Overview
This article will discuss the "Record" button, which is located towards the center of the Live Classroom's Bottom Panel. This button is only available to class Instructors. Below is a screenshot highlighting the location of this button:
The "Record" button enables Instructors to capture the current class session. Recordings can later be accessed in the Playback Room. Recording a session is at the discretion of the Instructor, but there are several valuable reasons to do so:
- Student revision: Learners can revisit complex topics, pause, and replay explanations to reinforce understanding.
- Language support: Non-native speakers can replay sessions to better grasp terminology or phrasing.
- Participant access: Recordings allow those who could not attend live to view the session asynchronously at their convenience.
- Administrative review: Organization administrators can use recordings for quality control and oversight purposes.
- Self-reflection: Instructors can review their own teaching style, pacing, and clarity to refine future sessions.
- Curriculum development: Sessions can serve as reference material when designing future courses or updating lesson plans.
Below are some general notes on using the "Record" button:
- Default behavior: Class sessions are not recorded unless auto‑record has been enabled in the class configuration.
- Pause and resume: Toggling the "Record" button during a session will pause or resume the recording. Pausing and resuming multiple times during a session will not create multiple files--a single recording will be generated that omits all the portions that were paused.
- Back‑to‑back sessions: If you need separate recordings for consecutive lectures, be sure to end the class session between them. Otherwise, the system will treat it as one continuous session and produce a single recording file.
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Visual indicators: When the session is being recorded, the Record button glows red, and a solid red circle appears in the top‑right corner of the screen--typically over the Instructor's webcam video. Next to this circle is a label showing what the recorder is currently capturing. For example, if a File Share is active and the class has been directed to that tab, the recorder will follow it, and the label will read "File Share". Both the red circle and the label are visible to all participants. The screenshot below highlights these indicators:
- Processing duration: As soon as the class session has ended, Engageli will begin processing the recording. The longer the class session, the longer it will take to generate the recording. Typically, a recording can take up to the duration of the live session to be generated, but will often be quicker. Once the recording is processed and available, it will appear in the classroom's Recordings area.
- Recorder delays: During periods of unusually high classroom activity, you may see a message that the recorder is "initializing". This indicates that all available recorders are in use and the system is spinning up additional capacity. If you experience this, please allow up to 3 minutes for the "Record" button to become available.
Managing The Recorder's Focus
Watching a class recording is not the same as participating in the live session. Live sessions provide access to many interactive features, while recordings offer a simpler, more limited view. Because recordings capture only a subset of the classroom experience, we’ll outline these details so that you, as the Instructor, can effectively manage the recorder--particularly in terms of where it directs its focus.
Below is a screenshot of how a typical class recording will appear in the Playback Room:
The video is divided into two sections--an upper portion and a lower portion.
The upper portion represents the classroom podium view as it appeared during the live session. This includes the Instructor's video, which remains fixed on the right side, and podium users, arranged along the left side. You'll notice that the left side of the podium has 2 rows: the top row displays participants who raised their hands before speaking (i.e. those who spoke from the podium), while the bottom row shows users who spoke without raising their hands. This layout differs slightly from how the podium appears in the live classroom and reinforces the point that recordings provide only a limited representation of the full classroom experience.
The large bottom portion shows the Views Tab that the recorder captured, such as a File Share or Class Share. Because only one Views Tab can be recorded at a time, it is important that the Instructor directs the recorder to the tab that matches the content being discussed.
In most cases, the recorder will capture the tab selected by the "Direct" feature. However, there are exceptions. When the "Direct" feature is set to a tab that Engageli is not able to include in the recording, the recorder will opt to instead record the Class Gallery (if enabled) or the Instructor's video. More broadly, the recorder only captures classroom‑level activity and will not record table‑level conversations.