Principles and practice for use of digital teaching resources for blended learning in response to Covid-19

In this document we set out the principles that apply to the University in the use of Digital Teaching Resources, the University’s expectations for staff and students in the use of the University’s Digital Teaching Resources; and the University’s guidance to staff to enhance consistency in the development and production of the Digital Teaching Resources.

“Digital Teaching Resources” means all teaching resources within a programme of study of the University which are available online, including but not limited to, recordings of lectures and other teaching resources to assist with blended learning as listed in the Annex.

Introduction

We adopted blended learning in response to the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic during Academic Year 2020/21.

Given the ongoing pandemic, blended learning will continue to form part of our teaching and learning offering for Academic Year 2021/22 including the use of Digital Teaching Resources.

For example, given public safeguards in place, large classes, such as lectures, will be streamed and/or recorded for students to watch via our virtual learning environment, My Dundee.

The shift to blended learning and the use of Digital Teaching Resources is focused on enhancing the learning experience and making the teaching provision better for our students. We are dedicated to ensuring that the aspects of blended learning that have been effective during the pandemic can be retained and built on for the future for the benefit of all our students.

The pandemic has accelerated an existing trend towards Digital Teaching Resources and technology being used to enhance the teaching and learning experience.  Accordingly, we are committed to a review of Blended Learning including the use of Digital Teaching Resources in consultation with relevant stakeholders during the course of the Academic Year.

Part one - staff  

Principles for the use of digital teaching resources

Staff participating in recognised industrial action

The University will not use Digital Teaching Resources to replace the tuition of staff participating in recognised industrial action.

Practice for video/audio recordings

The normal practice for video/audio recordings of instructional components will be to permit the streaming from secure University systems to enrolled students, but not the download. Downloads may be permitted to fulfil special purposes. (See 1.3.6 for Data Protection considerations).

Online delivery & recording of Digital Teaching Resources

A non-exhaustive list of Digital Teaching Resources is provided in the Annex. Digital Teaching Resources are to be primarily used where conventional delivery cannot be provided or is otherwise desirable. Access to these core learning resources must be maximised since this is an important consideration from an equality diversity and inclusion perspective.

As further illustration these may include:

• Delivery of lectures (where academics primarily deliver content) being recorded during the presentation and subsequently made available to the module using links within My Dundee or MedBlogs.
• Lectures or tuition sessions being pre-recorded and made available to students using My Dundee. This may be part of a flipped classroom approach where interactive tutorials assume the recorded lecture material, or reading, or other learning resources have been studied before the interactive tutorial.
• Interactive online tutorials, with input from staff and students being recorded, and made available to the module cohort. All participants must consent to this recording and release and understand that their rights to subsequently remove their contribution is likely be superseded by the learning value of the content to all participants.

Retention of teaching assets

Digital Teaching Resources will normally be retained for use during the current year of study. Retention, and potential reuse, for periods longer than 12 months will be agreed within a School. This may be of particular value for asynchronous teaching.

Student input to teaching assets

Digital Teaching Resources may be prepared with student input or personal contributions recorded. At the beginning of class or activity, staff must advise students that a session is being recorded and of their right not to be recorded. (See 1.3.6 for Data Protection considerations)

A student has the right to ask for their contribution(s) not to be recorded or to be removed in accordance with Data Protection Act 2018. Exceptions might include when the recording is an explicit requirement of a University award (for example a recording of assessed presentations for review and marking purposes). Where a student participates in a recorded learning activity, and subsequently requests the removal of their contribution, this will only be possible if the removal does not impair the educational value of the recording.

Sharing teaching assets

If decided within a School, Digital Teaching Resources may be made available to other institutions and worldwide users using an open licence. A Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike) is the recommended licence, and the University of Dundee should be included in the attribution.

Recordings of external lecturers or guests

Where external lecturers or other guests are being recorded or providing other instructional content, the inviting School must seek their explicit, opt-in consent to the recording and use of supporting materials, and keep records of this, unless this is already covered in a contract or other agreement.

How to prepare digital teaching resources - general recommended practice

There are certain common considerations that all staff must keep in mind when preparing Digital Teaching Resources. The use of other resources such as the Dundee Module Baseline are encouraged.

1. Consideration should be given so that equitable learning opportunities shall exist for students studying both online and face-to-face, regardless of their needs.

Typically, as a minimum, these will include for each module:

• a list of the learning objectives
• the structure or timetable of learning activities
• support material for instructional and assessment activities
• assessment details and assessment criteria

2. You should consult and seek feedback from students, and the approach and learning content should be developed in response to this feedback.
3. A guide to the use of the instructional components should be provided, with due attention to the correct use of any video/audio recorded content and the reasonable expectations for utilisation of other learning resources such as lecture notes and resource list elements.
4. Digital Teaching Resources should also explicitly anticipate and respect the needs of individual learners, diverse learning communities and must comply with accessibility legislation. This should include how students who are entitled to reasonable adjustments can access the Digital Teaching Resources, for example core module content, and should include an accessibility statement.
5. Digital Teaching Resources generated for use by the University should abide by the laws of copyright and fair dealing which includes the use of third-party content. It is the responsibility of individual members of staff and other engaged in preparing Digital Teaching Resources to ensure that any content used is copyright cleared for the specific purpose.

If you become aware that any Digital Teaching Resources contains content that infringes copyright, you should contact the person responsible for creating the Digital Teaching Resources immediately who will require to take necessary steps to rectify the alleged infringement. 

Inappropriate use by students of Digital Teaching Resources (including posting on external websites) is a disciplinary matter and should be referred to the relevant Dean of School and the Director of Legal.

6. All Digital Teaching Resources requires to be compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018.

In general, if you can avoid using sensitive personal data of students, staff or other individuals within Digital Teaching Resources you should do so. Sensitive personal data can include for example, in recorded video (and audio) personal characteristics such as faces, other biometric data, medical information, special characteristics, individual’s spoken words and concerns recorded and attributed to them personally. If in doubt, please contact Information Governance.

If you are in any doubt, your School Manager will be able to provide you with the current accepted practice or refer you to Information Governance for further information.

Operational guide for preparing digital teaching resources

Below is an operational guide on the tools and techniques available in preparing Digital Teaching Resources such as lecture recordings, lecture pre-recordings and the recording of online presentations, and some tutorials where a presentation element (which may be recorded) may proceed discussion component (which would not normally be recorded).

Lecture Capture and Instructional Activity

‘Lecture capture’ refers to, at a minimum, an audio recording of the lecturer’s voice presenting the lecture. An audio recording should normally be supplemented by voice over PowerPoint slides, Keynote slides, Sway, Prezi, visualiser or other visual material presented alongside the oral delivery of a lecture. It may also include a video recording of a lecturer during the lecture.

Instructional activity may be pre-recorded by Lecturers and presented in an asynchronous fashion.

A recording can be paused or stopped during a lecture to encourage active class participation and discussion. Lecturers can also review and edit recordings before making them available to students.

University’s platform for recording

The University’s preferred video recording, management and delivery system, is Yuja and can be used for lecture capture, screencasting, video streaming and video content management platform.

In addition, the following programmes: 1. Microsoft Stream 2. Collaborate 3. Microsoft Teams and 4. Zoom (in limited circumstances – e.g. China); can be used to support the provision of video and tools for the recording of instructional sessions or other online presentation and meeting software.

Where instructional material can be made available

Recorded instructional material will by default only be made available to students on a registered module and accessible through the module in Blackboard (My Dundee or MedBlogs). Recordings should only be viewed via online streaming.

Instructional activities not suitable for recording

The University recognises that not all instructional activities are suitable for recording and this is for individual Schools to decide. This may be for a range of reasons, for example:

• Not all lecture teaching styles are conducive to lecture capture, given their highly interactive and participatory nature. Changing these teaching approaches may be detrimental to the student learning experience.
• The content of the lecture may include confidential or personal information such as patient stories which may only be shared in the context of a physical teaching space. If personal information is to be shared in a lecture recording, written consent must be obtained from individuals, patients, etc.
• The material may be commercially or politically sensitive.
• There may be extensive use of a whiteboard that makes recording unsuitable.

Guidance on the pedagogical aspects of the use of video and audio recorded lectures, and examples of good practice, will be provided and supported by CTIL.

Part two - guidance for students

Use of digital teaching resources - general principles

1. The University responding to the pandemic, will provide students with the opportunity to access Digital Teaching Resources for the purposes of their tuition where relevant and appropriate on their relevant programme of study only.

2. Digital Teaching Resources may be subject to change at any time. For example, the University may restrict the recording and access of identified components of instructional material where copyright, intellectual property rights and personal data rights apply. The School will try and notify you prior to removal of Digital Teaching Resources but this is may not always be possible or guaranteed. Further information on the reasons for removal will be provided by your School upon request.  
3. Digital Teaching Resources are not for circulation, reproduction, distribution, sale, commercial exploitation or alternative use without the agreement of the University. This includes but is not limited to posting of Digital Teaching Resources on external websites or social media.
    
4. You may receive access to Digital Teaching Resources where confidentiality is expected to be respected. For example, clinical environments. It is a student’s individual responsibility when accessing any sensitive material to ensure that confidentiality is respected.
    
5. Generally, students may use audio recording of lectures given as part of their programme for their own personal tuition purposes.   
    
6. Video recording of lectures is not permitted without explicit, prior consent of the lecturer and others involved. In some instances, the Lecturer may not permit recording due to legal, regulatory or public policy reasons.
    
7. The ownership of the information within the Digital Teaching Resources and any recording remains with the University. It does not pass to the student making the recording.
    
8. Any recording made must be destroyed by the student once its purpose has been met. This will always be before the student leaves the University and shall normally be by the end of the semester in which the recording is made.
    
9. The recording method employed must be discreet and not intrusive regarding other participants in the lecture.
    
10. The recording of a lecture is not a substitute for online attendance at synchronous online lectures or similar teaching sessions.

11. Any breach of these terms of use of the Digital Teaching Resources, if serious, may be a disciplinary offence under the Student Discipline Procedure. 

12. Nothing in these general principles, is intended to affect the University’s obligation to provide reasonable adjustments for students who have a disability.

Copyright

The University requires that students abide by the laws of copyright and fair dealing as per its existing policies and procedures in terms of the Digital Teaching Resources.

• University General Copyright and Licensing Policy
• University Practical Guide to Copyright (Library maintained)

Data protection

All Digital Teaching Resources produced by the University require to be compliant with the Data Protection Act 2018.

Any contributions a student makes in class may be recorded by the University or by other students. If a student wishes to be removed from any recordings they should contact their School in the first instance. Please also see the University’s privacy notice.

Annex

• Learning and Teaching Materials
• Module plans and timetables
• Module handbooks
• Learning objectives and knowledge/skill attainment targets
• Instructional slides (such as PPT) and associated notes
• Video/audio recordings of live teaching (also known as lecture capture)
• Video/audio recordings of lecture presentations for subsequent release
• Video/audio recordings of instructional content including laboratories
• Educational videos
• Resource (reading) lists
• Internet links and references
• Laboratory handbooks
• Lecture handouts
• Authored guides or instructional papers
• Instructional software
• Educational apps for phone platforms
• Tutorial sets of resources
• Individual assignment, assessment questions and marking schedules
• Banks of assessment questions, answers and exercises
• Evaluation and survey questions and responses
• Other similar and related educational materials