Week Eight - Play Activity

Screencasting - The good, the bad and the ugly

If you want to skip the spiel and watch my video guide, head to the bottom of my reflections. Feel free to only watch a minute or so as it is a lengthy video. Thank you!

I've always been interested in making instructional videos but never took the time to investigate how I might go about it. The play activity for this week required students to put together a screencast offering a "how to" of a particular library catalogue or database. Excited by the opportunity to test some unfamiliar technology, I chose to show how the Gold Coast libraries catalogue could be accessed from the council page and how you could use the catalogue to find an on-line-accessible audiobook.

It took me some time to find an adequate screen capture tool for the task. VLC media player doesn't capture audio when recording screencasts and I didn't completely trust Screen Capturer Recorder or how long it took to put the video together. I settled on CamStudio and after some menu trawling, was able to find the settings that suited the capture I was looking to record. For your reference, these are the options I selected to put together my video:

- Under "Region" I changed the default setting from "Fixed Region" to "Full Screen".

- Under "Options" I changed the following default settings:

• "Do not record audio" -> "Record audio from speakers"
• "Audio Options for Microphone" -> selected "Internal Mic..." under the "Audio Capture Device" heading
• "Record to Flash Options" -> deselected all options
• Under "Program Options" in the "Options" tab I selected "Minimize program on start recording", "Hide flashing rectangle during recording", "Save settings on exit", "Capture translucent/layered windows"
• "Play AVI file when recording stops" -> "Do not play AVI file"
• "Directory for recording" -> "Use user specified directory..."
• "Name of AVI file" -> "Automatic file naming (use date and time)..."

I also ensured that it stated "Record to AVI" in the top right hand corner of the white CamStudio display.

It is also important to be aware that in order to stop the recording you need to show the hidden icons in the bottom right hand corner of the systray, right click on the CamStudio icon and hit stop. Following this, CamStudio will take a minute or so to compress the file. Once it's finished the compression, you should be able to view your recorded file in a media player. If you decide you want to re-record the capture, triple check your setting adjustments haven't returned to the default settings.

It took me a few attempts to end up with an OK recording; the technology worked fine but my inadequate planning led to lengthy and misguiding instructions. As it is, despite being advised to aim for a 3 minute video, my capture goes for 8 minutes. This may have something to do with the content I was canvassing as well. 

Click on the bottom right hand icon to enlarge video

Overall, I'm glad this task pushed me to gain exposure to this technology. I will definitely use screencasting in the future and may even revisit my first attempts to produce something more succinct.

Key points learned from this exercise:
- it pays to do your research into what screen capture tool is right for you
- taking the time to navigate and understand how the tool functions makes the job easier
- have a rough idea of what you're going to say and where you're going to navigate to avoid any surprise results (a script might help even further). This also will enable you to have a shorter, more accessible video.