Show and Tell The Easy Way - An Introduction to Screencasting (with Paul Pival/(SIRSIDynix Seminar)

SIRSI Seminar annotation: “Personal assistance is gratifying for library staff and users alike. Limited staff time, however, makes this kind of one-on-one help harder and harder to offer. But we have a solution called screencasting to share with you, which is basically just a movie of your computer screen that records everything displayed on the screen as you demonstrate a procedure, along with your voice, if you wish. The recording is saved to a file for later playback. It's easy to "record" a procedure you frequently demonstrate, and you only need to do it once. Your patrons will find the screencast easy to view, available wherever they are, and repeatable as often as they like. This presentation will introduce screencasting, the software that is available to create screencasts, and the platforms on which they can be run. You'll learn how to plan a recorded procedure (the most time-consuming, yet often overlooked step) and get tips for making effective and engaging screencasts.”



Paul introduces the viewer to screencasting which is a movie of your computer screen displays. This seminar introduces definitions, rationale (patrons, staff, family), a bit of history, and products you can use. Screencasting is a great instructional tool that allows interactivity including quizzes and linking, audio and video demonstrations. Paul provides conrete suggestions and tips for the novice as well as experienced user.

Some of the recommendations I found most helpful:

--Recommendations for screen casts: make it brief (2-3 minutes), small (resolution 800x600), use audio (don’t forget closed captioning), annotations (font balloons, call outs, highlights, etc.). He also urged that you plan ahead (do a dry run or storyboard to see what needs to be screencast effectively).

--Tricks: Sizer (free software that builds a profile to resize browser to uniform dimensions)

--Audio: Use a headset USB microphone so that a uniform distance for volume. Audio quality does make a big difference so make sure audio quality is significant); don’t use built in microphone from the laptop since it will pick up extraneous noise;

--Output considerations: web delivery options like FLASH players (available on 90% of home computers; MOV needs plug-in for PC users; FLASH supports progressive downloads (compressed format); burn to CD/DVD; Camtasia new version allows download to MP4…small image though…
800x600 desirable (700x400=1 mg per minute.

--Vendors:
Screencast.com (TechSmith)
ViewletCentral (Qarbon)

Paul also has a list of resources he discussed on his blog:
http://distlib.blogs.comGreat introduction, good pacing, very informative. Highly recommended!

About the author: Paul R. Pival (MLS, SUNY Buffalo) is the Distance Education Librarian at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and the author of the blog, The Distant Librarian (http://distlib.blogs.com). Prior to his arrival in Canada in late 1999, he supported distance students for four years at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. An early adopter, Paul has been working with screencasts since 2002.