This week, the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) released the 2014 Survey of Technology Enhanced Learning for Higher Education in the UK. This report draws on data gathered in a national survey of UK higher education institutions and focuses on institutional engagement with technologies that support teaching and learning activities. UCISA has undertaken a number of similar surveys in previous years to track developments in the adoption of various technologies over time.

Lecture capture is one of the technologies covered in the report that has seen a significant rise in uptake since the survey was last carried out in 2012.

This year’s survey found that lecture capture is centrally supported by 63% of UK institutions, compared with 51% of institutions surveyed in 2012. Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Teams responding to the survey also stated that they were facing increasing demands from academics who wanted support in their use of lecture capture. The report suggests that at a number of institutions there is ‘Strong endorsement for investing in and scaling up lecture capture service’.

At first glance, all this might indicate that lecture capture has become more or less mainstream at the majority of academic institutions. Yet responses to other questions reveal many universities still have a healthy amount of opportunity for growth. Just three percent of respondents reported that 75% or more of their departments were recording lectures, and a number of institutions are still capturing less than 50% of their course content.

As the two-year trend in adoption reveals, however, that opportunity for growth is quickly being seized. Lecture capture — and related academic video technologies like the flipped classroom and student video — are growing at a rapid pace. Frost & Sullivan projects the market to grow 25% annually over the coming 5 years, more than tripling in overall size.

From our own experience working with higher education institutions, it’s normal for universities to take some time before rolling out lecture capture out campus-wide. Universities like Newcastle have detailed their journey towards lecture recording at scale on our blog and the University of Essex outlined their move from ‘occasional analogue to ubiquitous digital’ lecture recording at a recent UCISA conference.

Achieving academic buy-in for lecture recording is a key initial step towards driving uptake. This process often starts with a certain degree of myth-busting – as the Head of E-Learning at GSM London describes in a recent guest blog post. Concerns about lecture capture range from a fear of being ‘checked up on’ to worries about being replaced by a recording. One particular objection often raised to lecture capture is that students will stop physically attending lectures. Many studies show that, in fact, there is no notable drop in attendance at live lectures after the introduction of lecture capture – including recent research from Steve Bailey at the University of Kent. Reassuring staff that lecture recording will not replace face-to-face forms of engagement is critical to ensure that the conditions are right for the widespread adoption of lecture capture within an institution.

As well as highlighting that lecture capture will not have a negative effect, TEL teams need to stress the benefits lecture recording can offer in terms of boosting student satisfaction and attainment. With mounting evidence that lecture capture is having a positive impact on both student results and their level of engagement with educational content, the case for campus-wide roll out of lecture recording will become increasingly clear and we will see an increasing move from adoption to true embedding of this technology at institutions.

If your institution is looking for a solution that will help you scale lecture capture campus wide and embed lecture recording more effectively, you can take our free trial or request a demo from our team.