Monash University Lectures Online procedure

Parent policy title: Monash University Lectures Online - view Policy

Preamble: Monash University Lectures Online (MULO) uses EchoSystem technology in major lecture theatres at Clayton, Caulfield, Gippsland, Berwick, Peninsula and Parkville campuses. By default, EchoSystem records all audio and visual content from the theatre presentation computer.

Procedure

Provision of service
The MULO service is available from centrally funded, supported and maintained teaching spaces. Faculty teaching spaces which require the service will be negotiated with the library and assessed on a case by case basis. Faculties are required to purchase the specified equipment for use in Faculty owned lecture theatres as identified by MULO. Provision of the service is totally dependent on staffing levels and funding.

One off recordings for conferences, seminars and guest lectures are by negotiation.

Recording of lectures
A recording request form must be completed by the lecturer requiring the service. Lectures are scheduled and recorded automatically on a repeated weekly program throughout the semester. The normal service does not include ‘one off’ recordings or changes to the schedule.

Lecturers must inform guest lecturers or other attendees that they will be recorded and that the recording will be made available to Monash University staff and students. There is a sample release form available from the university copyright website that can be used for permission to record guest lecturers in courses.

Editing of recorded lectures requires manual intervention. Only under exceptional circumstances can part of a recording be deleted or entirely removed, for example when a private conversation or sensitive material is accidentally recorded.

Five days notice must be given to defer or discontinue a recording.

Testing of recording devices
Testing of recording devices is undertaken on an ad-hoc basis. Under the terms of the IT Use policy – staff and other authorised users section 6.2 and section 6.3, testing is permitted without written consent.

Note that testing of lecture theatre equipment can be undertaken at any time. Data obtained from testing will be deleted immediately and will not be published.

Copyright and Privacy permissions
Copyright and privacy permissions are included on the online submission form for any subject recorded. The form states that 'by submitting this form you are granting permission for the lecture (audio and visual) to be recorded and to be used by the Monash University Lectures Online Service'.

All academic staff creating content within EchoSystem must read and observe Monash University copyright guidelines and privacy guidelines. If material is displayed during the lecture that would be in breach of these guidelines if captured for online playback, the lecturer must contact MULO immediately after the conclusion of the lecture with a request for the lecture recording to be withdrawn or an edit to be made.

Copyright and privacy warnings are published on each unit page and precede the EchoSystem playback of streamed media content. The following warning is placed at the beginning of all recorded lectures:

COPYRIGHT WARNING: copyright in these lectures is owned by Monash University. You may transcribe any lecture or take notes for the purpose of your personal study only. If used for any other purpose, your notes will infringe the University's copyright. The University may take legal action against any person who sells notes based on these lectures. You are permitted to download, or stream media files for personal study purposes only. You are not permitted to use any part of the media content on these files for any other purpose, nor may you distribute any part of these files to a third party. Any such distribution of files, or use of media content, will infringe the University's copyright. Monash University may take legal action against any person who does so.

Warning notices
Notices are placed as follows:

Prominently at entry to lecture theatres:
Audio and visual recording may occur in this room

Inside lecture theatres:
This facility is equipped with audio and visual recording capabilities. All audio (spoken and sound) and visual content (Microsoft Office suite, email, DVD content, web sites etc) originating from the lectern or any computer attached to the lectern and discussions conducted in the facility may be captured.

Recordings are published online and are available to Monash University students and staff. Requests to edit or remove a recording should be made to Monash University Lectures Online on extension 59408. Testing of recording equipment is undertaken on an ad hoc basis. These recordings are not published.

Further information is available at: www.mulo.monash.edu.au

Playback of lectures
All recordings are placed on the MULO website and can be accessed only by Monash University staff and students using Authcate. Recordings are not restricted by student or faculty because this requires time-consuming manual intervention. Playback is available as follows:

Streaming:

  • Visual plus audio of lecture presentation
  • Not downloadable in any format
  • Playback on internet-enabled computers

MP3:

  • Audio of lecture presentation
  • Available for direct download or podcast
  • Playback on media players, portable MP3 devices

M4V:

  • Visual plus audio of lecture presentation
  • Available for direct download or vodcast
  • Playback on QuickTime, iPhone, most media players but not Windows Media

Archiving Lecture recordings are kept for a maximum of two years and deleted at the end of the second year.

Definitions

  • EchoSystem: software purchased from Echo360 that captures the visual content as displayed to students in the lecture theatre from the lectern and synchronises this with the recorded audio of the lecture.
  • Audio: includes any spoken or any sound captured from the lectern or any computer attached to the lectern and discussions held within the lecture theatre.
  • Visual content: any visuals that are displayed on the lectern or computer attached to the lectern, eg Microsoft Office suite (Powerpoint, Word, Excel), email, DVD content, websites etc. Video of the presenter is not available.

Date effective: September 27, 2011

Date of review: September 30, 2014

Author: Director, Resources Division

Contact person: MULO Coordinator