Cambridge (try to) stop recorded lectures

[Fathercrossmas]

I have to admire their stance here. While I think that recorded lectures should be available for those who might struggle attending or need them to support inclusive learning profiles, I do think for the majority they lose out in the long term. Binge watching lectures a week before an exam is no way to engage with a subject.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/03/cambridge-scholars-face-student-backlash-scrapping-recorded/

I do think note taking is actually problematic for most students. I encourage mine to listen and engage rather than scribble away frantically. I signpost all my sources so it's not like the info needs to be noted constantly.

I used to just let my students have my speaking notes (in the PowerPoint).

The students who thought this was a substitute for attendance (and often reading) didn’t tend to do very well, as you can imagine.

I once had a student actually try to quite aggressively grab my notes out of my hand at the end of the lecture because she was so insistent that she was entitled to them.

We don't give our notes to students because we know, from experience, that they'll get regurgitated verbatim in exams with none of the interpretation that we're looking to assess.

We don't give our notes to students because we know, from experience, that they'll get regurgitated verbatim in exams with none of the interpretation that we're looking to assess.

This was my argument too. Not always well received.

A transcript of the recorded lecture is automatically created in MS Streams. They can copy that if they want, although apparently it’s a right pain.

I actually uploaded mine to turnitin to see how many matches I would get. And how many of them were going to fail regardless of their plagiarism.

There were no exams on the programme I worked on.

A bit of a rush to get there after rowing for some I suppose.

In my experience, the higher achieving students prefer to do both. Not having to worry about taking notes during the lecture means that they can concentrate fully on what is being said/shown.

DD said that watching a lecture live in a lecture theatre then going over it again online really helped consolidate the topic. She was working at a first all the way through university and achieved a good first class degree. I would have thought this a good way to work regardless of which university the student is at.

Ideally I'd like lectures recorded but not shared with students automatically. Students could access them in term if they have a fair reason for it (disability, illness) -- e.g., if one of my students tells me they can't come to class because they have covid, I could give them access to the recording so they don't feel they have to come in. Then perhaps share all the recordings once term is over.

So true.

DD says that during lockdown when all lectures were recorded the lectures were much longer. In a lecture theatre they were 50 minutes long. When they were only online some of them were three hours long.

Have you ever tried listening/watching back the recorded lectures? The sound quality is generally really poor

A radio lapel microphone works quite well to ensure all that is recorded is your voice. The only downside is that question and answer sessions can be a bit one sided. Adding them to the FAQs in the online course material is one way around it, although a bit of a faff.

You have to be very careful what you say while the mike is turned on. I was once using a very heavy item as a prop and dropped it on my fingers. I had to edit the recording.

When they were only online some of them were three hours long.

We were instructed to break them down into 15-20 minute videos. There were more of them, obviously.

You can repeat what students say back, as long as that’s practicable.

Works best if they’re asking the questions, or with short responses to your questions.

DD dislikes recorded lectures, she would rather be able to ask questions and seek clarification if necessary. Plus, it means she has to leave her tiny little room.