More colleges are recording lectures, so more professors are learning to watch their words
Recording class sessions so students can review them online is becoming routine on many campuses. But all that taping can lead to "uh-oh moments," such as when a professor's joke about the college dean ends up on YouTube, or a private comment to a student after class is inadvertently broadcast.
Phyllis Tutora, director of George Washington University's master's program in project management, says she's recently gotten a few frantic phone calls from professors seeking to edit out portions of their lecture videos. In one case, she says, a professor let the class out early, and the system recorded his conversation with a student over why she was failing the course. Officials removed the exchange before the video went out to other students — which was good, since federal law requires colleges to keep students' grades private.
Some lecture bloopers caught on tape are funny (well, for those who enjoy a certain kind of humor). At the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, one professor left his wireless microphone on while taking a bathroom break, and watery sounds were audible on the class recording until officials cut out that section.
Such mishaps underline a much bigger issue, though: How can colleges and professors protect the traditional freewheeling spirit of the classroom while still offering students the benefits of online recordings?
'Cold Feet'
The question recently faced Eric H. Cline, an archaeology professor at George Washington, after administrators asked him to allow one of his classes to be recorded (just audio, not video). He is well known on the campus for his lively teaching style, and at first he was enthusiastic about the idea — until he listened to the first class session and was struck by how the previously private activity of teaching now seemed all too public.
"I downloaded it from iTunes, and I suddenly got cold feet," he said. "In the sanctity of the classroom, when you say something, it stays there. It's like, 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.' It's me, the students, and the four walls."
But when it's recorded, "and you say something you shouldn't — you make a joke about a fellow scholar — then what if it gets out and suddenly you're sued for slander?"
After that first class, he became self-conscious about teaching with the microphones in the room and dropped out of the taping program. "I kind of felt like it was curtailing me," he says.
It's an issue he remains torn about. In retrospect, he says, he never did make any joke or remark that would have raised eyebrows (he emphasizes that he does not routinely makes such comments). "I'm sure every professor has said something that they immediately felt, Oops, I shouldn't have done that," he says. "So why would you capture it on tape if it's possibly going to cause a problem?"
At least one professor did get into trouble over a recorded class. In 2006, Howard J. (John) Hall, a lecturer at the University of Florida's business school, was placed on administrative leave after appearing disoriented in a video recording posted to the university's Web site. The recording was intended to be used by students in the course as a study aid, but someone posted a short clip to YouTube showing the professor rambling on and swaying. The video was titled "apparently baked professor." Tens of thousands of people viewed it.
Giving Professors Control
Concerns about avoiding bloopers in lecture recordings have emerged at several colleges.
Several institutions, including Alabama, offer professors a chance to review their class recordings before they go live to students. "If they said something in class that they later don't want them to be able to hear, they don't even have to post it," says Carmen L. Burkhalter, associate dean for technology and senior information officer at the College of Arts and Sciences. "The faculty have total control over that."
Some institutions, including the University of Central Florida, give professors an easy way to pause recordings during class if they want to keep a statement off the record. "If they want to say something about the dean or the president of the university, they can hit the pause button and tell their students without causing a YouTube incident," says Al Ducharme, assistant dean for distance and distributed learning.
Some companies that make lecture-recording systems have recently added features that let professors easily edit out short segments before the videos are posted.
Mr. Cline, of George Washington, says such an approval system would have satisfied him. In fact, he has recorded three courses' worth of lectures in a studio for the commercial Modern Scholar series, which let him review the material before publication. And he had far more motivation to do those recordings — a payment from the company.
Nowhere to Hide
Most classrooms are still free of microphones and cameras (the latest Campus Computing Survey, which tracks information-technology trends, showed that only about 3 percent of courses are recorded). But even if a college hasn't set up a recording system yet, there's still a chance that an embarrassing moment will end up online.
One recent video posted to YouTube, for instance, recorded by what was probably a cellphone camera, supposedly shows a professor at Boston University falling off a stage while dressed in costume. (It may have been part of a play rather than a lecture; the person who posted the video did not reply to requests for more details.)
That's a reminder that the era of classroom privacy is nearly over, thanks to the ubiquity of recording devices and online video sharing. Some professors suggest that the best approach is to go into every class session assuming that their words could be broadcast to the world.
College 2.0 explores how new technologies are changing colleges. Please send ideas to jeff.young@chronicle.com.
http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Volume 55, Issue 28, Page A17
