will lectures be recorded?

No. Teaching material will be posted, explanations given, questions answered; there will hands-on help with "show that" and "explain that" exercises and with R-programming; but no, lectures will not be taped. 

A certain administrative question regarding *attendance* will be sorted out before March 1 (with decision not taken by myself, but by authorities somewhat above my head). One suggestion is that every student needs at least 75% attendance to be allowed taking the exam, i.e. in addition to doing and having the two OBLIGs accepted. At any rate you should try to attend as many of the lectures (and exercise rounds) as you can, for these two weeks of heavy teaching, March 18-22 and April 15-19.