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Recording of Teaching Policy

The policy sets out the University’s position on the provision of recordings of live and pre-recorded teaching to students by the University and recordings by students and staff.

For the attention of: All students and academic staff

Supporting Student Guidance - Guide to: Recording of Teaching 

Supporting Staff Guidance - L&T Lecture Recording 

Policy

1. Purpose of the Policy 

The policy sets out the University’s position on the provision of recordings of live and pre-recorded teaching to students by the University and recordings by students and staff. Research supports the provision of recordings as a helpful study aid and can contribute towards the University meeting its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 as well as the University’s commitment to inclusive learning and teaching practice as part of the Learning and Teaching Strategy. Recordings can also support students who experience structural or practical barriers to live attendance or participation, including students from widening participation backgrounds, students with caring responsibilities, students in paid employment, commuter students, and neurodivergent students.

This policy covers the essential purpose of recordings of teaching which is that they are used only for students on the course that the teaching relates to, or for students on other courses (such as in a MOOC or other teaching event) as determined by the member of staff whose teaching has been recorded.

2. Scope of the policy

The scope of the policy covers all live (synchronous) video and/or audio-based teaching, and pre-recorded video and/or audio-based teaching materials (synchronous or asynchronous) for in-person, blended, or fully online programmes.  This includes teaching-related one-to-one and small-group meetings between students and staff, for example, supervision meetings, feedback meetings, office hours, and academic advising, where these form part of learning and teaching activity. It also includes the use of personal devices and wearable technologies (for example, smart glasses) where these capture, transmit, or process audio and/or video from teaching activity.

Recognising that the recording of live lectures requires different considerations to recordings made for wider blended and online delivery, the following principles apply to the recording of lectures (online or on-campus delivery):

  • Students should, as far as possible, be able to access audio (and where available or appropriate video) recordings of lectures to support their learning.
  • To support student learning and the University’s commitment to inclusive learning and teaching practice, lecture recording is provided by default for teaching events categorised as lectures, while retaining the right of lecturers to opt out in line with this policy.
  • This opt-out approach does not apply to recordings of other types of live teaching, for example, tutorials, workshops, seminars, and teaching-related one-to-one or small-group meetings (for example, supervision meetings, feedback meetings, office hours, and academic advising). Audio or video recordings of such events are generally prohibited by the University unless permission to do so is expressly granted by the relevant member of staff (which may be subject to conditions including consent requirements for participants, limits on use and distribution, and requirements to stop recording when directed).
  • In the case of the recording of on-campus lectures, staff may choose to also video record their live lectures to support student learning and in rooms where such functionality is available. Such recording would predominantly capture the presenter area rather than the students and students will be advised in advance of the recording such that they can relocate away from the recording devices if they wish.
  • The recording of on-campus teaching is not normally intended to be an equivalent experience to in-person attendance.
  • Lectures delivered on-campus in teaching spaces with the centrally supported lecture recording system are scheduled for recording by default, with an opt-out option for lecturers in line with this policy and operational guidance. For live online lectures, recording arrangements are determined by the platform and course settings, and must be communicated clearly to students in advance.
  • The University recognises there are situations where all or part of a lecture should not or cannot be recorded and that staff may wish to opt-out of recording all or some of their lectures. Among these are that:
    i. There are approaches to lecturing that may not be suitable for recording, such as those with a high degree of interactivity.
    ii. A lecturer should not change their teaching approach to facilitate the recording of a lecture where this change would be detrimental to the student experience.
    iii. There may be legal, ethical or privacy reasons for not recording part or all of a lecture.
    iv. A lecturer may have personal reasons that make it inappropriate for their lecture to be recorded.

Clear guidance will be given to staff on how to opt out of recording in-person lectures where the recording would be scheduled automatically should they elect to do so. This guidance will be available as part of the operational guidance on implementing lecture recording and circulated to all staff.

The policy also recognises that with blended and online delivery, there is a broader range of teaching beyond lectures and outwith the scope of the opt-out approach that staff may wish to record. The following principles therefore apply to all live or pre-recorded recordings of teaching:

  • The rights of lecturers and the privacy of individuals shall be respected and protected.
  • Recording of any live teaching event should be undertaken in accordance with the staff guidance. 
  • Good advice should be available to staff on issues of copyright of content used in teaching to ensure appropriate levels of protection for staff and the copyright material. [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/help/copyright/].
  • Recorded content will be stored and used in an appropriate manner.
  • Recordings will be provided by the University as far as possible either through centrally supported recording systems or, where appropriate, through recordings created by staff using University-supported platforms and made available to students via Moodle or other approved systems.
  • A student may be refused consent to record teaching on their own device where provision of an official University recording already exists.
  • Staff should make it clear to students at the beginning of the course which teaching will be recorded.

3. Recording of Teaching and Disability

The Equality Act 2010 places an anticipatory responsibility on the University in making reasonable adjustments to its services. Current arrangements for disabled students in relation to the recording of teaching will be unaffected by this policy. Schools will ensure disabled students are not disadvantaged by providing alternative formats.

4. Permitted Use of Lecture Recordings

  • A lecturer may use official recordings of their own teaching (live or pre-recorded) within their own performance review; to facilitate peer observation of their teaching; or if they are investigated under the Disciplinary Policy.
  • The University may use official teaching recordings within the scope of an investigation under the Code of Student Conduct.
  • Any other use of a recording will require further, separate agreement between those with rights in the recording. In particular:
    • The recordings and any associated metadata will not be used by the University for staff performance review or disciplinary processes without the lecturer’s permission.
    • For on-campus lectures, lecture recordings may not be used as a replacement for intended staff presence in the lecture room (for example, live streaming lectures to overspill rooms or re-use of pre-recorded lectures) unless the lecturer permits this.
    • Recordings will not be used to cover University staff exercising their legal right to take industrial action without the lecturer’s consent.
    • Recordings do not constitute a replacement for student attendance at on-campus teaching events unless the University has specified this as a reasonable adjustment for a disabled student.
    • Schools and students must not use recordings of on-campus teaching as a routine mechanism for managing clashes of timetabled teaching.
  • A student is required to be recorded if the recording is a mandatory part of their assessment. A student otherwise making a contribution recorded by an official recording may contact the lecturer to arrange for deletion of their contribution. Students wishing not to be recorded should, where possible, sit in areas away from microphones and outwith the field of view of any camera installed, or turn off their camera and microphone for an online session.

5. Official Recordings

This part of the policy covers the recording of live teaching using automated systems in teaching spaces on-campus and recording technologies such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, as well as pre-recorded material produced for blended or fully online delivery. It does not cover:

  • Tutorials.
  • Seminars.
  • Practicals (e.g. labs, workshops).
  • Teaching-related one-to-one and small-group meetings (for example, supervision meetings, feedback meetings, office hours, and academic advising).
  • Any other type of teaching that has a high degree of interactivity or discussion; and
  • Field activity.

A University system will deliver a higher quality recording than a student’s own device and therefore will be expected to negate the demand for students to produce their own recordings. A list of teaching spaces with lecture recording facilities is maintained centrally and is available via University guidance.

University Responsibilities

The University will ensure that

  • Recording equipment and centrally provided software licences are maintained.
  • Signs and recording lights are available in lecture theatres to indicate that recording is taking place.
  • College and Senate Learning and Teaching Committees will monitor the implementation of this policy to promote consistency across the University.
  • Students and staff are provided with appropriate guidance on permitted use of recordings of teaching.
  • Students and staff are provided with guidance on how to use recordings of teaching appropriately.
  • Guidance is provided to staff on how to prepare and edit video recordings and provide transcripts before recordings are uploaded for students to access as part of the operational guidance referred to above. (Guidance on transcripts is provided in the Digital Accessibility Guidance.)

School Responsibilities

  • Schools will schedule automated recording of on-campus lectures using the central timetabling system.
  • Schools will normally notify students which of their lectures will be recorded or not by the start of the Course, including reasons for not recording, through Moodle. Where this is not possible students must be notified on Moodle no less than a week in advance of the scheduled lecture.
  • Schools will notify students by email and/or Moodle if a recording arrangement changes during the Course. This includes where the change prevents recording and where the change facilitates a recording that would not otherwise have taken place. When an on-campus lecture is changed or cancelled, Schools will ensure the associated scheduled recording is also changed or cancelled promptly.

Lecturer Responsibilities

  • For on-campus lectures, staff should engage with and make use of the automatic lecture recording (audio) facility provided and maintained by IT Services (currently, Echo360) in on-campus teaching spaces and follow guidance on appropriate use of software tools for pre-recording lectures intended for blended and fully online teaching.
  • Staff should ensure they have appropriate copyright clearance for any material covered by the recording. [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/help/copyright/], cognisant that the need for copyright clearance exists regardless of whether the lecture is recorded.
  • The lecturer has the right to apply discretion and pause or subsequently edit a live recording, for example, if sensitive material is being taught or if the recording is considered to be interfering with teaching. If a live recording is paused or edited, the lecturer should consider providing an explanation for the pause or edit where it is reasonable and proportionate to do so.
  • The lecturer is responsible for deciding whether the interests in not recording part or all their teaching outweigh the interests in recording. In line with the opt-out approach for lectures, they will inform their lead School timetabler of which lecture recordings they wish to opt-out. They should consider whether the routine options either to pause recording during teaching or edit the recording before release would otherwise allow recording to proceed. Lecturers should be aware that it is permissible, where good reason exists, to opt out of recording one or more lectures without opting out of recording an entire lecture series.
  • Recordings produced through the on-campus lecture recording service by default will automatically release scheduled recordings to the students on the Course 24 hours after completion of recording and post-processing of the associated data. Lecturers may alternatively opt for immediate release or manual release of their scheduled recordings.
  • The release of recordings produced through services such as Zoom, or Microsoft Teams will be contingent upon user settings. Staff should ensure that students have appropriate access to all recorded course content.
  • This policy applies equally to visiting lecturers with the exception of evidencing consent where, because of the different employment situation they will be required to sign a consent form as they did previously.

Student Responsibilities

  • Students will typically access recordings of teaching “on demand” via the service or Moodle or other source as guided by their School. To support the University's commitment to accessibility, download access will be enabled by default for recordings made by the central lecture recording service.
    • Lecturers retain the right to opt out of providing download access.
    • For recordings provided via other platforms (such as Zoom or Microsoft Stream), download access will be enabled at the lecturer's discretion.
  • Recordings should normally only be accessible by those students enrolled on the course unless agreed otherwise by the lecturer(s) presenting the teaching.
  • Use of such recordings should be in relation to the course unless agreed otherwise by the lecturer(s) presenting the teaching.
  • Any use of a recording other than for a student’s personal use in relation to their studies or any unauthorised distribution of a recording will be considered in breach of the Code of Conduct and will be subject to disciplinary action. This includes uploading onto social media sites and other unauthorised sites such as YouTube and Course Hero as well as uploading recordings to AI tools, for example, to generate summaries or quiz questions. This includes video and audio recordings, as well as static screen captures and transcripts.

6. Recordings made by Students

Students should normally have the opportunity to make recordings of course lectures as outlined in the principles above for study purposes where official recordings are not available. For other types of live teaching such as tutorials, seminars, and workshops, audio or video recordings of such events are generally prohibited by the University although permission to record is at the discretion of the course lecturer following consideration of the impact on teaching and on the privacy and rights of other staff and students on the course.

‘Recording’ includes the use of any device, application, or service that captures live speech or images from teaching for later playback, generates transcripts, captions, summaries, or translations from live speech, or transmits audio and/or video to an external service for processing. This includes wearable devices such as smart glasses.

University Responsibilities

  • The University and Schools will provide technical and pedagogic guidance to students on how to benefit from lectures and how to use recordings appropriately.

School Responsibilities

  • Administrative procedures around student recordings of teaching should be kept to a minimum. Where it is known in advance that a specific lecture(s) within a course is not to be recorded by students, this, along with reasons, should be communicated to students on the course through an appropriate channel such as Moodle in advance of the event.

Lecturer Responsibilities

  • Where official recording facilities are not available, a lecturer’s consent for students to record lectures should not normally be refused without good reasons in line with the opt-out reasons noted earlier in this policy.
  • Where consent is refused to record teaching other than lectures, the lecturer should aim to provide an explanation.

Student Responsibilities

Students undertake to adhere to the following rules:

  • Students must ask the course lecturer for consent to record in advance of teaching and specify the type of recording to be undertaken (e.g., audio, video, screen capture). Students should provide staff with as much advance notice as possible ahead of the teaching taking place and students must not record covertly, for example, using smart glasses.
  • Any recording is for the student’s personal study use in relation to their own learning. Recordings must not be shared, distributed, sold, published, or uploaded (including sharing with other students) unless the course lecturer has explicitly authorised a specific method of sharing within University systems.
  • Students may be asked to turn off their recording device when other students do not want their personal contribution recorded.
  • Students may be asked to turn off their recording device during parts of teaching when deemed appropriate by the lecturer.
  • Once the recording has served its study purpose, it should be erased.
  • Inappropriate use of recordings, including recording after a lecturer has refused consent, will be considered as a breach of the code of conduct and will be subject to disciplinary action.
  • Inappropriate recording and distribution may be subject to legal action.
  • Students must not upload recordings, transcripts, summaries, captions, or extracts derived from teaching to third-party AI tools or other external services, unless this has been explicitly permitted within the course guidance and complies with University guidance on approved AI services and information security.

7. Intellectual Property and Performer Rights

  • The policies on exploitation of intellectual property and student intellectual property rights cover the status of intellectual property generated by the University’s employees and students. Where the University and an employee have agreed that the employee retains some or all of the intellectual property rights to material used within a teaching recording (for example, performer rights, as described below), the employee agrees to grant the University a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, worldwide licence to use the material for the essential purpose outlined in this policy.
  • Where a student (either as the lecturer or as a participant) holds some or all of the intellectual property rights to material used within a lecture recording, the student agrees to grant the University a non-exclusive licence to use the material for the essential purpose in this policy. The student also agrees to grant the University a non-exclusive licence for re-use of the material by the lecturer within an educational resource or the lecturer’s own staff development, and for re-use of the material by the School within the scope of a business continuity plan.
  • Performer rights reside with the lecturer and other participants involved in the teaching being recorded, who agree to the recording, and agree that the University may use their performance for the essential purpose in this policy. Lecturers wishing to assert their right to be identified as author or performer should do so as part of the recording, for example, in the introduction.
  • Recordings will only be retained for as long as they continue to be essential for the Course. Recordings will usually be replaced, if and when, the course is taught again in a new session although academic staff may choose to reuse their recordings where pedagogically appropriate. Recordings of teaching made by staff who are no longer employed by the University, or who no longer teach on the Course, will not be retained following the end of the Course in the academic session in which the recording was made, without the permission of those holding performer rights.
  • Variations to the standard retention period may be agreed to meet subject specific requirements. Any such change will be communicated to staff and students on the Course at the start of the academic session.

8. Evaluation

As with all University policies, implementation will be monitored through existing governance and service reporting routes. A formal review of the policy and its implementation will be undertaken when substantive amendments are proposed, or when reporting is requested by College or Senate learning and teaching governance (including the University Learning and Teaching Committee).

Monitoring may include anonymised, aggregated reporting (for example, recording coverage and opt-out rates at School level, drawn from centrally timetabled events and the University lecture recording service), alongside staff and student feedback and operational considerations (for example, timetabling and service sustainability). Findings will be used to inform operational guidance, communications to staff and students, and priorities for investment in lecture recording infrastructure and support.

Implementation monitoring to date indicates high uptake of recording for lectures within scope and low opt-out rates, supporting the continuation of an opt-out approach alongside lecturer discretion.

Privacy Notice - Information the University will collect about you and purposes for which it will use this information

The privacy notice addresses the responsibilities of the service owner in supporting the implementation of this policy.

On Campus Recording: Information the University will collect about you and purposes for which it will use this information

The University holds information about everyone who is associated with a lecture timetabled through CMIS or who uses the Lecture Recording service. This information is used to identify your level of access to specific lecture recordings and associated materials (presentations, Q&A transcripts, quizzes, notes) held within the system, report on your usage of the system, to opt you out of lecture recordings, provide you with support, maintain our IT system, gather feedback, and for strategic planning purposes.

Recordings containing your image, voice, and any personal opinions you express will be made available to be viewed by students and staff enrolled on the course with which your lecture is associated. If you are the lecturer, you can choose whether to make recordings available more widely than this and can control the availability of recordings within a Course.

Recordings and other information from the service may be used as detailed in the University’s Recording of Teaching Policy.

The University is using information about you in pursuit of its legitimate interests in providing a lecture recording service to its students and staff as detailed in the University’s Recording of Teaching Policy and within the scope of the Privacy Notice relating to Student and Staff data.

The University uses an external company (Echo360 Inc.) to process information about you on the University’s behalf. The University remains responsible for the information and will ensure it is kept securely.

What data is being collected by the Lecture Capture System (Echo360)?

First and last name; Student ID; Moodle Identifiers for Course ID; Course Name; Tutor Name; Tutor staff ID. In addition the following activity and engagement metrics are also recorded: login information; video views; questions and answers viewed and posted; quantity of notes entered; number of engagement activities completed.

Note: not all courses make use of all or any of the engagement activities.

Staff responsible for delivering a course will have access to analytics for a class and for an individual student. The data captured can be used to measure a level of engagement based on the student's activity within the system (i.e. number of video/presentation views, number of Q&A viewed and participated in, number of notes taken, interactive activities, polls, quizzes, interactive slides).

Note there is no obligation for the lecturing staff to make use of interactive components or to perform analytics on the course or individual students.

Retention of personal data within recordings

The University will hold the personal data you provide within a recording as detailed in the Recording of Teaching Policy (section 7).

Further queries

If you are unsure about anything within the Privacy Notice, then please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer at dataprotectionofficer@glasgow.ac.uk.

For further information on data protection, please see the University’s webpages and the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Online Recording: Information the University will collect about you and purposes for which it will use this information

The University of Glasgow will be what’s known as the ‘Data Controller’ of your personal data processed in relation to recordings of sessions on Zoom or Microsoft Teams associated with your courses. This privacy notice will explain how The University of Glasgow will process your personal data.

Why we need it

Where sessions are recorded, we may capture your basic personal data such as your name, profile image, webcam audio and video, and chat messages sent to the whole group in order to make this session available to watch after the event. This means it can be rewatched by participants, but also, crucially, by anyone who was not able to attend live due to technological circumstances outside of their control. The extent of the information captured at any specific session will be under the control of whoever organises it. In addition, technical data associated with your use of the system (IP address, software version, connection type, login name) is recorded to support service delivery. This technical data is stored regardless of whether a session is recorded.  We will only collect data that we need to provide and oversee this service to you.

Legal basis for processing your data

We must have a legal basis for processing all personal data. In this instance, three legal bases apply: Contract, Public Task, and Legitimate Interests.

  • Contract – the University has entered into a Student Contract with you to offer the teaching associated with your courses. Recording these sessions means that we do not disadvantage you if you are unable to join a session live.
  • Public task – this covers activities undertaken as part of the core functions of the University.
  • Legitimate interests – where sessions are not part of your core credit-bearing courses, it is still important that we have a way to make these equitably available to everyone in the same way as described above.

What we do with it and who we share it with

  • Personal data associated with participation in live online video classes may traverse global networks and data-centres located both within and outwith the European Economic Area (EEA). All data is encrypted and only accessible to University of Glasgow staff for the purposes outlined above. Recordings may be downloaded and moved to University-owned systems in the UK.  Anonymised data is used by system owners as detailed in the relevant privacy statements (Zoom and Microsoft). As a contracted user of these services, the University has withheld consent for the sharing of personal data with third-party organisations.

How long do we keep it for?

All technical data (IP address, software version, connection type, login name) associated with recordings will be kept for 12 months. Recordings will be retained as specified in the Recording of Teaching Policy.

What are your rights?*

You can request access to the information we process about you at any time. If at any point you believe that the information we process relating to you is incorrect, you can request to see this information and may in some instances request to have it restricted, corrected or, erased. You may also have the right to object to the processing of data and the right to data portability.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please submit your request via the webform or contact dp@gla.ac.uk.

*Please note that the ability to exercise these rights will vary and depend on the legal basis on which the processing is being carried out. 

Complaints

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the University Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter.

Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotectionofficer@glasgow.ac.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are not processing your personal data in accordance with the law, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) https://ico.org.uk/.

Approval, Amendments and Reviews

Reviewed and Amended: 04/02/2026