participants consent and get a copy of the recording. Seminars should be about speaking freely.

One reason I have recorded all my lectures is also in case I'm ill or want to go to a conference in term-time (rare but occasional). It makes me feel better knowing that I have a full set of lectures, plus I often get approached to record anyway by people who are recording for friends who are ill/going home for a funeral, so it seemed to make more sense to have copies of everything.

However, there are intellectual property issues if you are recorded by your own institution, not just lectures but other materials, and I think this is going to prove a divisive factor- with students wanting everything online and recorded and staff worried that their intellectual property is compromised. I'm not worried about being replaced as someone said on here, but I am worried about losing the intellectual content of what I produce in a wider sense, even papers/reports etc, due to business practices coming into the academic sphere and universities feeling like they own what we do in every sense.