Lecture recording faqs

Yes, for rooms that are equipped with a lecture capture system, you can control the inputs and camera angles via the touch panel on the presenter podium.

You can:

• Select the source that you want to record. Your options generally include: the content displayed on the presenter PC, the input from a document camera, the room’s whiteboard (if you’re writing on/drawing on it), or the teaching position.
• Pause and stop the recording. Useful if you take a break in the middle of a lecture, or pause for group activities. Important if you have a private conversation with a student or colleague during the lecture; make sure to pause so confidential information isn’t accidentally captured.
• Check what students will see in the recording via the second monitor on the teaching space which displays a preview of what’s being captured .
• Check your audio levels via the volume indicator on the touch panel.

This quick guide shows some of the inputs you can choose to record.

Nothing. Timetable information is sent directly to the lecture capture system. All lectures in major theatres are automatically recorded and published to your topic in FLO.

The lecture recording starts automatically at ten minutes past the hour and ends exactly on the hour. Although the start and end of the recording is automated,  you can control what’s captured in the recording. You might also like to check out our tips for high-quality lecture recordings.

Please note, only teaching activities called ‘lectures’ are scheduled for recording. Find out how to record non-lecture activities.

Activities other than lectures are not recorded automatically. However, if they are held in a supported teaching venue, you can request that they are recorded and published to FLO.

To do this, determine whether the lecture recording block is currently visible in your topic.

• If the lecture recording block is currently visible, select the ‘Request lecture recordings for this topic’ link from the Lecture recording block.
• If the lecture recording block is not visible in your topic, with editing on, select the ‘Lecture recordings’ option from the ‘Add a block’ dropdown list within your topic. The ‘Lecture recordings’ block will be added to your topic. Select the ‘Request lecture recordings for this topic’ link from the Lecture recording block.

The Q stream booking system will appear for your topic:

Q stream will list all bookings that are able to be recorded for your topic. Any non-lecture bookings are available to be recorded and published in FLO through this window. To request a non-lecture to be recorded, complete the following steps:

• Select the ‘Record’ button for the non-lecture booking to be recorded.

• If you wish for the recording to automatically appear in FLO, select the ‘Publish in FLO’ checkbox.  

The non-lecture recording link will appear automatically in your topic within 24 hours.

You can manually schedule recordings through the FLO site for the topic. Follow the “Manage video recordings for this topic” link to navigate to the video admin screen, then click Booking form. Fill in the details of your event.

The booking will then appear on the list of sessions to be recorded. If the event will occur within 24 hours, please notify ids@flinders.edu.au to make sure the team are aware of the event.

If you’re teaching in a space that doesn’t have lecture capture technology, you can still record the audio of your teaching activities. The University has portable audio recording equipment you can use to do this. Please contact your college office for more information. The lecturer is responsible for recording the session and arranging for it to be uploaded to FLO. Contact your college elearning team for help.

If you need video recording for teaching or an event in a space without lecture capture, we can refer you to external vendors who provide event capture services. If you need our help finding a vendor, contact us via ids@flinders.edu.au to discuss your requirements.

When you give a lecture in one of our lecture-capture enabled teaching spaces across campus, the lecture is scheduled to be automatically recorded. This happens as a result of the timetabling process. But, in most of these spaces, you can also manually activate the recording feature to create a recording any time you like.

So, why use this?

• It can be really helpful if you want to make recordings of workshops, seminars, or tutorials available to students who were ill or otherwise absent, or for revision later.
• Another use case is when students are presenting to the class. You or the students can record the presentation, which then becomes an artefact to be referred to later for self, peer or teacher assessment.
• If  you’re looking for a quick and easy way to create video content for flipped learning, the manual self recording is a good option. You can record yourself delivering learning content on-location in a teaching space, including making use of helpful aspects of the AV setup like document cameras and/or whiteboards. Then either upload the video straight to your topic in FLO, or edit the recording in whatever video editing tool you like to use.

It’s as easy as bringing a USB stick. Turn the AV system on, and plug your USB in to the plate on the presenter desk to activate the recording function. Use the recording buttons on the touch panel to start, pause, and stop. You can also do things like changing the inputs and camera angles to record whiteboards, the document camera, etc.

Refer to this Quick Guide for instructions.

Prefer some hands-on help or practice? We provide regular sessions in teaching spaces where you can learn to use the technology, including the manual self recording tool. We’d love to see you there!

We make every possible effort to record the lecture or event as scheduled. But sometimes, the recording may fail due to circumstances beyond our control. If a scheduled recording does fail, the video support team will contact the lecturer to discuss alternate ways to provide content to students.

 Some staff have requested to have recordings of ‘live’ lectures used as a substitute for lectures in subsequent years, either as a way to provide more on-line resources for a topic, for developing ‘flipped’ or ‘blended’ approaches to topic delivery, or simply as a way of freeing up staff time.

This is not a practice that the University endorses. Our lecture recording initiative is designed as a second-best substitute in cases where students are unable to attend lectures, and as a supplemental resource for their learning and revision.  It’s not intended as an approved way of replacing live lectures.

Conventional live lectures aren’t necessarily the best teaching tool, and video recordings can be a very useful mechanism for and adjunct to teaching.  However, they should be designed and recorded in a customised way to best support the delivery of the topic and/or subsequent face-to-face interactions.  This can be via short good-quality video presentations through to impromptu and less formal video learning content.  Your college eLearning Support team will be happy to support you to determine the best design solution for the job at hand.

While the use of video to enhance teaching delivery, if done well, is legitimate, the use of unimproved ‘recycled’ recorded live lectures is not.  Raw lecture recordings are usually a poor form of teaching delivery, and their use is likely to considerably reduce the quality of our students’ learning experience.

So, under normal circumstances, recordings of live lectures should not be reused in Flinders topics for the purpose of replacing a live lecture or face-to-face time.

If there are unforeseen circumstances (e.g. staff absence, where all other means of replacement are exhausted), then the college Teaching Program directors or delegate may give special permission for such use.

Here’s our top five.

1. Remember to use the microphone, and make sure its switched on. If you forget, one of our technicians might call you on the room phone to remind you.
2. Be sure to maximise any applications you’re showing, so they fill the entire screen. This will help readability on the recording.
3. Be conscious of time. The lecture recording automatically starts at ten past the hour and finishes at the hour on the dot. If you run over, the recording won’t continue so students watching the recording will miss your big conclusion.
4. Make the most of the available camera angles and inputs so the recording captures what really happens in the room. If you draw equations on the whiteboard or display an object under the document camera, press the corresponding button on the touch panel so it’s captured in the recording. 
5. Pause your recording, and/or switch off the microphone at any point in the lecture when you’re having a private or informal conversation with students or a colleague. You don’t want those going into the recording in FLO for all to hear!

If these tips were helpful, why not come learn more? Our teaching space technology can do some great things and we’re happy to help you learn it for the first time or level up. The AV Services team provides a monthly ‘top tips for using teaching room technology’ sessions. Or, we can schedule a one-on-one session if you prefer.

Please note: If a lecture should not be recorded (due to absence, or if the session is an interactive workshop, or similar), let us know in advance by cancelling or  requesting an exemption. Otherwise lecture capture staff may attempt to contact you on the day.

You control the projector via a touch-screen panel in or near the presenter podium. The setup may vary by room, so please ensure you’re familiar with the technology in your teaching spaces prior to teaching.

Refer to the guides for the setup instructions. 

To use the lapel microphone, clip the microphone to your clothing (ideally near your sternum) and turn on the switch on the top of the microphone. To use the handheld microphone, turn it on using the switch on the base of the microphone.

If you forget to use the microphone, a member of the video support team may call via the phone in the room to alert you.

Remember to switch off the microphone and return to the charging station where appropriate.

Refer to the Quick Guide for full instructions and tips for using a lapel mic.

We do not provide complex editing of recordings (e.g superimposed titles, voiceovers etc) we can provide a copy of the recording to you for post production purposes.

We do provide ‘top and tail edits’ (The removal of gaps at the start and end of a recording), editing out of sensitive information / private conversations with students or guests / ethical / commercially sensitive information.

This can be requested by emailing ids@flinders.edu.au, please provide details of the individual lecture (FLO resource ID, topic code, time, date, location). Editing requests should also include the time code in this format 00:00:00 (hh:mm:ss)

We highly recommend ‘editing as you go’ pausing the recording if you take breaks, have finished teaching etc.

If you change your room booking or timetable entry within the Student Information System, the new start and end times will automatically be used to schedule the recording. If you are unable to change the room booking please contact IDS no later than 4pm the day before the scheduled recording.

If you change the venue of your lecture within the Student Information System, and the new room is a supported lecture venue, your lecture will automatically be recorded. As a courtesy please contact IDS no later than 4pm the day before the scheduled recording.

If a lecture is to be cancelled, the scheduled recording can be cancelled via the FLO site. Follow the “Manage video recordings for this topic” link to navigate to the video admin screen. Find the session that is to be cancelled, then click Do Not Record. You will be asked to select a reason from a brief list.

The session will then appear in the list as “Not scheduled to be recorded”

You’ll need to submit an exemption request in writing to your teaching program director. Include as much information as possible about the topic, and why you feel it isn’t suitable for recording.  You must submit the request no later that 2 working days before the scheduled lecture.

The teaching program director will either grant or deny an exemption. If an exemption is granted, the topic coordinator should contact the video support team, The video support team will cancel recordings, which will remove all associated links from FLO. If some or all of the topic lectures won’t be recorded, the topic coordinator should post an announcement to students in FLO notifying them that this is the case. This should be done as early as possible in the semester. This is for the benefit of students who cannot attend some or all lectures due to external commitments.

Lectures cancelled due to absence or illness do not need to go through the exemption process. Email IDS to cancel the scheduled recording.

If you need to remove a recording from FLO after the event (e.g. due to the disclosure of confidential information), notify IDS as soon as possible after the lecture.

If you’re seeking permission to reuse recordings of live lectures in subsequent years, please contact your teaching program director. In a written request, include as much information as possible about the topic and why you want to reuse the recordings.

Reuse of lecture recordings will only be considered appropriate in unforeseen circumstances (e.g. staff absences, where all others means of replacement are exhausted). 

The teaching program director will either grant or deny permission. If permission is granted, the topic coordinator should notify the college eLearning Team. The eLearning Team will work with topic coordinators to provide links to previous years recordings in topic FLO sites. If recordings are going to be used, the topic coordinator should post an announcement to students in FLO notifying them this is the case.

We strongly encourage students to take advantage of the recording feature as a valuable learning tool. Recordings of student presentations during a lecture timeslot will be available to students who couldn’t attend, just like all other lecture content. Also, students can watch their own presentations as a form of self-evaluation, either as part of formal assessment or as an exercise in professional development. As a lecturer, you should discuss permission for recording with your students.

If students are giving presentations in other classes (i.e. workshops, seminars, or tutorials) you can record them if the teaching space is equipped with the lecture capture system. The system has a manual self recording function that allows for recording outside of scheduled lecture timeslots. See the list of equipped rooms.

The AV Services team manages the recordings; we can advise you on copyright and confidentiality issues. Please contact us to discuss your needs.

In your FLO topic, the recordings display as links, as shown below. The links will automatically be created on the topic home page:

After the lecture has been recorded, it’s made available as an online video or audio file that students can play in FLO, or that they can download using the podcast /vodcast links via a RSS Browser extension or iTunes.

Note: Live lecture streaming is a way to broadcast a real time stream of the lecture to students. This is an opt-in service for lecture recordings in major lecture theatres only. Live streaming is selected through the lecture booking system.

FLO gets its lecture recording links from the lecture scheduling system. For links to be removed from FLO, the lecture recordings must be cancelled within the lecture recording system. If you know you need to cancel a lecture in advance, you can let us know and we’ll cancel the recording.

Absolutely! We encourage you to customise the name of lecture recording links, to provide more relevant information for students about the content of each lecture.

1. Make sure editing is turned in your topic, then find the lecture recording you want to rename. Next to it, click the Edit title icon (  ).
2. Enter the new lecture recording name in the input box.

1. Press Enter to save the change.

Note: You can also rename a lecture while editing the lecture settings.

 Absolutely! It’s as simple as a drag and drop.

1. Make sure editing is turned on in your topic, then find the lecture recording you want to move.
2. Next to the recording, you’ll see a Move icon (  ). Click the icon and hold down, drag the lecture recording to the desired location and drop it.

Note: If you see a Move icon that looks like this one (  ), it means drag and drop is not enabled. Click this icon to instead display all available areas within your topic into which you can move the lecture recording.

It is possible to make lecture recordings 'live' in your FLO topic, by default this feature is turned off. So, in theory students can be at home or on campus and watch the lecture 'live' via FLO if they are not physically in the teaching space where the lecture theatre is being presented. 

In situations where a topic has more students enrolled than available seats in a lecture theatre or if there are significant numbers of students and different campuses, it is possible to show the 'live stream' of the lecture in another teaching space. However please be aware of the following.  

• It is essential that a nominated person from the college contact ids@flinders.edu.au prior to the first instance of the relay (at least two weeks before) to ensure that they have special access to the relay site. We provide step by step instructions on how to start relays. The task of setting off a relay is simple and straightforward. The management of this relay process is taken by individual colleges. 
• For consistency, it is essential that the word/s “lecture relay” or “relay” are flagged as such in the Student Information System.
• Relays have traditionally only been made available for the first five weeks of the semester.