Guidelines for Class Recording

Category: Information Technology

Responsible Office: Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Responsible Executive: Vice President and Chief Information Officer (VPCIO)

Date Established: March 27, 2020

Date Last Updated: August 6, 2024

On this page:

Summary

Instructors can record class sessions and share those recordings with students who are participating in the course session asynchronously. This document establishes the guidelines for instructors who wish to utilize live recordings as part of their class instruction. These guidelines only apply to general university use for instruction and do not meet HIPAA requirements.

Guidelines

The choice to record a class is a decision made by the instructor; recordings should only be made if the instructor determines there is a pedagogical reason to do so. Like other course content created as part of university activities, these recordings are subject to applicable university policies. Recordings should be treated as subject to federal student privacy law (FERPA) and university Administrative Regulations if students are personally identifiable in the recordings. Please contact the Registrar with any questions.

If an instructor chooses to record a class session, it must be done in accordance with the following guidelines:

  • Instructors should use the following settings:
    • Disable Local Recording. For most instructors, recordings should be kept in the cloud and not downloaded to a local computer.
    • If video is desired, enable Record active speaker with shared screen
    • Disable Display participants’ names in the recording
    • Enable Require password to access shared cloud recordings
    • Enable Multiple audio notifications of recorded meeting, which plays an automated message whenever a recording is started, or a participant enters a session that is already being recorded.
  • Instructors should notify students beforehand that they plan to record the class session and remind students at the beginning of the class (either orally or using a slide).
    • Students should be notified in writing in advance that they may opt-out from identification in the recording by muting their audio, not enabling video, and not typing into the Chat window.
    • Students who choose to opt-out from identification in the recording should still be considered in attendance and not penalized in any way.
  • If an instructor requires participation during class (either by audio, video, or chat), they should not record the session.
  • As with synchronous class sessions, instructors should maintain the scheduled time(s) and day(s) that classes meet as specified in their syllabus. Instructors should not reschedule virtual classes for times and days that the class does not normally meet, nor extend class time beyond scheduled hours.
  • Instructors must manually delete all recordings after final exams, or after final grades have been submitted (however, earlier deletion is preferable unless there is a reason to keep the recordings until grades are submitted).
  • Microsoft Teams and Zoom are not the recommended tools for creating pre-recorded lectures. Instead, Panopto is the preferred tool with more options and flexibility for creating asynchronous content.

Contact Information

Office of the Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Phone: 716-645-7979
Email: cio@buffalo.edu

Information Security Office
Phone: 716-645-6997
Email: sec-office@buffalo.edu

Office of the Registrar
Phone: 716-645-5698
Email: ubregistrar@buffalo.edu

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