Lecture Capture-what's the problem?

In a short lived action research project this year I tested out the idea of Lecture Capture to support my teaching.

After gaining ethical clearance from the University Ethics Committee - since it was felt that the research might be upsetting for "vulnerable"  students - I set up my camera so that it pointed at the class of students for the entire lecture.

PHOTO COURTESY OF STOCKIMAGES AT FREEDIGITALPHOTOS.NET

Following the lecture the footage was uploaded to the University VLE for access by all those registered on my module.  I repeated the experiment for four weeks until a complaint from the student representatives to the Dean resulted in the whole thing being shut down.

All was not lost, however, as I was able to download and analyse viewing statistics for the four weeks and benefit from a large amount of comment on my end of term feedback forms.

My findings were enlightening:

1. Students overwhelmingly felt it an intrusion into their "privacy" to be recorded during a lecture session.
2. Many  students felt that the images and sound recorded were of a low quality.
3. Only 5% of students viewed the video after the lecture, mainly to "sample" fellow students and make YouTube compilations of their various behaviours (sleeping, Facebooking friends, texting).
4. The resource required to "pixelate" 50% of the faces in each lecture (following requests to do so by students) was very, very costly.
5. Few students felt that their Learning was enhanced simply through Lecture Capture. Engagement in the class was far more important.
6. Most students reported that they understood why academics were reluctant to adopt Lecture Capture widely.

Since the action research project I have been approached separately by the Student Loans Company and the UK Visa Authorities for copies of the footage.  Unfortunately the footage was destroyed on instruction from my Dean.