Student Videos: Teaching the Mechanics (Keystone Digital Humanities Conference 2016)

Screencasting for Pedagogy

Screencasting is ideal for creating repeatable, pausible mini-lessons that cover technical procedures or introduce features of software or web tools.  This frees up classtime for more important things.

 (Parentheses indicate the tool used to create the tutorial.)  

Teaching Basic Video (Narrated Slideshow) Production

Instead of making tutorials, you can find videos that other people others have made.  Many, such as this video for iMovie, are quite good.    But many tutorials that you find on the web (video or otherwise) may have more or less 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 sample assessment builds on a traditional term paper assignment, having students bring traditional scholarship into video creation.  It was created for an undergraduate history course geared primarily toward freshmen history majors, and non-history majors of all levels.  

Here's a great discussion of creating a documentary video assignment (aimed at K-12 students, but certainly adaptable to higher ed.)

Cheap and Free Options for Screencasts and Video Slideshows

	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 screencast and webcam recording. 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.
	Simple online slideshow video creator, that does not require a login (account.) Must record narrative audio with another tool, and upload to combine with slides.
	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 include excellent tools for webcam and screencast recording and editing.
Adobe 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

	Common Standard. Includes simple editing tools. Included in Google Apps for Education.
Google Drive	Cloud Storage using YouTube player tech. Included in Google Apps for Education.
	Alternative to Google products.