ReCap

Service Description

ReCap is a lecture and event recording service.

For lecturers and event organisers, ReCap allows audio and visual material, including the speaker's voice, presentation slides and visualised documents, to be recorded and published online in an automated process that has minimal impact on the presenter.

Disseminating lectures post-class allows lecturers to reinforce particular points. By analysing their own lectures, academics can continuously improve teaching performance.

A list of locations in which ReCap equipment is installed is maintained at http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/recap/venues.php.

For students (and other interested parties), ReCap allows reviewing of material, giving a better understanding of complex topics and assisting in revision for exams. This is particularly helpful for people with dyslexia and for non-native English speakers.

Features

  • Recordings can be made available in any combination of streaming, download or podcast formats
  • Access to lecture recordings can be restricted to members of Newcastle University
  • Recordings of events of general interest, such as public lectures, can be made open to all
  • Recordings can be deleted upon request by the speaker
  • Recording facilities available in lecture theatres and a solo recording room

The service does not include editing of recordings, digitisation or publishing of material that has not been recorded via ReCap or video recording of the speaker.

Users

Recording a lecture, event or supplementary material: Any member of University staff.

Viewing a recording: Potentially anyone in the world, depending on the access restrictions set by the speaker.

Service Hours

Consultation, advice and guidance: 09:00-17:00, Monday to Friday, excluding University closure periods.

Recording facilities: Recording facilities are available whenever the room they are located in is available.

Viewing recordings: 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The ISS “at risk” period is 07:00-09:00 every Tuesday. Further planned maintenance times will be publicised in advance if there will be a disruption to the service.

Level of Service

Target availability of online recordings and booking forms: 99.9% of service hours, excluding advertised planned maintenance downtime. This equates to a target of no more than ¾ hours of unplanned outages per month.

Links to recordings will be made available to the lecturer or event organiser within 24 hours of the event.

The central processing infrastructure is fully resilient, meaning that any hardware or network failures will not result in a loss of recordings.

Recordings are backed-up and will be stored for at least 5 years.

Support and Documentation

Documentation, including a Staff User Guide, is available at http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/recap.

Additional support is available via the ISS Service Desk on 5999 or it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk.

All incidents relating to both aspects of this service (recording and viewing) will be handled according to the ISS Incident Management and Major Incident Management processes.

Request Process

To record a lecture or event:

  1. Ensure that a ReCap-enabled room is booked. For events that are not timetabled, a room will need to be booked (see www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/room).
  2. Complete the online ReCap booking form (available from http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/recap/bookcancel.php) a minimum of five working days before the event is to be recorded (or two working days for a solo recording room).
  3. A booking confirmation will be returned which will include the location from where to collect a lapel radio microphone (if required for recording).

To cancel a booking or request deletion of a recording:

  1. Complete the cancellation or deletion request form (available from http://teaching.ncl.ac.uk/recap/bookcancel.php).

To view a recording:

  1. Follow the link provided by the lecturer or event organiser.
  2. Login, if asked to do so. This will depend on the access restrictions imposed by the speaker.
  3. Select the format you want to view or download.

Requests for any other aspect of the service should be made via the ISS Service Desk on 5999 or it.servicedesk@ncl.ac.uk.

All requests relating to this service will be handled according to the ISS Request Fulfilment process.

User Responsibility

It is the speaker’s responsibility to ensure that the microphone is switched on.

The speaker (or event booker) is responsible for checking that the event has recorded satisfactorily. Any problems should be reported through the web form which will be linked from the email containing the URL of the recording.

The speaker is responsible for ensuring that the content of the lecture is acceptable to be recorded, including any possible copyright infringements.

The person booking the event recording (if they are not the speaker) is responsible for ensuring that the speaker is aware that the event will be recorded.

Users are expected to make use of the documentation before contacting the Service Desk for help.

Costs

N/A