Camtasia

[ElizabethECharl]

I thought I would take a look at Camtasia as I am familiar with most of the other tools listed.

How easy was it to understand how this tool worked?

It was very easy to understand how this tool worked and very straightforward.  It captures what is shown on the screen and it can also be enhanced with additional video and audio content (imported in from other sources).  Should you not be a whizz at adding additional content you can also select themed screen display, enabling you to produce a ‘just-in-time video’ with very little time invested. Obviously the more time you can give to this the more sophisticated the result.  Being able to structure (storyboard) and then seamlessly interweave snippets of OERs, audio and visual materials will  further engage the learner and enhance the learning activity. The fact that you can have clickable links, tables, etc., ensures that the learning activity using this tool can be an active one, with the learner interacting/particiapting throughout if necessary.

For me this tool would be quite easy to pick up and there would definitely be an improvement in production values and the look and feel as one’s experience of using it grows.

[JDermo]

Elizabeth, an interesting evaluation of how easy and useful you found Camtasia to use. I’d be interested to hear more about the kind of interactive activities which you think would work well with Camtasia. I would also be keen to hear more about the potential for “just in time videos” – certainly any tool which can help us create quality materials quickly and painlessly is going to be popular among teachers.

Also, have you had any experience of Jing (also mentioned in activity 4.3), which many people have compared very favourably with Camtasia?

[ElizabethECharl]

Activities such as:

# Searching for online resources on the various databases – as they have different interfaces which can be disconcerting for learners who are pushed for time.

# Research skills – searching and evaluating resources with instructions and tips along with the opportunity to undertake practical exercises out of a variety of examples.

# Opportunity to practice – ‘Boolean operators’ and how to best construct them to create complex searches.

#Used to create learning activites that linked through to collaborative documents where shared work can be part of the activity rather than a separate unit – would work well in a blended learning environment.

The ability to create just-in-time videos mean that if an issue/practice appears to be problematic for learners, you can produced something quickly and distribute it to the class/learner in good time to be picked up at the next session.

Jing was very easy to pick up it took me between 10-15mins to get the hang of it and I have used it in the past to produce acceptable videos for learners.  It doesn’t require a huge amount of technical know-how. It can also be used to capture a screenshot and then annotate it.

 

 

 

 

[GrahamRGibbs]

Elizabeth,

to add to your point about just-in-time videos, if what you are doing, day in, day out, is using software or websites and explaining the same things to students then using a tool like Camtasia makes a lot of sense. As you say, it is easy to storyboard what you need and your own facility with the software makes it easy to do the activities that are recorded without mistakes and retakes. I found this when I made a short video with Camtasia on the use of NVivo, software that is used to support qualitative analysis. I use the software a lot and I teach it too so it was easy to record a short session explaining some of the ways of using it.

But… I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I couldn’t stop myself improving the recording using zoom ins, call outs and highlighting. But for your just-in-time use all that is probably unnecessary.

This is comparable software for the iPad called ‘Explain Everything’ that records what you are doing on the screen. It does not record software use like Camtasia, but you can import images and PowerPoint slides and then talk about them and type, write and draw on the screen – something that’s much harder to do with Camtasia (unless you have a graphics tablet).

[ElizabethECharl]

Graham – thanks for recommendation re iPad.

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