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Is Bournemouth university replacing lecturers with pre-recorded video? (From Thisisdorset)
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Is Bournemouth university replacing lecturers with pre-recorded video?
10:00am Friday 5th February 2010
STAFF fear too many Bournemouth University lectures are being replaced by pre-recorded videos of past lectures.
More then 200 videos have been uploaded to a university website and universities around the country are doing the same.
Bournemouth said the video versions will generally be used when staff are attending conferences or away doing research.
Unions fear the practice could become too commonplace and that students will get angry if they believe their fees are too high for them to sit watching lectures online.
Around 25 staff at Bournemouth have been creating videos and more are being encouraged to do the same.
Paul Freedman, a business school lecturer and branch secretary of the lecturers union, the UCU, said: “Our worry is that over time they will replace some lectures because we are already facing a great restriction in terms of lecture rooms.
“The fear is that they will become a substitute for face to face contact.
“There have already been protests at Exeter University about the lack of face time with lecturers.”
A UCU national spokesman added: “If students know lectures are online the temptation will be to catch up later.
“But they will not be able to ask questions or get as clear an understanding.
“Anything that undermines the relationship between students and tutors is a worry.”
More than 40 universities are recording their lectures.
So far at Bournemouth the online versions have mainly be used as an extra resource for students who want to see the lectures again.
A Bournemouth University spokesman said: “It is definitely not our intention to replace live lectures with recorded lectures.
“We’re aiming to blend technology into the learning experience rather than for technology to become the learning experience.”
The spokesman said students and staff were enthusiastic about the video lectures and they were especially useful to disabled, international and mature students with other commitments.
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Your Say YourDorset
Will Burstow, Poole/Bournemouth says...
12:43pm Fri 5 Feb 10
The move to record lectures is going to result in even less contact with lecturers regardless of whether the University intended it.
It's part of a broader move to provide easier access, with the advent of the wider use of the online lecter note collections on MyBU.
If they want more money, the University needs to work with the students and give us more power over our education. Not simply dictate to us.
Will Burstow, Poole/Bournemouth says...
12:45pm Fri 5 Feb 10
BU student, Ferndown says...
1:45pm Fri 5 Feb 10
Staff are delivering their lectures and being recorded whilst doing so. Students are then able to watch the lecture again in their own time, maybe to develop their notes or to listen to a tricky point again. There is no suggestion that the lecture will not take place for students the following year, so this is simply another modern study aid.
The suggestion that pre-recorded lectures could be used if an academic has to be away for any reason also seems fine. Surely it is better that students have some replacement?
A positive consequence is that if some lectures are replaced by videos then teaching staff will have more time for seminars, where students are more likely to ask questions. Most lectures that I have seen have not shown active learning; the students merely sit and take notes!
saeedrashid, Moordown says...
1:55pm Fri 5 Feb 10
Mediclogan5, Bournemouth says...
2:50pm Fri 5 Feb 10
fedupdom, bournemouth says...
12:40pm Sat 6 Feb 10
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thunderer, bournemouth says...
10:48am Fri 5 Feb 10