General screencast tips
- Keep screenscasts short and focused.
By breaking down tasks into short segments (maximum 15 minutes), students are better able to find and view needed material. Also, if a task is complex and has many options, considering making two screencasts: one covering the basic points and another on advanced options. - Work from a plan or script.
This enables you to present important steps and options without wandering and distracting viewers. - Accept minor imperfections.
The urge to make a recording perfect will lead to endless hours spent on recording. Aim for 'good enough'. It is fine to leave minor technical imperfections and concentrate on the content instead. - Use short, distinct, descriptive titles.
Student can use course titles to quickly scroll through and find needed information. - Create slides easily viewed on a computer or mobile device.
Large sans-serif typeface, mixed case, high contrast, and succinct text. - Use a stylus or enlarged mouse pointer to emphasize important display areas.
As you move through your presentation, you can help students follow along by using a stylus to circle or underline important areas on your screen. If you don't have a stylus, you can change your mouse pointer to a larger icon, which will be easier to see and follow. - Create a screen recording library of frequently asked questions.
Instead of creating screen recordings for every tool and feature, let student questions and problems drive which topics you develop into screencasts.
Breeze, Camtasia Relay & Ink2Go comparison
Feature | Breeze | ||
---|---|---|---|
Create presentations in: | Windows only. Breeze presentations can be viewed on any OS supported by Flash Player. | Windows & Mac. | Windows & Mac. |
Interface | A plugin which works only within Microsoft PowerPoint. | A virtual camera that records what is shown on your computer's desktop. | A virtual camera that records what is shown on your computer's desktop. |
Audio recording | Yes. | Yes. | Yes. |
Webcam recording | Yes. | No. | Yes. |
Recording area | N.A. | Records full screen only. | Records full screen or selected area of desktop. |
Multiple monitor support | N.A. | Yes. | No. |
Extra tools | Insert interactive quizzes. | None. | Whiteboard. Annotation tools. |
Upload mechanism | Publish to server when ready. | After recording, automatically uploads in the background whenever the computer on which you recorded is switched on. | After recording, the application uploads the video file. |
Viewing | Flash-based web page, accessible from IVLE. | Video, stored on server, accessible from IVLE. | Video, stored on server, accessible from IVLE. Video file also available on the computer where you recorded the presentation. |