In short
Check your school's recording policy and the teacher's permission first. Then record the sound your Mac plays along with your microphone, using the class platform's own recorder if you are allowed to, or a Mac app that records system audio. Wear headphones, and keep the recording to yourself.
To record an online class on a Mac, first check your school's policy and ask the teacher. Then either use the class platform's own recorder, if students are allowed to, or record on your Mac: the class comes out of the Mac's speakers or headphones, so a recorder that captures the sound the Mac plays, and your microphone alongside it, gets the whole session. Wear headphones, and keep what you record to yourself.
This guide covers permission, the steps, the class platform's recorder versus your own, and what to do about other students' voices. For a lecture in a room, see recording a lecture on a Mac.
How to record an online class on a Mac
- Check the school's policy on recording classes, and whether the school already records and publishes this one.
- Ask the teacher. "Is it all right if I record today's class for my own revision?"
- Put on headphones. On speakers, the class leaks back into your microphone.
- Set the Mac's language to the language of the class, if you want a transcript and it differs.
- Join the class in its app or browser.
- Start the recording as the class begins.
- Stop it when the class ends, and check the file or transcript is there.
- Store it privately and delete it when the course ends, or when the policy says.
Permission, and other students
An online class has more people in it than it looks: everyone who unmutes, and everyone whose name shows in the chat. Three things apply before you record:
- The school's rules. Many schools and universities have a policy on recording teaching. Some already record every session and make it available, which may make your own recording unnecessary.
- The teacher. Ask, even where the policy allows it. Seminars and small-group sessions, where students talk about their own work or views, are more often a no.
- Other students. Their voices are personal data in many places. Recording laws differ, and some require everyone's agreement to record a conversation.
If you need recordings because of a disability, the school's disability or accessibility service can usually arrange it for you, and tell teachers on your behalf.
The platform's recorder, or your own
| Option | Who can use it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| The school's own recordings | Everyone, if the school publishes them | Usually video, sometimes captions |
| The platform's recorder (Zoom, Teams, Meet) | Usually the host, or people they allow | A file saved by the platform; participants are told |
| A recorder on your Mac | You | Audio of what your Mac played, and your microphone if it records both |
The platform's recorder usually needs the host's permission, and it tells everyone that recording has started. A recorder on your Mac asks nobody, which is why the asking has to be done by you. Recording a Zoom meeting on a Mac goes through Zoom's own options in detail; most class platforms work in a similar way.
Why record your microphone too
If you ask questions or join discussion, your voice goes out through the microphone, not through the Mac's speakers. A recorder that captures only system audio misses you. Recording both, on separate tracks, keeps your questions and makes the transcript clear about which lines were yours.
Headphones and echo
On speakers, the class plays out loud and your microphone picks it up again. Your recording then has the teacher twice, slightly out of step, and the transcript may put their words on your side. Headphones stop this. Wired or Bluetooth both work for listening; Bluetooth headsets often sound worse when their microphone is in use, so a wired headset or the Mac's own microphone is better if you speak a lot.
Transcripts for revision
A transcript lets you search a class instead of listening to it again. Reading at your own pace also helps people who find it hard to listen and write at the same time; taking meeting notes with dyslexia covers that in more depth.
Speech recognition on a Mac works in the language the Mac is set to. For a class in another language, change it in System Settings › General › Language & Region before the class. Check technical terms and names against the slides; that is where transcripts most often go wrong.
How Notey fits into this
Notey is a Mac app for Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. It records your microphone and what the Mac plays as two separate tracks, and transcribes both on the Mac. The class arrives on the Them track and your questions on the You track.
- Download Notey and open it. Allow Microphone when macOS asks, and allow access to record your system audio when macOS asks at the first recording. Notey never asks for Screen Recording. No account is needed.
- If the class is not in your Mac's language, change the language in System Settings › General › Language & Region and restart Notey. There is no per-recording language picker.
- Join the class. Notey notices calls in Zoom, Teams, Slack and FaceTime, and in Chrome, Safari, Arc and Edge when the browser uses the microphone, and asks on its floating button. Press Allow. If it does not ask, for example because you joined without a microphone or in another app, press Start.
- A red dot and the elapsed time show while it records. They are on your Mac only; the class does not see them.
- Press Stop when the class ends.
Voices on the Them track, the teacher and other students, are told apart after the recording, and you can name them. The recording stays on your disk. After an English class, Notey reads the recording again on your Mac and keeps the words its recognisers agree on; classes in other languages keep the live transcript. ⌘K searches every recording by what was said, and each line plays from its timestamp.
If you have an account, you can ask for a summary, which is sent as transcript text only and labelled as AI-generated. Check it against your slides before you revise from it.
After the class
- Write three lines in your own words the same day: the main point, what you did not understand, what to read next.
- Keep recordings private. Do not post them or share them with people who were not in the class.
- Delete them when the course is over, or sooner if the school's policy says so.
A class is one kind of meeting among many, with its own rules on who agrees; types of meetings and the notes each one needs compares them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I record a Zoom class as a student?
Zoom's own recording usually needs the host's permission. A recorder on your own Mac does not ask Zoom, but your school's policy and the teacher's permission still apply. Ask first, and check whether the school already publishes recordings.
Will the teacher know if I record an online class?
If you use the platform's recorder, participants are usually told. A recorder on your own Mac is not visible to the class, which is exactly why you have to ask rather than rely on anyone noticing.
Can I record other students in an online class?
Their voices and names will be on the recording if they speak. Keep the recording for your own study, do not share it, and delete it when you no longer need it. Some schools forbid recording discussion sessions for this reason.
How do I transcribe an online lecture on a Mac?
Record it with an app that transcribes as it goes, or transcribe the recording afterwards. The Mac's own speech recognition works in the language the Mac is set to, so change it first if the class is in another language.
Why is my own voice missing from my class recording?
Some recorders capture only what the Mac plays. To keep your own questions too, record the microphone as well, ideally as a separate track.