Introduction to Screencasting
A screencast is a recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Generally, you can either record the audio and video at the same time or record the video and then add the voice narration using video editing software. The method depends upon your personal preferences and the tool you choose to use.
Example Uses
There are many ways you can use screencasts to enhance teaching & learning, including:
- Course Orientations - Introduce your online course and show students how to navigate within the course. See this example course orientation screencast.
- Narrated Presentations - Instead of just uploading your PowerPoint files, record yourself presenting the material and link to the screencast.
- Demonstrations - Show your students how to do something (i.e. analyze a poem, solve an equation, conjugate a verb).
- Technical Tutorials - Demonstrate how to use those tools you ask them to use.
- Troubleshooting - Record the steps you took that gave you that pesky error message and send the screencast to the techies for them to troubleshoot (much easier than trying to describe what happened!)
Tools & Techniques
Tools work on Windows XP and Windows Vista unless noted otherwise. See my Screencasting Tools Comparison Chart to help you decide which tool is right for you.
Other tools (not reviewed on this site - yet!)
Free tools
Inexpensive Tools (less than $75)
Tips for Creating Good Screencasts
I’ve included my tips below. However, you may also want to check out what some others have to say: Screencasting Tips for Beginners and Tips for Making Screencasts.
Prepare Your Space
- Prevent interruptions - put a sign on the door to let people know that you are recording and to not disturb you
- Minimize background noise – turn off your phone ringer, turn off or mute TV, radio and other background noises, ask your family to whisper while you are recording
- Remove extraneous screen clutter – all those folders, fancy backgrounds, and other windows open in the background are distracting so clean up your desktop space before you begin. Also, setting your screen to a solid color background reduces file size!
- Improve your computer performance – shut down any programs you won’t be using so your computer can capture video and audio more smoothlyPlug in a microphone – using an external microphone will provide better audio quality and minimize external noise interference
Prepare Your Content
- Prepare a script – this can either be a short outline of the key points you plan to make in your screencast or itcan be the entire narration that you intend to record.
- Record a few test runs practice your script and your screen movements so that your final recording will be smooth. Also, this is a good time to test your microphone position so that you get the best sound.
Record Your Screencast
- Position your microphone so that it is close enough to pick up what you’re saying, but not so close so that you hear your breathing or this puffs of air you make when you say words with the letters p and b.
- Speak clearly and slowly.Move through your content smoothly – use the scroll bar to make the screen move smoothly, give verbal alerts when you switch between screens, make sure people have enough time to view what material you are presenting.
- Emphasize the areas of the screen you want to draw attention to some software has features that allow you to zoom in or highlight areas of your screen, but if the software you are using doesn’t have those features, try increasing the size of your cursor or even selecting text and other elements on the page in order to highlight them as you speak about them.
- Record only the area of screen that you need the smaller the area you are recording, the smaller the file size.
- Chunk your content – it’s easier to watch and attend to segments of no more than 15 minutes. Plus, shorter videos are quicker to load/download than longer ones.
Publish Your Screencast
There are many options for publishing your screencasts and each has different requirements so it is difficult to provide specific ideas. However, since many of the tools listed below have associated online publishing services, you will usually not have to worry about formats or format conversions.
Research & Resources
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