Question: I would like to create some screencast tutorials this year for my students.  I have heard that both Jing and Camtasia Studio are great options for doing this.  Do you have any opinion on which one is better?  Also since I’m just starting out in this area and haven’t created a screencast before do you have any tips that I would find helpful before beginning?  Thanks!

Answer: You heard right.  Camtasia Studio and Jing are both great options for creating screencasts.   As you may have discovered Camtasia Studio is approximately $300 ($179 for the education pricing) whereas Jing (made by the same company) is free.  It really depends on your budget and what you need the screencasting program to do.  For example Jing can only create swf files, has a 5 minute maximum, and doesn’t allow for editing.  On the other hand Camtasia Studio is loaded with lots of editing options.

So for short, quick tutorials that won’t need any editing then Jing would be a perfect choice.  However if you are interested in doing longer, more complex screencasts with the ability to add quizzes or other interactivity, then you would be better off with Camtasia Studio.

Recently a group of our MAET students conducted a Jing Off challenge.  The students were put into teams with the challenge of producing 9 screencasts in 10 minutes using the free tool, Jing.  You can read more about it and see examples of what can be created using Jing in the MAET News column of this newsletter or at the TechSmith Education Community blog or at the Jing blog .

Some other options that are available would be Wink or CamStudio.   Both of these options are also free and include a few more editing capabilities than Jing.  You may want to check them out if the $179 education price tag for Camtasia Studio is too much for your budget.

I’m glad to hear you are thinking ahead before creating the screencasts.  I just finished completing a video series using Camtasia Studio and jotted a few notes down to remember the next time I do another series to make the process a little easier and less time consuming.

Prior to Recording Your Screen

1. Clean off your desktop
2. Close any applications you don’t need, especially ones that have pop up reminders/notices  like Outlook
3. Prepare a script with designated places for pauses especially if you will be using the callouts and hotspots features in Camtasia Studio
4. Complete a dry run to make sure you don’t run into any snags and to help you finalize your script
5. Use an external microphone if possible and adjust the settings
6. Chunk information into smaller videos (helps both for updating later on and keeping people’s attention).  Try to stick to less than 10 minutes for reach video.

During the Recording Session

1. Make sure you are in a quiet room without any chance of interruptions (phones, doorbells, etc)
2. Record in a similar screen resolution that you will produce your video in
3. Try to get the recording right in order to avoid editing.  It will save you time in the long run.  It is very difficult to keep audio and video synced if you are editing the tracks separately
4. Keep the cursor of the mouse still while recording unless you are pointing to something

Editing and Publishing a Video

1. Choose project setting that is similar or the same as the production setting
2. Minimize the number of zoom and pans (time consuming and too distracting)
3. Zoom in on the timeline when trying to make specific edits to the video or audio.  The closer you zoom in the easier it is to make the edits
4. Publish in Flash when possible.  (.FLV for videos or .SWF for screencasts or videos with quizzes)

You can check out one of the videos of the video series I recently put together in Camtasia Studio and see many of the different features that Camtasia has to offer in action.  From clickable hotspots to quizzes at the end of each video, there is so much you can do to make your video more interactive for the user.  Keep in mind that this was the first video series so many of the things I listed above I learned firsthand from creating this series.  See how many items you can pick out from the list above that I didn’t do this first time around.  ;)

http://edutech.msu.edu/online/Internet/FTPLesson2Full/
FTPLesson2Full.html