Following years of lobbying by student representatives, the University has announced that lecture recordings will be available across disciplines beginning in the 2017/2018 academic year, according to Edinburgh University
Students’ Association President, Alec Edgecliffe-Johnson, and Patrick Garratt, Vice President Academic Affairs.
The University of Edinburgh is behind other UK universities in adopting recording schemes, Edgecliffe-Johnson and Garratt commented, but they believe the move will be a massive step forward for the University when the plan comes to fruition.
Perceived significant areas of improvement will be in student accessibility, especially for students for whom English is their second language, and in encouraging interdisciplinary learning, according to Garratt.
Addressing concerns voiced by academics and lecturers that this will affect their ability to share previously unpublished research or their personal, copyrighted work during lectures, Garratt commented that: “It will be an opt out system whereby academics will have to give appropriate pedagogical reasons for not doing so.”
According to Garratt, the benefits of the scheme will far outweigh the possible drawbacks.
He discussed how one of the greatest benefits for students could be a tangible solution to the issue of wasted time spent on attempting to copy out as much as one can during lectures without properly absorbing any information.
Edgecliffe-Johnson mentioned how large an investment this is from the University.
“It’s probably the most significant event to happen in terms of learning and teaching in the past ten years in Edinburgh, I’d say. It’s a pretty big deal.”
Image: Anna