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An Introduction to Screencasting
By Beth Kanter, March 2007
Screencasts – movies
that capture tasks performed on a computer – can be powerful communication
and training tools, and you don’t need to be a Hollywood filmmaker
to create them. Beth Kanter walks through why screencasts are useful,
how to create them, and some of the software tools that help in the
process.
If you provide end-user technical
support, people likely ask you about the same software tasks over and
over again. What's more, you've probably discovered that not everyone
responds well to text or verbal instructions. What if you could send
those people a brief video showing the procedure, accompanied by your
voice walking through the important concepts?
Or what if you need to provide some quick training on a new software
package to a bunch of folks around the country, or you want to demonstrate
a new concept – perhaps how to collaborate using social bookmarking
software? A video that combines demos of some of the key tasks with
an overview of the concepts around the software could provide a compelling
introduction.
These kinds of videos, called screencasts, can be powerful tools to
demonstrate technical tasks, or to illustrate technical concepts that
are hard to explain in words. The video and audio components can make
a topic more engaging than written instructions or static images, while
also appealing to different learning styles.
You don't have to be a Hollywood filmmaker – or have a Hollywood
style budget – to create a decent screencast. There’s a
number of different software packages that make it easy to capture what
is taking place on the screen. You simply click a record button and
show the exact mouse clicks needed to do a task. Software also allows
you to add audio narration to a powerpoint presentation, integrate real-life
video, photos, and music. Once completed, screencasts can be easily
distributed via blog posts, RSS feeds, tags, and social media video
hosts like OurMedia or blip.tv. These channels allow you to share training
screencasts with a distributed audience, or put your ideas out onto
the social web to open the door to collaboration.
Although having some video editing skills and knowing how to clearly
communicate your ideas will vastly improve the quality of your work,
almost anyone can get started fairly quickly, particularly if you intend
to use the screencasts for in-house training, software beta testing,
or rapid knowledge capture.
So how might screencasts be useful to your organization? How do you
go about creating one? And what software tools are useful in the process?
This article provides an introduction to the concepts and the processes
you need to know.
What is a Screencast?
A screencast is a movie that
captures the display from a computer screen along with someone talking
about what’s being shown. This might take the form of a formal
narrated PowerPoint presentation, a software demo, or an informal walkthrough
of a particular concept.
Some of the best screencasts
are folksy, intimate experiences that feel as if you were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder
with a friend. As screencasts often contain impromptu discoveries by
the narrator, or even small mistakes, they can be more approachable
– and thus more effective - than glitzy packaged instructional
videos. A good screencast projects an image of transparency, trust,
and authenticity.
Screencasting Uses and Examples
There’s no one right
way to way to use a screencast. Organizations are using them for a number
of compelling purposes.
Software Tips, Tricks,
and Tutorials
Screencasts can very effectively demonstrate how to use a software application
or website. Consider recording “tips and tricks” overviews
of key applications, and then putting them on the web for "just
in time" access by those who need them. Comprehensive tutorials
can be very resource intensive to deliver as a single screencast, but
you can always create a series of brief screencasts on a single theme
and post them together for those who want to spend more time with the
topic. If your audience consists of beginners, it may be necessary to
include detailed step-by-step instructional materials or additional
resources. Some good examples include:
Web or Project Orientations
and Software Demonstrations
A screencast can be an engaging
way to introduce visitors to your organization's web site or project.
Many software vendors are using screencasts as a multi-media introduction
to software features and functions, to allow potential buyers to evaluate
whether or not they want to test the software further. Some good examples
include:
PowerPoint Presentations
as Multi-Media
There are a number of ways
that you can share your powerpoint presentations with colleagues via
the Web. However, screencasting can be a simple way to add audio to
your powerpoint presentations (for more information on how to do this,
see MasterView’s article How
To Add Recorded Narration To Your PowerPoints. Some good examples
include:
Concept Screencast
Screencasts can be the perfect medium to explain difficult technical
concepts to non-technical people. While the end product may look simple,
it takes a fair amount of time to plan and storyboard your topic so
you can explain it a clear but interesting way. Some good examples include:
Knowledge Capture
Screencasts can be an excellent addition to your organization's knowledge
capture process. For instance, consider documenting procedures that
your users frequently ask about, how a server is structured, or the
knowledge of an expert about a particular application. While these screencasts
may only have an internal audience, and thus may have somewhat lower
production values, this kind of “rich media documentation”
can help preserve organizational memory. Think through the time it will
take to watch the video if the knowledge is needed, however, and prioritize
that against the time it would take to write up the knowledge or document
it in a different way. Some good examples include:
Web Site or Software
Interface Beta Testing
Some open source software advocates are championing the idea of remote
usability testing. Screencasting tools can provide a method for remote
beta testers to participate by simply hitting the record button and
narrating as they test the software. An example:
The Screencast Creation Process
Content, Script, and
Storyboard
Begin your screencast with an understanding of your audience. What do
they already know about the topic? What are you trying to teach them?
Decide what you should cover, what you don’t have to say, and
how specific you need to be. Keep in mind some basic best practices
of educational multimedia - people learn better when information is
presented:
- In small chunks
- Using clear outlines and headings
- Using a conversational style rather than a formal one
Even though you are making
a movie of your computer screen, remember that you're still telling
a story. Screencasts that focus solely on step-by-step procedures or
PowerPoint bullet points can be deadly boring. Take a look at Andy Goodman's
"When
Bad Presentations Happen To Good People." While he is talking
about PowerPoint presentations in particular, most of his storytelling
advice can be applied to screencasting.
As you think through your topic, it can be useful to create storyboards
- rough sketches of what you will present and in what order. Storyboarding
helps you organize the source material and ensures that you cover what
you need to cover. For an example of storyboards in action, see TechSmith’s
article Why
storyboard your screencasts?
Some people find that writing
a script, or at least a bullet point outline, helps them focus the video
and organize what they’ll need. If you’re able to narrate
your screencast in a clear and concise way based only on bullet points,
then you may not need to write out exactly what you plan to say. Others
find that having a word-for-word script keeps them on track. It also
makes sychronizing the video with the narration much easier down the
road.
Having a script and storyboard may be important if you are preparing
a screencast for a third party or you’ll need others to sign off
on the content.
Pre-Production
Your screencast will likely include a number of different source materials
such as video screen captures, real life video, photos, music, titles,
and the recorded narrative. Think carefully about what you need, and
be organized: a five minute screencast can add up to a lot of individual
pieces.
One simple organization method is to think like a filmmaker and plot
out your screencast in acts and scenes. For each scene, note what narrative,
images, video, or titles will be needed. It also makes a lot of sense
to organize your digital materials on your computer in folders and file
names that correspond with each act/scene. Finally, if you are using
creative commons licensed materials, make sure you note the correct
attribution so you can add this information to the credits. Based on
my storyboard, I usually create a production checklist organized by
scene.
Shooting Your Screencast
At this point, you are ready to start filming. I generally use a two-step
process. First, with my script in hand, I capture only the video sections
while practicing my narration. Next, I record the voice narration while
carefully synching it with the video. It takes a little practice, but
I made fewer mistakes when I wasn't trying to capture and narrate at
the same time. For more informal screencasts, such as beta testing for
example, I just hit the record button and do both the video and audio
simultaneously, narrating off bullet points. Note, however, that editing
is more difficult if you record both video and audio at once. If you
find that the Internet applications you are recording are taking a lot
of time to load, be sure not narrate over those sections so you can
easily cut out the wait time in the editing process.
While it’s possible to capture your entire screen, you shouldn’t.
Even with the best compression, extra screen real estate translates
to wasted space and costly file size. You may want not need the title
bar, toolbars, status bar or scroll bars in your browser, for example.
In general, anything that doesn't help to tell the story should be cut.
I generally capture a window at 800x600 with the same playback size
or 640x480 depending on my file size and time limitations (larger files
take longer to render).
Screencasts are literal copies of your screen activity, so make sure
you are capturing the action "on screen." You may also need
to use zoom or pan functions to maintain focus or so menu details do
not get lost. Take care to only move your mouse around when you’re
doing it to make a point.
The Tools
In order to make a screencast, you will need video capture software,
editing software, and a microphone. While there are a number of free
and open source video capture and editing programs available for both
PC and MAC, using them requires a fair amount of technical skill and
comfort with video editing interfaces. Also, most of the less expensive
options require you to use two different programs, one for capture and
the other editing. Therefore, using these less expensive tools means
that you will need to learn something about file formats, size, and
aspect ratio to properly export and import from one program into the
other with acceptable results. If you're new to multi-media creation,
you may want to consider one of the commerical screencasting packages
that combines capture and editing into one piece of software simply
for the ease of use, documentation, and technical support options. (It
will, however, cost you more money.)
Since good sound is an extremely
important production value, it may be worth investing in a good USB
microphone (about $50-70), although you can certainly begin with using
an inexpensive mic and upgrade later.
I started off using Camstudio
(a free screen capture tool), the free video editing software that came
with my PC (MovieMaker),
and a $10 microphone. Later, as my skills improved, I invested in Camtasia
(approximately $300), an integrated capture/ editing suite that many
consider to be the gold standard for screencasting. I also bought a
decent USB microphone - the Samson
Condenser Mic. Other PC users have told me they use SnagIt
($40) or Wink (free) to
captures screen and audio, and entry level video editing programs like
Adobe Premiere Elements
($99) or Sony
Vegas (about $100). People who work on the Mac platform use Snapz
($69)for screen capture and pull it into iMovie(free)
or QuickTime Pro($30).
More serious screencasters might use Final
Cut Pro ($1299), a professional level video editing software package.
See the Resources at the end of this article for some links to some
detailed software comparisons.
Editing
Your editing process will differ depending on your choice of tools.
Since I use Camtasia, a software package that allows me to both capture
and edit, I tend to do a rough edit for content and flow as I shoot
the movie. In this way, I have a draft complete when I'm finished "shooting".
If you are using separate screen capture and editing programs, you’ll
need to edit your screencapture segments, pull them into the video editing
package, and then add narration, titles, zooms, and other effects.
Next, I watch my screencast and notes on places that require a close
up, captions, titles, transitions, or where the audio isn't quite synchronized
with the video. I also listen carefully for places in the audio where
the voice over is less than polished (for instance “uhs”
and “hmms”), and do what I can to clean it up. This part
of the editing process can be tedious, but polishing your work can improve
the production values greatly. If you're a perfectionist, try not to
get obsessed at this stage, as it can be very time consuming. I'm learning
to let certain things go.
Final Production
If you want to post your screencast to the web, you’ll need to
compress it – to translate the video format to one that takes
up less file space. This is a complex but important topic. A more advanced
software tool can help you through this topic – for instance Camtasia
has several production wizards that walk you through the trade-offs
of video and audio quality versus file size and format. It asks you
a series of questions about your source material, file size requirements,
and video/audio quality to help you pick the right file format and screen
size. In other words, you don't need to be an expert in compression
formulas.
Otherwise, you’ll need
to understand more of the intricacies. The book "The
Secrets of Video Blogging" has a solid chapter on file formats
and compression settings for both PC and Mac. Alternatively, FreeVlog
has a useful screencast
that walks through several “recipes” for compression.
When you are ready to output your video to a compressed and final format
– called “producing” or “rendering” -
keep in mind that longer screencasts can take awhile to render. Some
of my screencasts have taken an hour to render, preventing me from doing
other work on my computer.
Hosting
There are many options for hosting your screencasts, including free
services like blip.tv, YouTube,
Revver, Splashcast
Media, and Google Video,
and fee-based video hosting services such as screencast.com.
Choosing the right host or combination of hosts depends on the specs
of your screencasts, as well as other key considerations:
- Screencast file size. How big a file can you host?
Many of the free services are limited 100MB file size.
- Video file format. Can you host the video in the
format you’d like to use? For example, some services don’t
accept flash movie files. Can you host several different file formats
and allow the user to choose?
- Rights ownership. Can you main ownership of your
video, or release it under Creative Commons? What does the hosting
company have the right to do with it?
- Upload process. Is uploading fast and easy? Can
you easily add and update descriptive text about the screencast?
- Playback quality. How big is the screen for the
viewer to watch the screencast? How is the audio and video quality?
- Distribution. What options do you have to allow
download and sharing? Are there options to make money of your screencast?
Distribution
Your final task is distribution of your screencast. Will you be sharing
your screencasts on a blog or web site or via video host channel? Will
they be distributed internally and or offline on DVD? After all your
hard work, ensure you plan out a strategy so that your audience can
take advantage of what you’ve created.
Putting It into Action
If you are new to using multi-media
tools like video and audio software, you’ll need to expect a learning
curve when you start screencasting, but it isn't an insurmountable task
to master the software and techniques. Start by creating a screencast
about something you’re frequently asked or to document a piece
of internal knowledge. Don’t be afraid to think of screencasting
as if it were a home video – it’s easy enough to capture
your screen that you can just do it, and use it if it’s useful.
If you’re creating something to use internally, it may not need
to look great.
It can be a bit more difficult
to create good production values – solid audio, framing, pacing,
and more. If your audience and the context requires better production
values, you’ll need to spend more time planning the content, honing
your skills, and refining the screencast. You’ll need to work
in a different mode – to channel a Hollywood filmmaker and create
something that not only shows a process but tells a story.
For many, refining their multi-media skills will be worth the effort.
If you do, the next time that someone asks you that same question for
the nineteenth time, or you’re struggling to communicate a complex
idea, you can let a screencast do the talking for you.
For More Information
Screencasting Primer Wiki
An alternate version of this article, with an additional detailed resource list and examples
What
is Screencasting
Good primer and introduction based on Camtasia, by Jon Udell
Screencasting
Strategies
Describes Jon Udell’s process for writing a script, thinking in
scenes, and narrations
Screencasting Techniques
Many useful resources not found elsewhere
My Complete Collection
My complete collection of screencasts and instructional media, for those
who want to dig deeper
Software Comparisons and Reviews
Hosting Comparisons and Reviews
Beth Kanter is a trainer,
coach, and consultant to nonprofits and individuals in effective use
of technology. She has worked on projects that include: training, curriculum
development, research, and evaluation. Her expertise is how to use new
web tools (blogging, tagging, wikis, photo sharing, video blogging,
screencasting, social networking sites, and virtual worlds, etc) to
support nonprofit. She is an experienced coach to "digital immigrants" in the personal mastery of these tools. She is a professional blogger
and writes about the use of social media tools in the nonprofit sector
for social change. Follow her writing at Beth's
Blog.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License
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