Class Recording Policy and Accommodations

Classes at Georgetown Law are not recorded by default. Faculty may choose to record some or all classes and make those recordings available to students either by posting them automatically to their course’s Canvas site, or making recordings available to students with accommodations or other specific needs on a case by case basis. Faculty may decide to limit access to students with disabilities approved for this accommodation by the Office of Accessibility Services (OAS).

Panopto, Georgetown’s cloud-based lecture capture and media playback service, is used to capture audio, video and computer desktop displays, which may then be published online and viewed on a web browser or mobile device. The Law Center uses Panopto for recording, storing, and playback of class lectures. If a faculty member opts to record all classes and make the recordings available to all students in the course, then the recordings are made available in Canvas via the Panopto link in the course navigation menu. Panopto also allows rough transcripts to display on recordings if enabled by the faculty member: How to Add ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) Captions into a Video. Questions about Panopto may be directed to the Law Center Technology Service Desk at caphelp@georgetown.edu.

Accommodated Students with Disabilities

Access to course recordings provides a student with an opportunity to access course content that may have been missed due to disabilities that impact attention and focus, while on a break to manage a health condition, etc. Access to the recording allows the student to take notes and draw their own conclusions about key information. A student with a disability who is requesting access to course recordings as a reasonable accommodation should email accessibilityservices@georgetown.edu in order to register with OAS.

Any student who is approved to access recordings as a reasonable accommodation must alert OAS when a professor does not record classes or release recordings so OAS can then contact the professor.

In the rare circumstance where, after OAS consults with the faculty member and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, it is determined that creation of or access to recording would constitute a fundamental alteration of the course pedagogy, access to recording would not be deemed reasonable and OAS would propose an alternative solution.

Any student who is approved to access recordings as a reasonable accommodation must sign an agreement acknowledging the following:

• Unauthorized recordings and/or transcription — including personal recordings made in class — do not fall within the scope of consent established by the Law Center’s Recording Policy.
• I am not authorized to download, copy, or share recordings and/or transcripts with anyone.
• Dishonestly sharing information may be deemed a violation of the Student Disciplinary Code and can violate federal, state, or other laws that restrict the involuntary recording of conversations.
• If I am given access to use Otter.ai for this course, I acknowledge that a) I will refrain from recording student-led discussions or segments involving personal reflections/experiences and b) I will delete all audio recordings and transcripts at the end of the semester.