Should Every Lecture Be Recorded?

Over the past decade, recording lectures has moved from an unusual experiment to a routine feature of university life. At many institutions, a student who misses a class can simply watch it later on a laptop or phone. Some academics now argue that every lecture should be recorded as a matter of policy. In my view, this would be a mistake, although not for the reasons most often given.

The usual objection is that recordings encourage students to stay away from the lecture hall. I am not convinced by this argument. Attendance figures collected at the Harwell Institute of Technology over six years showed only a slight fall after recordings were introduced, and the students who stopped attending were mostly those who had rarely come before. Recordings, it seems, do not create absentees; they simply give existing absentees something to watch.

Nor do I accept the claim that lecturers become less lively when a camera is present. Some may feel nervous at first, but most quickly forget that the equipment is there. The real problem lies elsewhere.

A recorded lecture is, above all, a passive experience. Students who watch at double speed, pausing every few minutes to check their messages, are not learning in the way that the lecture format intends. The value of a live session comes partly from the chance to ask a question at the moment of confusion, and partly from the discipline of following an argument in real time. A recording removes both. Students often believe that they will "catch up later", but in practice many leave several weeks of recordings unwatched until the days before an examination and then try to absorb them all at once. This is one of the least effective ways to study.

There is also a question of fairness to staff. Lecturers are increasingly expected to produce polished material that can be reused year after year, yet the time needed to prepare it is rarely recognised in their workloads. Universities should not introduce a universal policy without first dealing with this.

None of this means that recordings should disappear. They are extremely useful for students with disabilities, for those who are ill, and for those studying in a second language, who may benefit from hearing a difficult explanation more than once. The sensible approach is to make recordings available on request to students with a genuine need, while continuing to treat the live lecture as the main event. Universities that record everything by default risk sending the message that turning up is optional – and that is a message students will certainly hear.