Emerson College is committed to supporting faculty as new technology and pedagogy develop. Emerson remains committed to its intellectual property policies, which ensure that ownership of creative work remains with both faculty and students. In addition, the College reminds faculty that if they are interested in recording courses, the College is here to assist in meeting requirements for consent under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as well as state law.
Guidance
- Typically, Emerson College courses are not recorded except in particular situations involving accommodations coordinated with faculty and approved by Student Accessibility Services under the American with Disabilities Act.
- Faculty members may opt to record their own presentations to students by audio and/or video and to post or distribute such recordings.
- Faculty members may only record and distribute guest lecturers/special presenters with their written consent. If students ask questions in a chat function, please alert them ahead of time that their questions will be read and recorded and that if they wish to ask questions without their identity shared, they should email them to you directly.
- Faculty members may only record and distribute student participation, student questions, or the display of student work in courses with the consent of all students involved. Because of both state and federal laws, faculty members must obtain written consent (electronic documents are acceptable) from all students to make such recordings and must provide copies of such consents to Academic Affairs. A consent form is attached here (PDF). Such consents must make explicit the extent to which the recordings will be made available, the period of time the recordings will be made available and destroyed, and the expectations around the use of the recordings. You do not need one form per student per meeting, one form per student will cover the regular class meetings of the semester. Completed forms should be emailed to registrar@emerson.edu.
- The College can provide technical assistance to try to safeguard the recordings. The College will inform students that they are prohibited from altering, copying, publishing, or distributing class recordings and subject to discipline for violating such rules, but cannot guarantee that students or ill-intentioned third parties will not engage in such conduct.
- The College reminds faculty members that if they are recording class sessions – even with the written consent of all students – they may not record office hours or personal questions from students that may occur directly after a class session ends. Should students attempt to share personal information while a permitted recording is being made, faculty members should stop any recording.
Using a Canvas Assignment for the Form (Recommended)
In sum, if you’d like to record class meetings, it’s required that your students fill out a recording consent form for your course. We highly recommend delivering and collecting that form at the start of the semester via a Canvas Assignment.
Consent Form Canvas Assignment
If you are using the template that came with your Canvas course in the spring 2021 semester or later, below is a video tutorial that walks you through the process of setting up the assignment and consent form:
Consent Form Canvas Assignment - Manual Import from Canvas Commons
If you are using an older version (a version prior to the spring 2021 semester) of the Canvas template or if you have decided not to use the template, you can import the consent form assignment from Canvas Commons. Below is a video tutorial that walks you through the process of doing so: