Lecture capture to support elite athlete students

With the support of colleagues from Loughborough Sport, we’ve just submitted a research grant application focused on the use of lecture capture to support elite athlete students. This is an area I’ve been interested in for a year or so, and it’s an application of lecture capture where the benefits are, on the face of it, pretty obvious.

Elite athlete students face challenges due to extended periods away from campus for central training camps and competition. Currently, in the case of sports-related absence which might affect assessment, elite athlete students can make use of the University’s Assessment Flexibility policy if they are representing their country in an international competition, or at a squad training camp. But this can be disruptive to the student’s studies and life in general, so it would help everyone concerned (including module tutors) if the need for this could be avoided through capturing lectures and providing other forms of online support.

The use of lecture capture has already been piloted in a limited way to support athletes having to spend time away from campus; for instance, the 2012 Olympic hockey bronze medal winner Laura Unsworth had lectures on two modules captured in semester 2 this year specifically because she was going to be away at a national squad training camp. Monty Panesar, the Loughborough graduate England cricketer, is back studying for an MBA, and he too has had lectures recorded.  With over 500 elite athlete students across multiple sports currently studying at Loughborough, there are potentially many more students who would benefit from being supported this way.