Screencasting for Pedagogy
(Parentheses indicate the tool used to create the tutorial.)
| Tool Demos | |
|---|---|
Two Geography Tools (Snagit for Chrome)
| Footnotes in Word (Camtasia)
|
Editing in YouTube (Camtasia)
| Students: Sharing video in D2L (Snagit for Chrome)
|
Teaching video production
You can find tutorials on YouTube, but they often contain more than your students need (including advertising.) Why not make your own, covering exactly what you want your students to do?
Basic Video Documentary: via PowerPoint (Camtasia)
| Hosting and Sharing Videos via Google Drive (Screencast-O-Matic)
|
Instead of making tutorials, you can find videos that other people others have made. Feel free to use the above in your own courses. Many, such as this video for iMovie, are quite good. But they may be longer, and have more than your students need to complete the assignment. As with any assignment, you'll need to consider whether existing resources are appropriate, or something more specific must be made.
Sample Assignment
This assessment, created in mid-2015, replaces a traditional term paper assignment in an undergraduate U.S. military history course geared primarily toward freshmen history majors, and non-history majors of all levels.
Cheap and Free Options for Videomaking
 | Very quick and easy screencasting. Limited to five minutes. To share videos, practically requires upload to screencast.com, and use of flash for playback. |
 | Ideal for everyday use. Free version allows 15 minute videos with a minor watermark. Videos recorded can be sent directly to Screencast-O-Matic's hosting site or YouTube, and allows video file creation for hosting in Google Drive. Videos can record and include screencasts, webcams, or both. Paid version includes editing and scripting tools. |
 | High-end video creation and editing suite, that contains an excellent toolset for screencast or webcam recording. Camtasia is very expensive, but offers discount for educators, and a 1-month free trial. If you anticipate doing lots of video work, it is worth purchasing. For example, Camtasia has a full-featured, simple to use pan-and-zoom tool not widely available in screencast or editing applications. |
 | An excellent whiteboarding tool for tablets that records all activity as a screencast. Ideal for discussing maps or images with annotations. |
 | Microsoft PowerPoint, particularly 2013 and 2016, can easily export slideshows with narrations and timings to .MP4 video files. |
QuickTime & iMovie for Mac | Mac computers are shipped with recording and video editing tools which are almost as good as Camtasia. |
Spark | A simple, free toolset that allows creation of meme graphics, simple but dynamic web pages, and slideshow videos. Works on Desktop (PC or Mac) and mobile apps (Tablets.) |
Until June 2016, Snagit for Google Chrome, a browser extension, was a helpful screencaster, but it's develop TechSmith, ceased support. Videos produced with Snagit for Google Chrome are linked here, but would be equally produceable with the tools above.
Hosting Videos