FacProfDev Summer 2013 - Day 2
by Varun KhannaDaniel Morrison, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Pepperdine University was actively looking for a solution.
THE PROBLEM:
Professor Morrison found himself repeating the same instructions “35 times” a semester to his students on how to use resources on MySocLab.com - an online sociology tutorial and resource management site.
The amount of time Professor Morrison was duplicating the information verbally, via email, and answering text messages was clearly wasted. He would rather spend that time teaching.
A SIMPLE SOLUTION:
At FacProfDev Summer 2013 – Professor Morrison was introduced to Jing – a video/audio screen capture tool. This free software allows up to 5 minutes of screen capture and the media can easily be uploaded to Screencast.com. Screencast.com allows up to 2GB of free online storage as well as 2GB of data transfer (you can purchase additional storage and data transfer). The uploaded content belongs to the author and not Screencast.com.
The entire process took Professor Morrison approximately 15 minutes and he will never have to repeat himself to his students on how to use MySocLab.com. Once he was done uploading his screencast, he emailed the link to his students.
Done!
There are many tools to create screencasts. In addition to Jing, you may consider Camtasia, Quicktime and ScreenCast-O-Matic.com. It is important to note that some of the software applications listed above may not be free. Camtasia offers additional features such as zooming in and out, transitions, adding text, etc. With Camtasia you can also export your finished screencast to multiple formats and upload to YouTube.com. ScreenCast-O-Matic.com is an online solution and does not require downloading an application.
Three Do’s To Keep In Mind:
1. Treat yourself to a good unidirectional microphone to ensure good quality audio.
2. Plan, write and rehearse your script in advance.
3. Keep the videos short and to the point.
If you would like to find out more about using Jing or any other screencast software for your classes, you can contact Pepperdine’s Technology and Learning Group at techlearn@pepperdine.edu for a one-on-one consultation or you can sign up online for free,
