Recorded Lectures: Looking to the Future

Abstract

Monash University's Faculty of Law has been providing undergraduate students with audio tapes of lectures for many years. Traditionally students would borrow the audio tape and listen to it within the Library. In 1999 the University Library began investing in digital recording technology enabling selected lectures to be made available to students via streaming servers. By Semester 1 2006, 64 undergraduate law classes were being taped, with some classes registering over 7000 hits for the semester. Student expectations of and reliance on these online lectures has steadily grown, with teachers facing increasing pressure to tape their lectures. This pressure is now expanding to demands for more flexible methods of access to the lectures. This paper looks at the development of recorded lectures at Monash University, with a particular emphasis on the experience of the Faculty of Law. Teacher concerns regarding the provision of recorded lectures and the potential implications for other teachers and units in the faculty of a Semester 2 trial of podcast lectures is discussed.