A COMPARISON OF SOME FREE SCREEN CAPTURE TOOLS

Tips for Creating Good Screencasts

Prepare Your Space

• Prevent interruptions - put a sign on the door to let people know that you are recording and to not disturb you
• Minimize background noise – turn off your phone ringer, turn off or mute TV, radio and other background noises, ask your family to whisper while you are recording
• Remove extraneous screen clutter – all those folders, fancy backgrounds, and other windows open in the background are distracting so clean up your desktop space before you begin. Also, setting your screen to a solid color background reduces file size!
• Improve your computer performance – shut down any programs you won’t be using so your computer can capture video and audio more smoothlyPlug in a microphone – using an external microphone will provide better audio quality and minimize external noise interference

Prepare Your Content

• Prepare a script – this can either be a short outline of the key points you plan to make in your screencast or itcan be the entire narration that you intend to record.
• Record a few test runs practice your script and your screen movements so that your final recording will be smooth. Also, this is a good time to test your microphone position so that you get the best sound.

Record Your Screencast

• Position your microphone so that it is close enough to pick up what you’re saying, but not so close so that you hear your breathing or this puffs of air you make when you say words with the letters p and b.
• Speak clearly and slowly.Move through your content smoothly – use the scroll bar to make the screen move smoothly, give verbal alerts when you switch between screens, make sure people have enough time to view what material you are presenting.
• Emphasize the areas of the screen you want to draw attention to some software has features that allow you to zoom in or highlight areas of your screen, but if the software you are using doesn’t have those features, try increasing the size of your cursor or even selecting text and other elements on the page in order to highlight them as you speak about them.
• Record only the area of screen that you need the smaller the area you are recording, the smaller the file size.
• Chunk your content – it’s easier to watch and attend to segments of no more than 15 minutes. Plus, shorter videos are quicker to load/download than longer ones.

Publish Your Screencast

Publishing your screencast simply means making it available for others to view. You can accomplish this by placing the recording in your LCMS or using the free server space provided by some screencasting services to stream your content from their web site. Once you've either uploaded the screencast to a server or to your course room, you'll want to make people aware of it's location by sending them a link to the location. Your options will depend upon which tool you choose to use.

Camtasia Tutorial Links

Printed Tutorials

Video Tutorials

 Camtasia video tutorial: http://www.5min.com/Video/how-to-Use-Camtasia-Studio-6-161600514