This five-minute screencast explains what a screencast is, and how it can enhance your teaching. Click the video once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

Screencasts are a special kind of video recording: the focus of a screencast is not on the person who is giving the presentation, but rather on the content that he or she is displaying on a computer screen, complemented by his or her recorded verbal narration. An instructor might, for example, display a series of PowerPoint slides, and speak to each one in succession, with both the video (the slides) and the audio (his or her voice) being recorded. However, a screencast can also capture full motion from a computer screen (rather than just static PowerPoint slides).

Once a screencast is made, it can be placed online where students can view it at their convenience. Screencasts can be an effective learning tool if they are used judiciously: that is, to convey certain core content of a course. Because students view the screencasts at home, more class time is available for more interactive learning activities. The strategy of delivering some course content via screencasts, and using class time for more engaging learning activities, is sometimes referred to as "flipping the classroom."

 

This four-minute video focuses on the workflow (that is, the abstract process) of creating a screencast. Click it once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

General Functionality

Most screencasting programs provide three areas of functionality:

1. Recording. This is the stage where the screen video is captured (audio narration can be recorded at the same time with a microphone, or added later). In addition to capturing the screen you can also capture video from a webcam, in order to place in the corner of the screencast a small video of yourself as you narrate the content.
   
   
2. Editing. This is where the recording is modified as needed. For example, audio narration can be added (if it wasn’t done during the recording), pauses or false starts can be cut out, other video clips can be inserted, titles and other effects can be added, and more.
   
   
3. Producing. This is where the edited recording is rendered into a format that can be uploaded to the Internet. Various formats are possible, such as AVI, SWF, WMV, FLV, and RM.

Additionally, prior to undertaking the three technical stages mentioned above, you need to plan your screencast (for example, decide how long you want it to be, whether you will work with or without a script, what your learning goals for the screencast are, and so on.

After you complete your screencast, a final stage occurs: namely, making it available online. You could, for example, upload it to your Learning Management System, to YouTube, to Vimeo, or to other online locations. A series of screencasts can also be syndicated by means of iTunes (so that screencasts are automatically downloaded to a student’s PC whenever a new one appears).

 

 

 

 

In this two-minute video, two instructors explain why they "flipped" their classrooms using screencasts; that is, they began delivering content through screencasts and used classtime to give their students interactive learning experiences. Click it once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

Evidence of Efficacy

1. “Survey results indicate that the majority of students responding found all of the screencasts helpful regardless of whether they found a concept difficult or not.  But other data suggest that the impact on student learning could be even greater, as both faculty and students learn to utilize this new resource.” -- Using Screencasts to Enhance Student Learning in a Large Lecture Material Science and Engineering Course, 2008
   
   
2. “Students who used lecture recordings also scored significantly higher on academic self-efficacy than those who did not use the recordings.” -- Podcasting in Education: Student Attitudes, Behaviour and Self-Efficacy, 2011
   
   
3. “We did a grade comparison between the two fully online classes with identical content material being taught by the same instructor. The fall 2005 class did not use podcasts, while the spring 2006 class used podcasts. There was a 12% increase with students receiving an “A,” and overall performance had been improved with the class using podcasting. Comments from students in the survey were also very positive toward using podcasting for instructional delivery.” -- The Efficacy of Podcasting Technology in Instructional Delivery, 2007
   
   
4. “The combination of these changes resulted in significant improvements in student performance within an in-course biochemistry long essay. These changes in the teaching approach, and particularly the introduction of extensive podcasts, was well received by students who perceived the process of going through the podcasts as time consuming but allowing them flexibility in both the pace that they studied this topic as well as the location and times that they studied it.” -- Enhanced podcasts for teaching biochemistry to veterinary students, 2011
   
   
5. At Clintondale High School in Detroit, using screencasts to "flip" the courses (that is, to deliver content via screencasts which students watched for homework, and to use classroom time for interactive learning) resulted in failure rates dropping from 50% to 19% in English courses, and from 44% to 13% in Math courses. Student behaviour in class also improved: displinary cases dropped from 736 in one semester to 249 in one semester.

 

In this 20-minute screencast, Salman Khan (the creator of Khan Academy) explains how instructors can foster student engagment by using screencasts to "flip" his or her classes. That is, screencasts are used to deliver content outside of classtime (rather than via a traditional class lecture), and classtime is thereby freed for more interactive learning. Click it once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

Instructional Challenges

Screencasts can address the following Instructional Challenges in these ways:

1. My students seem bored during my classes.
   Most students will start to lose interest in a lecture after the first fifteen minutes or so. Moreover, if the purpose of a lecture is to provide content, it might make more sense to provide that content via a screencast, which the students watch outside of class. The time that has been freed up in class can then be used for more interactive learning experiences, such as discussions, debates, question and answer, and demonstrations. This strategy is sometimes called "flipping the classroom"; that is, content that used to be delivered via lectures is now watched outside of class, and direct student interaction with the content, which used to take place during homework, now takes place during class.
   
   
2. Some of my students lack prerequisite or background knowledge for the course.
   When faced with this instructional challenge, an instructor might have to choose between ignoring the students who lack the needed background knowledge in order to press ahead with the actual course content, or spending class time helping the lagging students catch up while the fully prepared students get bored by the needless review of prerequisite material. A third option is to provide key background content in the form of screencasts, which the lagging students can access outside of class, and to whatever degree they need.
   

Click here to learn more about Instructional Challenges.

 

This 18-minute screencast discusses five different kinds of audio podcasts, video podcasts, and screencasts. The screencast material begins at 10:11, though you may want to watch it from the beginning for context, and in order to understand why screencasts are usually preferable to a traditional video recording. Click it once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

Best Practices

1. Use screencasts to briefly introduce material that will be fully explained in a subsequent class.
   
   
2. Use screencasts to deliver course material that is content-based (i.e. material that lends itself to a transmission or “sage on the stage” approach); use the resulting free class time to engage in active learning activities.
   
   
3. Create screencasts that help students to overcome the specific challenges or “bottlenecks” that they tend have with the course material. This kind of screencast should perhaps be no longer than about eight minutes.
   
   
4. Use screencasts to cover material that you don’t want to spend class time on (for example, a course in the plays of William Shakespeare might deliver the historical context via a screencast, and reserve the actual class time for discussing the plays).
   
   
5. Devise means to ensure that students actually watch the screencasts so that they are fully prepared when they come to class. You might, for example, begin each class with a quiz on the content of a given screencast; such a quiz might even be done with clickers, so that the results for each student are immediately and fairly effortlessly tabulated.
   
   
6. Don’t use screencasts as a way of merely delivering additional content or you will overload your students; in other words, if you deliver content via a screencast, then make sure that you decrease the content being delivered in class.
   
   
7. Keep screencasts brief, or at least break them up into “chapters.” Seven to ten minutes might be ideal for most university courses.
   
   
8. Have students create a screencast as an alternative to an essay or other traditional assignment.
   
   
9. Prepare a storyboard or outline before you begin making your screencast. Use a good microphone, and practice till you discover its best placement.
   
   
10. Keep the file size of your screencast small by rendering it at the smallest screensize that your users will find comfortable. YouTube videos, for example, are sized at 320x240; 640x480 is probably fine for most screencasts.
    
    
11. Remind your students that watching a screencast several times (a few days or weeks apart) can help to reinforce their learning.  
    
    
12. Consider whether you need to create a screencast at all; perhaps the content you wish to deliver can be delivered just as effectively via an audio podcast (which is easier to make and distribute).
    

 

This 14-minute video explains how you can publish or disseminate a screencast after you've made it (for example, in a learning management system, on YouTube or Vimeo, via iTunes, and so on). Click it once to watch it; after it starts, you can click it twice to watch it in full screen mode, if you prefer.

Other Resources

1. 7 Things You Should Know about Screencasting (a resource from the Educause Learning Initiative).
   
   
2. 7 Things You Should Know about Flipped Classrooms. (a resource from the Educause Learning Initiative).
   
   
3. How to Script and Record Audio for a Screencast.
   
   
4. Most Common Mistakes in Screencasting.
   
   
5. How to Make a Screencast (PDF).
   
   
6. This five-minute screencast is actually about concept mapping, but I've included it here because it's an excellent example of how just visuals and text can sometimes make a highly effective screencast. In other words, there's no narration in this screencast. No one speaks, and yet the screencast is thought-provoking and informative.
   
   
7. In this eight-minute video, instructors from the University of South Wales explain how they use "online lectures" (screencasts) in conjunction with clickers to enhance learning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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