Lecture Recording Policy

The lecture recording policy was implemented on 1 January 2019 and then reviewed in 2023.

You do not have to do anything. If you are using a lecture recording-enabled teaching room, your lectures will be scheduled to be recorded automatically unless you opt out.

The Lecture Recording Programme has put in place a simple online tool to enable opt-out. Course Organisers and Course Secretaries have access to this tool by default. Other members of staff teaching on courses can be added upon request. The Replay Scheduler can be accessed here.

Recordings that are initiated manually (an “ad hoc recording”), rather than using the automatic scheduler, will also be captured on the interface.

Where you are happy for recordings to be scheduled automatically, no action will be required.

The interface allows search by course name or course code and displays schedules of lectures allocated to rooms enabled for lecture recording. There are simple drop-down options where you can choose to opt out of scheduled recordings by selecting one of the following reasons:

• No: Pedagogical reasons

• No: Privacy / Legal / Ethical reasons

• No: Personal reasons

• No: Using Ad-hoc recording

You will be able to opt out of recording at course level or specific lectures within a course.

The policy states that Schools will notify students which of their lectures will be recorded and of any lecture recording arrangement changes (Sections 2.4 and 2.5).

The policy covers permitted and prohibited uses of the recordings; standards and responsibilities for providing the service; accessibility; rights in the recordings; use of third-party copyright materials; security and retention of recordings.

If an external lecturer will be recorded they must complete the appropriate agreement form, which can be found here: https://edin.ac/2N0NAWK. External visiting lecturers (or their employer as appropriate) retain copyright on work and any other intellectual property rights they generate and, by accepting the terms of the external visiting lecturer agreement on lecture recording, agree to grant the University a non-exclusive licence to use the recording for the essential purpose in this policy.

The University and the lecturer both have rights in the recording. If a student contributes to a lecture, they will also hold some rights. Under the new policy, everyone retains their rights and agrees that the University can use the recording for defined and limited purposes. You can find out more in Sections 1 and 4 of the policy.

Yes.  The policy assumes that giving a lecture is a qualifying performance under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.  The lecturer, and any student making a contribution, such as asking or answering a question, may have rights in a performance that would be infringed by recording without consent.  Under this legislation, the policy informs you that your agreement for your performance to be recorded will be assumed but that you can choose to opt out of being recorded.  This means you should always be given information on whether a lecture is to be recorded and you should always have the means to opt out of being recorded.

No.  Personal data in recordings may include your name, image, voice and any personal opinions expressed during the recording.  The University processes your personal data on the lawful basis of its legitimate interests in providing the lecture recording service to its staff and students.  This complies with current data protection legislation, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation. 

We do not process personal data for lecture recording using the lawful basis of consent for a number of reasons.  One is that the inherent power imbalance between the University and an individual employee or student means it would be difficult to guarantee your consent was freely given.  Another is that, under data protection legislation, freely given consent can be withdrawn at any time.  These withdrawals would be very onerous for the University to implement and would immediately deprive students of the recordings concerned.

No. The policy states explicitly that a recording cannot be used during industrial action without the consent of the lecturer involved (see policy clause 1.4iii). This is the first lecture recording policy to make this provision. The policy is designed to protect colleagues in meeting the objectives of the University to provide an inclusive and comprehensive lecture recording service. Paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 of the policy also give the lecturer control over the use of their recordings for performance or peer review.

Yes. Recordings made before August 2023 will be retained for 18 months. A new retention policy was introduced in August 2023 and recordings made during one academic year are retained until the end of the following academic year, then deleted in the October.  If you wish to retain your recordings for longer, you should arrange to upload them to Media Hopper Create.

If a copy is made of any recordings then they are treated in the same way a new recording would be. This means that the retention period is based on the date the copy was made.

As always, we advise moving content to Media Hopper Create if you wish to re-use or keep it for longer than the standard retention period.

Lectures must cite copyright material appropriately. This is the case whether or not your lecture is recorded.

Under the Accessible and Inclusive Learning Policy, students are already entitled to make recordings of lectures using their own devices. Both this and the lecture recording policy state that students may only use lecture recordings for the purpose of their own personal study. The sharing of lecture recordings is prohibited and action will be taken if this occurs. 

The Senate Education Committee is responsible for this policy.  A representative task group including academic and professional staff, students and trades unions consulted widely within the University on the original policy in 2018 and made significant changes in response to feedback.  A similar representative task group reviewed the policy in 2022 and proposed minor changes to the retention period.

The policy is available here. 

To find out more about the policy you can contact either of the following:

Melissa Highton, Assistant Principal Online Learning at Melissa.Highton@ed.ac.uk

Neil McCormick, Educational Technology Policy Officer at Neil.McCormick@ed.ac.uk