Important message about lecture recording for members who teach!
As the teaching term gears up we wanted to communicate to you the situation on lecture recordings by UCL, and the rights that staff have.
UCL has replaced its lecture recording platform, Lecturecast, with a new Platform, Panopto. UCL policy with respect to recording lectures, and the agreement with UCU remains the same. In particular, the policy on “opt-out” and “opt-in” remains the same.
The default is not to record lectures, i.e. “opt-in”. Where a module or course is taught by a group of staff, the group can decide together what their policy on recordings is. Even then an individual staff member may wish to opt out.
So staff can “opt in” to recording their classes if they wish, but are not obliged to do so. New staff should be given this information at the earliest opportunity.
We know that there is pressure from some students to request lecture recordings. Occasionally, some departments have departed from this policy and administrators may have sent out incomplete information regarding the principles of the policy.
We summarise the principles below. These protect staff and students in the classroom and enable free speech and discussion. Should you face institutional pressure to record your classes, then the below should help you manage that, or you can contact a UCU rep to help you in countering it.
The current agreed policy on recording your classes is:
- The policy is opt-in, and UCL UCU will continue to demand it remains opt-in.
- There must be a meaningful way to avoid being recorded, and to consent (or not consent) to opting in, as the instructor sees fit.
- Full information should be given by administrators but where it is not, the policy is set out as above (with links)
- Should you face problems, please contact a rep and ultimately the Executive Committee.
- Some departments have suggested that ‘the department’ can decide on an ‘opt out’ policy. This is not correct: decisions are at the module level. Teaching staff on a module can meet together annually, all affected staff must be consulted each year, and only where consensus exists might there be a ground for changing the approach. Again, individual staff may believe using Panopto doesn’t suit their teaching. They cannot be obliged to opt-in.
- Some departments have said that in order to opt out, staff must have a “reason” that the head of department thinks is a genuine basis for opting out! This is wrong. It is not UCL’s policy and has not been agreed with the unions. It is also bound to create legal problems. Opt-in is at the discretion of the individual instructor, as are the pedagogical reasons for doing so. No reason need be provided for NOT opting-in.
- These opt-in rights are crucial for staff because UCL “deems” use of their recording systems or platforms are a sufficient basis for staff having handed over intellectual property and performance rights over the recordings and their future use (see the UCL UCU motion from 2024 for info).
SORAs/RAAs (statements of reasonable adjustments) and class recording
Another method by which staff have been pressured into recording their class, despite not wishing to do so, is by the inclusion of class recordings on Statements of Reasonable Adjustments/ Reasonable Academic Adjustments for students with specific needs. Please note:
On the SORA/RAA issue, a reminder on law and policy:
- It is not the individual instructor’s responsibility to make reasonable adjustments, but rather the department’s/university’s – which means they must put in place a reasonable way of providing for these needs;
- An adjustment must be reasonable, which it is not if it breaches individual instructor rights: e.g., forcing them to give away their intellectual property or performance rights (as UCL officially states instructors de facto do by using their platforms like Panopto, in its intellectual property policy, ss 2.1 and 2.2). If UCL wants to change that policy to make this more reasonable, they need to negotiate with UCU on it.
- There are ways to assist students with SORA needs without giving away intellectual property or performance rights:. It is up to individual staff whether they wish to allow a student to make their own recording for personal use, bearing in mind a question or comment may be raised by another student who doesn’t wish to be recorded.
UCL UCU Executive Committee
For info: Branch Policy see: 23/24/18: Lecturecast – Passed 25 March 2024