Recording Class Sessions

Technologies such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Kaltura offer instructors the option of recording class sessions (in the physical or virtual classroom). Before you hit the record button in your next class session consider these guidelines and best practices for recording.

Guidelines & Best Practices

Permission to record and share a class session is not required if:

  • The recording containing personally identifiable information of one or more students is ONLY made available to students who are enrolled in the class during the semester the class session was recorded, for instance to facilitate access for students who may have missed a class session.
    • These recordings should not be made available to students taking the same class in subsequent semesters, nor should the recordings be accessible to anyone outside of the class (other than GGC employees with a legitimate interest in accessing the recordings).
    • If the recording contains student names, faces, audio recordings, or comments (i.e., personally identifiable information) it may not be shared outside of class without student consent, except as required by law.

Best Place for Sharing Class Session Recordings

Kaltura is the best place for you to store and share your recorded class sessions.
Kaltura is integrated with MyCourses which means that videos published from Kaltura into a specific MyCourses course are only available to the students registered for that course.
Care should be taken each semester to check that previously published videos do not get copied/rolled over to the next semester’s course.

Zoom recordings are automatically added to an instructor’s Kaltura account making it easy to publish those recordings in a specific MyCourses course.

OR

  • The recording does not contain personally identifiable information of any student.
    • For example, a recording that only features the faculty giving a lecture and responding to questions submitted anonymously would contain no identifiable student information.
    • These recordings can be made available more broadly, provided that such availability is otherwise in compliance with GGC and departmental policies.

To share a recording with people not registered for the class consider the following guidance.

Voluntary Participation

If the students’ participation in a class session is voluntary and not graded, the instructor can make a statement to students such as:

If you are unwilling to consent to have your profile or video image recorded, be sure to keep your camera off and do not use a profile image that depicts your face. Likewise, students who un-mute during class and participate verbally agree to have their voices recorded. If you are unwilling to consent to have your voice recorded during class, you will need to keep your mute button activated and communicate exclusively using the “chat” feature, which allows students to type questions and comments live. You may also request that the camera used in the classroom be directed away from you so as not to capture your image.

Please Note: If you intend to use the above statement as a form of consent, you must be sure to not include “chat” or other “comments” in the recording if shared outside of the class where the students are enrolled.

Required Participation

If the student’s participation in the course is not voluntary or otherwise requires that their name, face/image, voice, or comments/chats be included in the recording AND the recording will be made available to students outside of the class enrollment, the instructor must obtain consent before providing the recording to persons outside of the class.

The college provides a sample release form.

Best Practices for Class Session Recordings

  • Include information on your syllabus about class session recordings.
  • If student consent is required, consider including consent information in your MyCourses’ course.
    • If you use a quiz or survey in your course that serves as a roll verification activity, you could include a question/statement that gives students an opportunity to agree or disagree.
  • At the beginning of class remind students about the recording prior to starting the recording. Specifically tell students that:
    • their video feed or profile image becomes part of the recording.
    • everything that they say or type becomes part of the recording.

Consider using a slide that you display at the beginning of class with these reminders.

  • If you plan to share the recording with people who are not enrolled in the course and the recording includes chat/comments, you should use recordings that do not include the chat/comments. 

The U.S. Department of Education offers guidance on class session recordings and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act).