In-person recording lets your Tutors record Lessons that happen face to face, using the Bobbin mobile app on their phone. Bobbin transcribes the recording and turns it into the same Lesson insights and Lesson report you get for online Lessons.
In-person recording is a beta feature, so it's off until an Administrator turns it on.
Note: In-person recording uses Bobbin's AI features, so it isn't available on Bobbin Lite.
How it works
An Administrator turns on in-person recording in Settings > Beta.
Lessons that happen face to face are marked as In person.
At the start of their in person Lesson, the Tutor opens the Bobbin app, picks the Lesson from their list and taps record. They can mark who attended while they record.
When the Tutor ends the recording, the app uploads it and Bobbin transcribes it.
The Tutor gets an email asking them to check who said what in the transcript, then confirms it.
Bobbin creates the Lesson insights and Lesson report, and the Lesson is completed as normal.
Turning on in-person recording
Go to Settings and open the Beta tab.
Under In-person recording, switch on Enable in-person recording.
Only Administrators can change this. If you turn it off later, Tutors can't start new in-person recordings, but recordings you already have stay where they are.
While it's off, Administrators see a card on the Dashboard with a shortcut to this setting.
Marking Lessons as in person
Once in-person recording is on, every Course and Lesson shows whether it runs Online or In person. Existing Courses and Lessons start as Online.
Your Courses come from TutorCruncher, but this setting is changed in Bobbin:
Open the Course or Lesson.
Open the Actions menu and choose Change online or in person.
For a Course, you can also tick the option to update its planned Lessons that haven't started yet. If you leave it unticked, only new Lessons pick up the change.
New Lessons copy their Course's setting. Lessons that have already started, been completed or been canceled keep the setting they had. Tutors who can edit Lessons can change it too, but when a Tutor updates a Course, only the Lessons they teach are changed.
The Course and Lesson lists, and the Calendar, have a Delivery filter so you can show only online or only in-person Lessons.
On an in-person Lesson:
The Lesson shows an In person tag.
There's no Join Space button, and no join links for Students.
If the Lesson needs to happen online after all, change it back to Online and the join options come back.
Getting your Tutors set up
Tutors record using the Bobbin mobile app, which is available for iOS and Android:
Tutors sign in to the app with their TutorCruncher account by tapping Sign in with TutorCruncher. Once signed in, they stay signed in for 30 days each time they use the app.
The app is for Tutors only. Administrators, Clients and Students can't sign in to it. If you're an Administrator who also tutors, sign in with your Tutor account.
You can share our Tutor guide for recording in-person Lessons with your Tutors so they know what to expect.
Recording consent
A Client or Administrator can opt a Student out of recording, or out of having their recordings shared, from the Lesson recording card on the Student's profile. If Honor recording and sharing opt-outs is switched on under Settings > Lessons, a Lesson with a Student who's opted out of recording can't be recorded in person, and any existing recordings for that Student are hidden. See Recording and sharing opt-outs for more.
Checking transcript speakers
When a recording has been transcribed, it waits for someone to check it before any insights are created. This is because Bobbin can occasionally mix up who's speaking, and if the Tutor and Student are swapped, the insights would describe the wrong person.
The Tutor gets a "transcript ready to review" email, and the Lesson page shows a banner saying the transcript is ready. Tutors can turn this email off for themselves with the Transcript ready for review switch under Notifications on their profile. Tutors and Administrators can both do the check:
Match each voice (Speaker A, Speaker B and so on) to a person on the Lesson.
Fix any single lines that are given to the wrong person.
Listen back to the recording if you need to.
Click Confirm speakers.
Bobbin then creates the Lesson insights and Lesson report as usual. Until someone confirms the speakers, no insights or report are created for that Lesson.
Viewing in-person recordings
On the Lesson page: In-person recordings play as audio in the Session recording card. Clicking a time in the transcript jumps to that point in the recording.
On the Recordings page: This lists your online and in-person recordings together, and you can filter by type.
Who can see them: Choose which roles can view recordings under Settings > Lessons > Roles that can view recordings. Administrators can always see them.
How long they're kept: The audio is deleted after the number of days set in Days to keep lesson recordings under Settings > Lessons. Transcripts and insights are kept regardless.
Things to know
Recordings need to be at least 4½ minutes long. Anything shorter is discarded, with no transcript or report. The app doesn't warn the Tutor first. Pausing and carrying on is fine, as it all counts as one recording.
A recording of just a few seconds shows as failed, with a message that no audible content was recorded.
Only one recording can be running for a Lesson at a time.
The app works offline. The recording uploads automatically once the phone is back online.
Tutors can discard a recording at any point before the insights are created.
Attendance marked in the app is used in progress reports, so a Student marked absent is reported as having missed that Lesson.
Safeguarding checks run on in-person transcripts in the same way as online Lessons.
If you reach your spend limit, Tutors can't start new in-person recordings until your next billing date or until you raise the limit. Recordings already in progress aren't stopped.
Pricing
In-person recordings are charged by the hour, using your plan's included hours. During your free trial they come out of your trial hours. For full details of how they're charged, see Bobbin pricing and billing.
Frequently asked questions
A Tutor says they can't record. What should I check?
Check that in-person recording is turned on under Settings > Beta, that no Student on the Lesson has been opted out of recording, that the Lesson doesn't already have a recording in progress, and that you haven't reached your spend limit.
A short recording has disappeared. Is that a bug?
No. Recordings under 4½ minutes are discarded on purpose, as they're too short to produce a useful report.
Why has a recording been stuck on "Uploading" for a long time?
The recording may not be recoverable, for example if the phone ran out of battery. Ask the Tutor to record again if they can, or contact us.
Does marking a Lesson as In person change how it's billed?
No. The Online or In person setting is just a label. See Bobbin pricing and billing to understand how in-person recordings are charged.