Show and Tell the Easy Way:

1
Show and Tell the Easy Way An Introduction to
Screencasting Wed., November 8, 2006 Paul R.
Pival Distance Education Librarian, University of
Calgary
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Poll - Have you developed screencasts before?

• Yes
• No

3
Poll - if yes, which product have you used?

• (Can choose more than one)
• Camtasia Studio
• Captivate
• ViewletBuilder
• CamStudio
• Wink
• Other

4
What is Screencasting?

• In its most simple form, a movie of your
  computers screen
• In a more advanced form, it can include audio,
  interactivity, menus
• A great way to demonstrate something!

5
Whos it for?

• Patrons
• Staff
• Friends and Family

6
A History of Screencasting

• While screencasts have been around longer, Jon
  Udell is credited with popularizing the term in
  November 2004.
• Jon Udell and the Heavy Metal Umlaut (an early
  fun example)

7
Live Examples
8
Interactivity

• Quizzes
• Click points
• Hotspots (weblinks)

9
Tips

• Keep them short
• Keep them small
• Use audio
• Plan ahead
• Annotate

10
Tricks

• Sizer - quickly resize your browser (or any
  application) to uniform dimensions for all your
  screencasts.
• A headset microphone will provide the most
  consistent volume since its always the same
  distance from your mouth.

11
Notes about Audio
Audio quality - a quality microphone will make a
big difference in the way your recording sounds. 
Dont use the built-in mic on a laptop unless
you have no other alternative.  Camtasia Studio
4 does offer a noise-reduction feature that works
very well.
12
Output Considerations

• Depends on your audience
• Flash for web delivery
• AVI, MOV
• Burn to CD/DVD
• iPod!
• Size (Display Resolution)

13
Where to put these things?

• YouTube
• Screencast.com (Techsmith)
• ViewletCentral (Qarbon)
• Your website
• Collected on one or several pages
• With links right next to the databases

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Platforms

• Windows
• Linux
• Mac

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System Requirements

• Varies by program, but the stronger your system
  the more enjoyable your experience will be.
• Minimum for Windows
• Pentium 4
• WinXP
• 512K RAM

16
Products - Free or Fee?

• Free
• Wink
• CamStudio
• Fee (the Big Three)
• ViewletBuilder
• Camtasia Studio
• Captivate

17
Wink 2

• Windows and Linux
• Free
• Can do post-capture editing
• Not very intuitive (IMHO)
• http//www.debugmode.com/wink/

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Cam Studio

• Windows Only
• Free
• No post-capture editing
• http//www.camstudio.org/

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Qarbon ViewletBuilder

• Stop-motion capture
• Cursor appears to be animated
• Only major commercial option for Linux
• 299, or 199 educational pricing
• http//www.qarbon.com/presentation-software/viewle
  tbuilder/

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Techsmith Camtasia Studio 4

• This is the product I use most frequently
• Windows only
• 299 or 179 educational pricing
• http//techsmith.com/camtasia.asp

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Adobe Captivate 2

• Formerly RoboDemo
• Formerly Macromedia Captivate
• Can record stop-motion or full video
• Windows only
• 599, 199 educational pricing
• http//www.adobe.com/products/captivate/

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Lets Build One
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Keeping up to date

• http//del.icio.us/tag/screencasting and
  http//del.icio.us/tag/screencasts
• http//www.notess.com/screencasting - Greg Notess
  - LibCasting

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Show and Tell the Easy Way An Introduction to
Screencasting Paul R. Pival ppival_at_ucalgary.ca htt
p//distlib.blogs.com