I've been using Lynda.com's online training library a lot recently. It's helped me learn to use some new programs quickly and got me through some difficulties. Therefore I was excited to discover the software that they use to create the videos. I was even more excited to discover how easy it is to use.
Camtasia is the name of the software, and it allows you to record your computer screen (some call this a screencast), your voice, and if required, video from your webcam. It can all be recorded live and you can have a recording ready in minutes, or you can edit it and add complexity later on if need be.
I think this could be a major part of our future online training development. It is suited for training to use computers rather than anything else, but it does this excellently.
Below are useful links relating to Camtasia and screencasting.
Purchase educational licences for £80
Examples of training created with Camtasia
Support Site
Video introduction
Getting started guides
What is screencasting - This document by Jon Udell ends with a quote that describes the use of screencasting well. "The blogging revolution has shown that, while there are few professional writers, there are lots of people who can productively use the textual web to communicate their personal and professional agendas. Podcasting is likewise reshaping the audio web, and videoblogging will do the same for the video web. When the subjects of our videos are experiences that intersect with cyberspace, or occur primarily within it, we'll use screencasts to describe and explain them."
1 comment:
That looks like a fantastic piece of software. A slightly less full-featured, but open source solution would be CamStudio.
Using the right codecs, it is very good. Though I haven't used the feature myself, I believe exporting as SWF is a little flaky.
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