For students wanting to remove the stress of missing important information, and capture everything from their classes, recording lectures is a game changer.
66% of students prefer recorded lectures and it’s easy to see why. With a recording, you're not just relying on your memory or hastily written notes, you've got the entire lecture available for playback.
This can make a big difference, especially in subjects that require deep concentration or where the professor speaks quickly.
Recording lectures also encourages more efficient studying, allowing learners to skip unnecessary parts and focus on difficult sections, making study sessions faster and more effective.
It can also lead to reduced anxiety and improved performance as creating better notes leads to better understanding and, ultimately, better grades.
When watching recorded lecture videos, students are allowed to pause them, which can be advantageous for their learning.
Indeed, inserting pauses in lectures gives students an opportunity to digest just-learned information and take notes.
Chen et al, 2014
Can lectures be recorded?
The good news is that yes, most of the time, recording a lecture is allowed.
The important caveat here is that each campus and classroom often has individual policies that you need to check before you hit the record button.
If you have received permission from the appropriate authority at your school, whatever the reason may be, students are permitted to record lectures.
This permission can come in a number of ways:
- As part of a disability accommodation, as required by law. These are usually granted through the Disability Services office in North America and the DSA in the UK.
- As a support mechanism, to augment the learning experience of a student. This approach is commonly provided as part of an institution, or campus wide, initiative - with recording technology being one aspect of a wider suite of tools and technologies available to support students with their studies.
- As consent, pre-approved directly with the school, college, or university. Separate to an accommodation provided in line with disability law, this level of permission is given on an individual basis at a school level.
- As a signed agreement between the student and the instructor. Again, an individual granting of permission, this time restricted solely to the class and professor in question.
When might lecture recordings not be allowed?
It is important to bear in mind that sometimes there will be certain situations where recording isn’t allowed.
Individual permission does not extend to sharing or distributing recordings outside of personal use. That means any recording you do make, is for your own personal use alone.
Similarly, if sensitive topics are being discussed, instructors can implement a “pencils down policy”, ensuring recordings are paused so the class content can still be delivered as required.
This ensures all parties have their interests respected within the context of the lecture.
How to find out if your college allows recording
There is no universal approach to discovering if recording is permitted as each college is unique.
For students, if you are recording as part of an accommodation, the best option would be to speak to the Disability Services office to confirm the terms of your agreement.
If you’re looking to record outside of a disability accommodation agreement, the Student Success department will be able to provide the most relevant information.
Likewise, for instructors, school policies and institutional guidelines can often be found on either your school LMS or on the institution’s website, likely in the policy library section.
There is also the option to speak with academic advisors or the office of legal affairs to find out how permission is granted.
Here are some examples of policies from Rutgers and Northwestern University.
One-party vs two-party consent
As well as each institution having a bespoke approach to recording lectures, individual provinces and states have policies regulating the use of recorded content.
One-party consent allows a person to record a conversation as long as they are a party in that conversation.
In a lecture environment, this means that only one person involved needs to consent to the recording, i.e. the student.
Two-party consent, by contrast, requires all parties involved in a conversation to consent to the recording, i.e. the student, the instructor, and everyone who may speak in the classroom.
Click here to find out which states in the United States have one or two party consent.
Information sourced is accurate as of September 2024. Please note that there are complex and nuanced state and federal requirements so make sure to check with your campus policies.
Recording classes with Glean
Whether you’re learning in class or online, recording is the foundation of your Glean notes. Glean allows you to capture everything from class and return at your own pace, increasing confidence and reducing stress.
When it comes to recording classes with Glean, here are a few things you might want to know…
Can I record my lecture using Glean?
If your school invited you to use Glean, or it was recommended to you by the DSA (in the UK), there’s a good chance you’re allowed to use it for recording your lectures.
Each school has their own recording policy, so they may require you to sign it before you begin recording. Also, you may be asked to pause recording during some lectures if sensitive topics are being discussed.
We’d recommend you check with your Student Success department and instructor before you begin, just to be safe!
In other situations, such as if your school doesn’t currently offer Glean, it’s best to check your school’s recording policy. You can usually find this on the school website, or by asking the Student Success department.
If you have a disability, struggle with mental health, or are neurodivergent, you may qualify for an accommodation. This could grant you free access to Glean and permission to record in class. In this case, check with your school’s Accessibility or Disability department.
Can audio be shared or exported from Glean?
Glean doesn't provide users with the option to share or download their audio recordings outside of the Glean platform.
If your institution has a Glean for Education subscription, you'll have the option to enable the ‘send a copy’ feature in your customer account (which means that all users will have this feature enabled).
‘Send a copy’ allows a user to send a copy of their Event to another user within the institution. Additionally, the option can be selected to allow users to send a copy of an Event to an individual outside of the institution (that person will also need to have a Glean account to access it).
An Event that has been shared using send a copy can only be accessed in the Glean platform. The send a copy feature is disabled by default in customer accounts, so your institution can decide whether or not to enable it.
What happens to audio when a recording is deleted?
After a user deletes their Event, it will no longer take up any space on their device and it won't be available to them (this is a 'soft' deletion).
Glean retains deleted Events and their data for 90 days on its database so that anything that was mistakenly deleted can be recovered.
When the 90 days are up, the deleted Event and associated data are gone for good. Glean also maintains backups of user data to aid in disaster recovery scenarios (e.g. data corruption caused by a bug, an issue with Glean's database hosting service, or a ransomware attack).
The longest Glean retains any such backup is 90 days - and again, it's then gone for good.
How secure are recordings? Are third parties involved?
As a leading software provider in the education space, we believe wholeheartedly in the
importance of transparency in the use of data
We know that simply saying ‘we don't use recordings to train data models’ just isn't enough. Our aim is to provide institutions with comprehensive documentation of third-party processors, in addition to having a policy that does not permit third parties to train on any of your data.
We know that technology within education is here to stay. But as a company, we're very conscientious of how data is used, utilizing it to augment rather than replace parts of the learning process.
The content of this article and any resources included are provided for general informational purposes only, and may not reflect current legal developments, verdicts or settlements.
Any information contained in this article should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter.
No reader of this article should solely rely on the contents of this article.
