Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of technology for recording and sharing higher education lectures and other teaching activities.

In 2017 the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) published a research report, commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which reviewed the levels of support for disabled students across the higher education (HE) sector in 2016/17 and the progress made by HE providers (HEPs) towards inclusive, social models of support.

The report is available at: https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/resource/models-support-students-disabilities and is also attached.

The research found that the majority of institutions used audio or video recording of at least some of their lectures. Most of those who did not currently use lecture capture planned to introduce it in the future.

The Office for Students has commissioned follow-up research from IES, a report of which will be published in summer 2019.

Furthermore, in January 2019, the department published an evaluation research report of the support provided to disabled students in higher education through Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSAs) and the support provided by HEPs. This report showed that disabled students were aware and took advantage of support from their HEPs, including online course materials, the provision of lecture notes in advance and lecture capture, and specialist software and assistive technology. The DSAs evaluation research report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evaluation-of-disabled-students-allowances-dsas and is also attached.