Audio and video recording

Observation can be undertaken using audio- or video-recording. However, this is not without complications.As we saw when discussing interviews, there is the issue of how recording might affect participants. Awareness that one is being observed in any way can affect behaviour, but this can be particularly so if recording equipment is used. Secondly, the observer and analyst of the resulting recording will have a very large task. A recording of one hour can often mean several hours of listening or watching because of the frequent re-playing of small sections that is usually necessary for accurate analysis. The quality of recording is often disappointing unless professional help and very high quality equipment is used. However, if you want to look in detail, say, at the language that is used by tutors or students, then accurate samples will be important. You may need to take advice from colleagues, in linguistics or language teaching, in how best to transcribe and analyse the data. This could provide opportunities for collaborative research across disciplines.

This webpage from University College London gives very helpful advice on equipment for recording speech

Although the paper below refers to observation in secondary schools, there are several very practical suggestions for observations which can be used in other settings
http://www.scre.ac.uk/pdf/spotlight/spotlight16.pdf

Reference

Flanders, N. (1970) Analysing teaching behaviour. New York: Wiley