www.le.ac.uk

Teaching with Screencasts

Dr Paul ReillyDepartment of Media and CommunicationTerese BirdLeicester Learning Institute

Overview:

• Pedagogical benefits of using screencasts

• Getting Started

• Guidance on what makes for a good screencast

• Record your own!

Nie et al (2008): Student perspective on ‘lecturecasting’:

• “I think it’s a simple way of getting information in a portable format as well, so you can have it on the move. And ten minutes worth of rather than an hour lecture. I mean this is simply put in student language, so how does a student look at the topic and a person who doesnt do this course they can get the information in a simple and quick way and a portable way.”

Reilly (in press): Screencasts popular Reilly (in press): Screencasts popular amongst international dissertation studentsamongst international dissertation students

• 58.8 percent of participants agreed that they had been useful for their projects

• 18.8 percent strongly agreeing with this statement

• 17.5 percent unsure whether it had helped

• Only 3.8 percent felt it hadn’t been useful

Focus Group results: Unintended learning Focus Group results: Unintended learning outcomes from Screencasts?outcomes from Screencasts?

• “Basically if there are screencasts or something on the Blackboard it will help us to take notes and listen to lectures later on” (Focus Group 1, Participant 2)

• “Sometimes it’s fast, maybe I need to listen again to understand” (Focus Group 3, Participant 2)

• “The thing is everyone just learns the different places

and ways. Someone prefer reading, someone prefer listening and watching so that is the point of the screencasts to me” (Focus Group 3, Participant 4)

Screencasts in Media Studies: Aims and Screencasts in Media Studies: Aims and ObjectivesObjectives

• Demonstrate potential role of screencasts in addressing learning needs of international students across the university.

• Enhance existing provision of learning resources for media and communication students

• Empower students to take greater ownership of their learning and provide resources that aid their preparation for assessed work such as essays and examinations.

Questionnaire Results:• 45.2% of participants strongly agreed that the screencasts

had helped them revise main points from lecture (a further 19% agree)

• 28.6% strongly agreed that their classmates should watch screencasts to aid their preparation for assessments (a further 28.6% agree)

• 85.7% participants access screencasts on laptop/Macbook

• 83.3% do so at home, with only 9.5% accessing this content on campus e.g library

Media lecturers: screencasts as signposting tool

• “At first I found that sort of five minutes was quite good for sort of focusing the mind about thinking what do I want to tell them in this. [….]Well you talk about how it maybe links it to what you talked about last week, what we’re going to talk about the week after, that kind of stuff.”

• “I found the recording process quite straightforward actually, and I expected it to be more complicated […] It reminded me of conversations I would have during office hours, where the same points would come up. So I found myself speaking in a similar way. and it was kind of a point of reference for students. You pointed them to it if they had further questions.”

Preparing your slides: some handy tips• Select the most important slides from your lecture (5-7

should normally do)

• Remove the date from the first slide if you wish to reuse the content for next year’s cohort

• Try to use Creative Commons licenced pictures (if available) to illustrate key issues but don’t place too much information on the slides

• Save a copy of your lecture summary on your PC/laptop – you may want to re-record this screencast at some point in the future

Recording your first screencast: Some handy tipsRecording your first screencast: Some handy tips

• Consider how you will begin and end your screencast (I introduce myself at the start)

• Remember your audience – try to speak clearly and slowly

• Timing is important- try not to spend too much time talking about one slide if it means you have to rush towards the end

• Don’t be too much of a perfectionist- this should be conversational rather than a formal lecture

• Listen to your screencast once (and only once) before publishing it on the site – this will help with future recordings

• Examples of screencasts can be found here: http://screencastsinmediastudies.wordpress.com/examples-of-screencasts-2/

Recording your first screencast:

Resize the frame and click record:

Review and Publish your screencast:• You will then be able to preview your screencast

before deciding whether to publish on blog, wiki, YouTube.

Example of Screenr Homepage:

Task: Record your first screencast

• Use one of the laptops provided (headphones and microphones may be available)

• Create a summary of this session (5-7 slides approx)

• Don’t be afraid of pressing cancel and starting again – the first time you record a screencast will be the most challenging

• Ask us for assistance – either in the workshop or afterwards

Some in-browser software packages to try:

• Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html

• Screenbird https://github.com/adamhub/screenbird

• Screenr https://www.screenr.com

• Screen-o-matic http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

Suggested Reading:• Nie, M., Armellini, A., Harrington, S. Barklamb, K. and Randall, R. (2010).

'The role of podcasting in effective curriculum renewal'. ALT-J, 18 (2),pp. 105-118.

• O’Malley, P. J. (2010). Combining a tablet personal computer and screencasting for chemistry teaching. New Directions, 6, 64-67.

• Reilly, P (in press) The right blend? The use of Blackboard to support international dissertation students, Journal of Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

• Seery, M.K. (2013) Harnessing Technology in Chemistry Education. NDIR, 9, 1.

• For more references, check out the project blog: http://screencastsinmediastudies.wordpress.com/screencast-research/