The survey will be available for students to take through fall quarter 2023 and will determine future steps taken by ASUCD to push for mandatory lecture recordings
By LILY FREEMAN — campus@theaggie.org
In the beginning of October, the ASUCD Academic Affairs Commission (AAC) published a survey to gather students’ thoughts on mandatory lecture recordings, according to the AAC Instagram. This is intended to be a quarter-long project to gauge the undergraduate student opinion on all in-person lectures being recorded.
“The whole project basically prefaces that professors should record their lectures because students shouldn’t be penalized for not being able to make it to lecture,” said Britney Cao, a third-year political science major and AAC chairperson. “We really want to see what the student population thinks about this subject, [and] we have this project so that we can improve the academic quality of student life here at Davis.”
The survey asks respondents several specified questions regarding lecture recordings, according to the language of the survey. For example, one question asks individuals to rank their preferences on potential lecture capture policies. Another question asks students if their mental health would be improved if lecture recordings were available to them.
Chasa Monica, a third-year microbiology and philosophy double major and ASUCD Senator, is also helping the AAC with this project.
“Personally, I have bad mental health days,” Monica said. “And sometimes, I’m just like ‘oh my god, I forgot I had a lecture.’ There’s so many reasons why you miss a lecture, and this is why so many people have said that they have wanted to bring it back.”
Both Cao and Monica discussed a variety of other reasons why students may need to miss class and would benefit from lecture capture. These reasons included having a lack of transportation, days where they might be too busy with other classwork or where they could be facing other circumstances that are out of their control. They also emphasized that recordings would be beneficial for international students who are not speaking English as their first language.
“I think it’s so important that we make sure to be there for all students and try to make learning accessible to everyone,” Monica said. “This is a wonderful step in the right direction. I also think Covid made it very apparent that it’s kind of good to have lectures recorded and to have that constantly for students.”
Dani Antonio, a fourth-year political science and psychology double major and ASUCD Senator, also partnered with Monica and Cao on the missions of the survey.
“I think that there’s value to recording lectures,” Antonio said. “Not just because it’s helpful for studying, but because doing so recognizes and addresses the fact that most students are not just students. We have students on campus who work, who are disabled, who learn better through recorded lectures where they can play things back, among many others.”
Monica also discussed the upcoming faculty survey, which will gauge lecturer and professor preferences for mandatory lecture recordings.
“The faculty survey is to gauge potential qualms that they have with lecture capture,” Monica said. “I think the professor’s survey helps more with the logistics of what our bonds are, and which subjects would benefit more from recordings.”
The survey will be open for undergraduate students to take through this fall quarter. Cao went on to outline what the AAC’s next steps will entail once the survey closes.
“After we gather the data, we will compile and analyze both surveys,” Cao said. “We plan on taking it to the Undergraduate Council and to the UC Davis Academic Senate to say, ‘hey, this is what students want and this is what students need.’ After presenting all of this information, we will go from there.”
Monica then discussed potential timelines for any resolutions post-survey.
“It’s either going to get an overwhelming amount of support, having a very straightforward pathway, or this project could last one to two years, depending on the responses.”
The survey can be found through the website linked on the AAC Instagram, @asucd_aac. It will be available for students to take throughout the quarter.
Written by: Lily Freeman – campus@theaggie.org
