Using Screen Capture Technology to Develop On-Line Course Material

Using Screen Capture Technology to Develop On-line Course Material The need of students to learn at times and places more conducive to their schedules and life styles. Synchronous and asynchronous methods of distance learning The synchronous means of delivery will miss the “anytime, anywhere” axiom. One of the basic aims of the new educational technologist is to provide ways and means for faculty to deliver their expert information to the students in a way that both captures the teacher lead classroom and illuminates the information by providing more in depth illustrations. Screen capture technology is only one of the many methods of asynchronous course development tools that are currently available

Reasons to use Screen Capture There are some basic reasons why the use of screen capture technology is a viable technique for online course delivery;   Ease of use for faculty. Ability of students to see and do. Education/training can be the enhanced by the decrease in time between learning and application Ability to hear a lecture anytime and anywhere Ability to review information as many times as needed.

Tips for Screen Capture Recording Audio options: You can choose between different Codec qualities. For the best voice recordings using 16 KHz is recommended. You should only use 8 KHz sound when the file size of the video has higher priority than quality. If file size does not matter or if you need more sounds or high-quality music in the video, you should choose a lower audio compression and possibly also select Stereo. Only select the latter however when there is a genuine "listening improvement", since stereo not only generates twice the amount of data but also demands twice as much computer power during play Video options: The bit rate lets you define how many kilobytes of data will be saved for every second of video, and the quality of the exported video of course depends heavily on this value. Too low a bit rate can result in a black screen, since it is simply not possible to save all the data. Too high a bit rate will give you unnecessary large video files, since even data that has not changed is saved in the video.

Tips for Screen Capture Recording WMV export The WMV file format is the Microsoft streaming file format. WMV files play in Microsoft's Windows Media Player. A variety of audio and video compressors are available, including the Windows Media Screen video codec which is optimized for screen recordings. Flash (SWF) export Macromedia Flash (SWF) is a cross-platform movie file format that plays on any computer that supports the Flash Player. It is ideal for publishing your movies on the web. However, there are practical limits on the length of SWF movies. Quicktime export QuickTime is a cross-platform movie file format with many video and audio compression options. QuickTime movies playback in the standard Apple QuickTime Player on Windows and Mac computers. NOTE: You must have QuickTime installed (including the QuickTime Authoring component) to produce QuickTime files. Real Media export The RealMedia streaming file format uses the standard RealVideo and RealAudio codecs. Choose this file format for "real world" video content with many color gradients, high motion, and where lossy video quality is acceptable.

Tips for Screen Capture Recording Computer settings 1. Close all unnecessary programs Almost all system resources are being used during recording. To free up as much computer power as possible, close all programs and tasks that are not being used in the recording. You should also use as powerful a computer as possible for the recording. 2. Screen resolution Your screen resolution (800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 and so on) is irrelevant as long as you are not recording Full Screen. It is recommended that you always record a specific Window or Area as opposed to Full Screen. Should you want to record Full Screen you should use the lowest possible screen resolution, usually 800 x 600. 3. Color resolution Record the screen at the highest resolution your system can handle, this will give you the best file to work from. Resolution can be compressed in the conversion of the file.

Screen Capture as Learning Object The size and scope, content, design and technical implementation of learning objects vary so much it is difficult to exactly define what is and is not a learning object. For the purposes of this document the definition adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) will be used: A learning object is a set of learning resources (raw learning content such as text files, images, video files, audio files, etc.) accompanied by a set of metadata that satisfies a single learning objective and can be used and reused in e-learning. Designing Learning Objects Keep educational goals in focus Choose meaningful content that directly supports educational goals Present content in appropriate ways Select appropriate activity structures Consider assessment issues

TechSmith Camtasia

Camtasia Recording

Camtasia Recording Select Window to get original size of window so that movie does not have to be resized

Camtasia Recording

Camtasia Unlike other screen capture applications that assemble a series of screenshots into a simulated animation, Camtasia Studio records the screen in real-time (avi)video.

Camtasia Import window Because Camtasia records real-time video the file size can be large. As you compress and change the file type there is a trade-off in image quality and file size. Also each screen capture program has different values that make them useful in various ways.

Camtasia Locate the video file that was created as you captured your screen.

Edit the video in the timeline Camtasia Edit the video in the timeline

Camtasia – Conversion File Sizes

Snagit

Matchware ScreenCorder

ScreenCorder

ScreenCorder

ScreenCorder Web Builder

ScreenCorder Web Builder

Captivate

Captivate

Captivate

Captivate

Qarbon Viewlet

Qarbon Viewlet

Qarbon Viewlet

Summary Studies have shown that students remember only about 10% of what they hear in a lecture or read, while they remember up to 90% of what they see and do. Giving students the opportunity to see and react to information is one of the reasons why using screen capture technology is useful in developing educational course materials.

Summary The ability to review course material repetitively gives the online learner somewhat of an advantage on those who participate in classroom lectures. When a professor gives a lecture at a given time and a given place that lecture must be viewed by the student in that environment and at that time. If the lecture is a one-time event review must be from notes and memory. Both notes and memory can have some large areas of incorrect information. However, if lectures are recorded and illustrations are used to illuminate the lecture, multiple viewing should increase understanding of the subject.