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Guidance for Recording on Zoom and Similar Platforms
Overview: By taking portions of classes, meetings, and overall operations online, the legal status of much of our work has changed. As you may know, when conversations are recorded or fixed, they are subject to certain legal protections to which they are not subject in a face to face environment. The risks are elevated when online classes and meetings are recorded, which may implicate FERPA, copyright, or public records laws. Below is some guidance for navigating these issues.
Faculty Class Sessions: The College’s Zoom account permits each faculty member to determine whether to record each class meeting by affirmatively choosing that option as the meeting organizer. If you do not choose to record, the session will NOT be recorded. Please consider carefully whether recording your session is a better alternative than using one of the other video applications available to faculty, like Kaltura. If you record a class session, it will also record all student questions and comments that occur during the session. Your recorded session will be stored exclusively within our learning management system and cannot be saved to individual devices. If you want to share the recording after it has been made, it can be posted in your Canvas course or you may provide the link to others. Only users who authenticate to Valencia systems will be permitted access to the recording.
If you choose to record a class session, a disclaimer will pop up for your students advising them that they are consenting to be recorded. Some may choose not to participate by video or audio and to use the chat function instead. If this fundamentally changes your course design, discuss the situation with your Dean. Note that students who have disabilities related to online work (including anxiety, ADHD, and fine motor skills), may seek accommodations from OSD that you have not seen before. Be sure to contact OSD if you are unsure how to assess these accommodations.
Faculty/Staff One-on-One Conferences or Meetings with Students: If you need to meet virtually with a student during office hours, in an advising capacity, or to provide some other service via Zoom, you will also have the option to record. Since these types of conversations are typically not recorded, be thoughtful as to whether the meeting should be recorded now and how it might affect your ability to have an open and honest conversation. If you do choose to record, the disclaimer will pop up telling the student that they may want to request a different method of communicating. Try to adapt to a phone conversation, Skype call, or other method if the student wishes and if appropriate.
Employees in Operational or Administrative Meetings: Meeting organizers, whether supervisors or others, will have the option to record meetings. The default position should be to NOT record internal meetings. Meetings should be a place where employees feel comfortable sharing ideas and assessing risk without fear that their comments will become public. Recording these meetings may make the recording subject to public disclosure and may chill productive conversation. If you have a need to record an employee meeting, let the participants know beforehand, and consider feedback when it is received. If a critical participant does not consent to recording, speak with your supervisor about solutions. If having a witness of your conversation is a concern, you can still have a member of ODHR attend the virtual meeting without recording it. If you do choose to record, the disclaimer will pop up telling the participants that they may want to request a different method of communicating, giving them another chance to inform you that they do not wish to be recorded.