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School Policies and Guidelines

6.1 Introduction

6.1.1 In a Q-Review School, timetabled lecture-type teaching activities, recorded in Scientia Syllabus Plus, occurring within a room with lecture capture capability, are automatically recorded and distributed to students.

6.1.2 This section outlines the guidelines that must be followed in order to operate as a ‘Q-Review School’.

6.1.3 Note that the term ‘School’ is used throughout this section to mean School, Department, Institute, Faculty or Programme.

6.1.4 The decision to become a Q-Review School can be taken at Programme, Department, School, Institute or Faculty level and can apply to all constituencies within it, unless exclusions are made clear.

6.2 Becoming a Q-Review School

6.2.1 A decision to become a Q-Review School can only be implemented at the beginning of a semester.

6.2.2 The request to become a Q-Review School should be made to the ELU at least seven weeks before the policy is to be implemented. The request can be made by emailing elearning@qmul.ac.uk or via the ELU representative on your E-Learning User Group and should include:

  1. A description of the default recording policy you will be adopting in your area;
  2. The date you intend to begin default recording;
  3. The name of your Q-Review contact;
  4. The process by which individuals may opt-out from being recorded – please refer to suggested guidelines written for the HSS faculty on the ELU website. This should be tailored to suit your school but we recommend that your proposed process is discussed with the ELU.

6.2.3 The ELU must approve the decision to operate a default lecture recording policy. This approval will be given provided that capacity and resources allow and that the guidelines laid out in this policy are followed. It is therefore recommended that you involve the ELU in discussions as early as possible.

6.2.4 Once the decision is confirmed:

  • the E-Learning website will be updated to reflect the decision (i.e. your School and contact will be added to the Q-Review School list) with the information supplied above;
  • Q-Review Bookings will schedule recordings for timetabled teaching activities recorded in Scientia Syllabus Plus that occur in any Q-Review enabled room;
  • The E-Learning Unit will add a Q-Review LTI connector tool via the activity and resource picker to QMplus module/course areas to enable student access to the recordings.
    • If the academic is being recorded the link will be present and active.
    • If the academic has chosen to opt-out by following the official process (agreed by their school/faculty) the link will not be present.
    • If the academic is being recorded but selectively releasing content, delaying release or releasing to a select group the link will remain on the page, the appropriate amendments will be made within Q-Review and an explanation of the change (and rationale) will be included on the QMplus page for the benefit of all students on the module.

6.3 Communicating the policy to teaching staff

To operate a successful default recording policy it is imperative that sufficient notice of the policy is communicated and publicised to all staff within the school. The following guidelines should be followed:

Before the Policy commences for the first time

6.3.1 The first communication should be sent to staff in the School at least 6 weeks before becoming a Q-Review School to notify them of the change. This first communication should include the name and date of the committee meeting where the decision was taken.

6.3.2 If the decision to become a Q-Review School was not taken at a Teaching and Learning Committee, then an announcement should be made at the next Teaching and Learning Committee (or equivalent meeting) following the decision.

6.3.3 An announcement should be made at an all-staff meeting (preferably allowing 6 weeks’ notice in the first instance, where possible).

6.3.4 Before the new policy is implemented an email should be sent to all staff within the school, to include:

  1. The decision to become a Q-Review School
  2. The minutes from the meeting where the decision was taken
  3. How teaching staff can ‘opt out’ – the process to follow if they do not want to be recorded.
  4. How consent should be gained from guest speakers (see 4)
  5. How students have been informed or will be informed (see 5)
  6. Links to relevant Q-Review material and guidelines (see useful links in section 8)

6.3.5 A reminder email should be sent 2 weeks prior to the commencement of teaching.

Once the policy is in operation
New Staff

6.3.6 The school’s Q-Review status and process should be outlined in any induction material targeted at new staff. This should include:

  1. How teaching staff can ‘opt out’ – the process to follow if they do not want to be recorded.
  2. How consent should be gained from guest speakers (see 6.4)
  3. How students have been informed or will be informed (see 6.5)
  4. Links to relevant Q-Review material and guidelines (see useful links in section 8)

6.3.7 A reminder of the school’s Q-Review process (6.4.6) should be emailed to staff at the beginning of every academic year (though every semester is preferred).

6.3.8 Once the School’s teaching timetable has been finalised, the School’s Q-Review Contact could send out correspondence to academics who are teaching in Q-Review enabled rooms informing them of the technology available in the teaching space and that the teaching taking place in these rooms will be captured by default, unless users opt out.

6.3.9 Approximately 4-5 weeks before the start of term, the Q-Review Bookings team will contact the ‘Q-Review Contacts’ for each School, providing an Excel spreadsheet of the teaching activities scheduled to be take place in Q-Review enabled rooms. Q-Review Contacts will then be expected to provide details of:

  • any presenters who do not wish to be recorded
  • weeks which are to be omitted
  • instances where presenters require audio only, or display and audio be recorded rather than the default of audio/display/video.
  • whether recordings be set as ‘initially unavailable’
  • A reason for opting out, if applicable (e.g. this is a requirement in S & E)

6.3.10 Q-Review Bookings will stipulate a deadline for this information to be returned to them, as annotation of the spreadsheet. This is typically 1 week before the start of term.

6.3.11 Any late opt outs can then be processed by raising a ticket via the Helpdesk or by contacting Q-Review Bookings and this information will be acted on, with ‘do not record’ tags added to the appropriate teaching activities on the timetabling system – Scientia Enterprise (Syllabus Plus).

6.3.12 Any academics whose teaching is timetabled in Q-Review enabled rooms after this deadline, should be informed of whether their teaching will be recorded and be informed of the opt out process if applicable.

6.4 Guest speakers

6.4.1 Provided that the guidelines on communication have been followed (section 6.3), it can be assumed that consent is given by those teaching staff whose lectures are being captured by default. However, it cannot be assumed that guest speakers have given their consent.

6.4.2 The school should clarify for lecturers how consent should be obtained for invited speakers.

6.4.3 Our recommendation is:

  1. The individual lecturer should inform the central administration team that they have a guest speaker scheduled for a particular event, and the school’s central administrator should gain consent from the guest speaker to be recorded.
  2. Alternatively, lecturers can seek this consent themselves and should forward this to the central administrative team for record keeping purposes.
  3. Where consent has not been received, or has been withdrawn, the central administrators should inform Q-Review bookings at qreviewbookings@qmul.ac.uk with at least 5 days’ notice, so that the scheduled recording can be cancelled (in the same way that any other AV equipment would be cancelled if no longer required). If consent is withdrawn after the event, the individual lecturer should remove the recording.

6.4.4 Please also refer to item 5.1 of this policy on Presenter’s Consent.

6.5 Notifying students

6.5.1 For all Q-Review Schools, responsibility to notify students rests with the school and not the individual presenter.

6.5.2 The following information should be included in a student handbook or within other prominent student material e.g. the QMplus school landing page and/or individual course areas:

  1. That the School operates a lecture recording policy which means that all lectures in Q-Review enabled rooms will be recorded unless their lecturer has chosen to ‘opt out’.
  2. That their voices may be captured.
  3. That the video camera is not set up to capture the faces of the audience, but it may inadvertently capture the back of the heads of those sitting in the front of the class.
  4. Indicator lights installed in the Q-Review enabled rooms will demonstrate when a Q-Review recording is taking place. See Appendix 2 for further details.

6.6 Changes to the schedule

6.6.1 Any changes (such as changes to the room, the teacher, the day/time etc.) must be communicated to the Timetabling Team (timetabling@qmul.ac.uk) as soon as possible so that the schedule can be updated accordingly.

6.6.2 This change should be communicated with at least 5 days’ notice. If less than 5 days notice is given, ELU cannot guarantee that recordings are scheduled correctly. Further details of issues that may arise can be read in Appendix 2.

6.6.3 Changes required after a recording has been processed should be raised as a ticket on the IT Helpdesk (or by emailing helpdesk@qmul.ac.uk).

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