Teaching in Higher Ed

Educational Technology

Getting the Most From Screencasting

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screencasting

The last time I wrote about screencasting, I focused on what I look for in a good screencasting tool. This post focuses more on how to get the most out of the various ways you might use a screencasting application, like Screencast-O-Matic.

Kilickaya (2016) provides this definition of screencasting:

A digital recording of the computer screen output, including audio narration, which was first implemented in order to show learners how to use computer software through demonstrations. Since then, it has also been used in educational contexts e.g. to deliver lectures and to provide feedback.”

Below are some ways you can get better use out of a screencasting application.

Flipped Classes

When implementing a flipped class or blended learning teaching approach, screencasting can be an effective way to create whatever videos you might choose to use. Videos are not the only assets to include in a flipped classroom, but can be one way of conveying information.

When creating a screencast that revolves more around how to perform a task, have the theory and background contained in a separate video, or as text. Consider including a list of steps separate from the video to make it easier for students to complete the actions.

Include opportunities for students to engage beyond simply watching the video. The maker of the Canvas LMS now offers their streaming video service, Arc. One of my favorite parts of Arc is how students can comment in real time right below the video as they are watching it.

Arc Media

Other ways to engage students after watching a short video is to have them:

  • Submit a screenshot or other means for demonstrating that they completed the task
  • Write short, answers to reflective questions
  • Take a short quiz.

Be sure that whatever activity you have them complete aligns with what you intended that they take away from having watched the video. In one study, 70% of students stated that they preferred screencasts that had opportunities to answer questions, while 95% of them said that answering questions improved their recall (Snyder, Besozzi, Paska, & Oppenlander, 2016).

A few other resources to help you in creating videos for your classes (screencasted, or not) include:

That last link talks more about video conference sessions (that happen at a particular time), but much of it gives advice that also applies to screencasting.

Feedback

Another vital way to use screencasting is in providing feedback to learners. Faculty can provide a greater quantity of responses to students via screencasting, as compared to written feedback (Kiliskaya, 2016). Students are also able to pause, replay, and rewind the video, in order to more fully absorb the information being provided.

I like how Screencast-O-Matic and some of the other screencasting applications allow me to switch the video from showing the work I am providing feedback on (a paper, a blog/website, or an infographic, for example) to being able to show my face (along with my facial expressions and other visual cues that can be missed through written feedback, alone).

With Screencast-O-Matic, I can also “Zoom in/out, add text, draw freehand, or add drawing objects during recording,” along with the ability to edit my video before publishing it. My suggestion is that you not allow yourself to do too much editing, however, or you will lose the advantage that screencasted feedback provides, along with not having as authentic videos.

Your Turn

What advice do you have for people who are trying to use screencasting in their teaching most effectively?

References

Galligan, L., Hobohm, C., & Mathematics Education Research Group of, A. (2013). Students Using Digital Technologies to Produce Screencasts That Support Learning in Mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Group Of Australasia.

Kilickaya, F. (2016). Use of screencasting for delivering lectures and providing feedback in educational contexts: Issues and implications. In M. Marczak & J. Krajka (Eds.), CALL for openness (pp. 73-90). New York: Peter Lang.

Snyder, C., Besozzi, D., Paska, L., & Oppenlander, J. (2016). Is Flipping Worth the Fuss: A Mixed Methods Case Study of Screencasting in the Social Studies Classroom Authors. American Secondary Education, 45(1), 28-45.

Sponsorship

This blog post is part of a partnership between Screencast-O-Matic and Teaching in Higher Ed. I have received compensation as a part of this arrangement. However, I only recommend tools that I use in my own teaching and would have suggested you give them a try, regardless of any kind of formal agreement. After giving Screencast-O-Matic a try in recent weeks, I purchased a 3-year pro membership out of my own funds, I found it so easy to use.

Ways to Use Screencasting in Your Teaching

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I have been screencasting for many decades now. A screencast is a video you take of your screen. Often screencasts include audio, at the bare minimum, but they have become even more full-featured in recent years.

Criteria for Screencasting Applications

When I try out a screencasting tool, the following are the criteria I use to evaluate the application:

  • Easy to learn – It must be simple to get started screencasting using the tool. At a minimum, recording my screen, adding audio, and saving the screencast must be completely intuitive and not require watching any training videos or reading the documentation.
  • Fast capture – The process from start-to-finish must be fast, so I can quickly answer someone’s question and get the recording sent to them in hardly any more time than it takes me to record the answer.
  • Flexible – Once I have learned the basics of the application, I want it to have even more features I can discover to enhance my use of the software even more.
  • Accessible – Whatever screencasting tool I use must be able to produce accessible content, including the inclusion of captioning.

Uses for Screencasting

There are many ways we can use screencasting in our teaching. Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking:

Screencast-o-matic

I was recently re-introduced to Screencast-o-matic when they got in touch with me to explore potentially sponsoring the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. As you will hear in upcoming episodes, I did decide to enter into an agreement with them to support the show. After I used Screencast-o-matic, after not trying it for many years, I found it to meet all of the criteria I mentioned above that are important to me in selecting a screencasting application.

 

This video screencast I created using Screencast-o-matic will give you a glimpse of just some of the application's features.

Final Thoughts on Screencasts

You may have noticed that I didn't record my webcam in most of the demo videos I shared. I certainly find it helpful to be able to show my facial expressions and bring some more media variety to a video as I switch between graphics and my webcam. However, I absolutely appreciate that I don't have to include my webcam output in order to create a finished product.

There are just too many times when the kids have gone to bed and I'm wrapping things up after a long day. The ability to screencast without waiting until the next time I am able to present my most professional look is helpful. I can squeeze in answers to students, create new course content, or even create a Screencast-o-matic demo while my husband is off with the kids – as he is today.

A Selection of Articles on Screencasting

Here are some articles and blog posts about screencasting:

This blog post is part of a partnership between Screencast-o-matic and Teaching in Higher Ed. I have received compensation as a part of this arrangement. However, I only recommend tools that I use in my own teaching and would have suggested you give them a try, regardless of any kind of formal agreement. After giving Screencast-o-matic a try in recent weeks, I purchased a 3-year pro membership out of my own funds, I found it so easy to use.

My First Experience Co-Writing an Open Textbook

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We met together for the last time on December 16th.

The way the course is structured, we gather in person for a half day at the start and end of the term and then have three web conferences every other week throughout the eight-week class. The weeks in between the web meetings, we have asynchronous learning experiences and connect on Twitter. We were concluding the term, after having created something that would last well beyond our class’ end date.

This class is now the hardest one that I teach with any regularity. I struggle with trying to have us all unlearn some of the ways that we think about the role of technology in our teaching and more broadly in our lives. I also fail regularly at trying to redefine what it means to be a teacher of a course like this.

The individuals in the class have always fit the description of what is known as “teaching to the tails.” I wind up having many learners who are uncomfortable experimenting with technology and seeing how it might enhance their teaching or learning in some way. There are also always at least a few who have regularly embraced educational technology in their pedagogy.

For the Fall of 2017, I took the radical step (at least to me) of doing away with a textbook for the class. The ones we had used in the past had too great an emphasis on K-12 when not everyone in the program worked within that educational context. They also got out of date too quickly and were somewhat cost-prohibitive.

Open Textbooks

This first recollection I have of hearing the phrase “open textbook” was from Kris Shaffer, who spoke about his Open Music Theory Textbook project on episode 74 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. I am embarrassed to admit that I don’t think I got it at the time.

I understood that he had written an online textbook with another guy. At the time, I suspect that I hadn’t yet realized (and probably still am lacking in understanding) how much textbook costs factor into college students’ financial difficulties. Since music is not my discipline, I didn’t really have an appreciation for how this text compared to others published in a more traditional way.

After speaking with Kris for the podcast, I discovered his post for Hybrid Pedagogy: The Critical Textbook. He writes:

“Textbooks as fixed expressions limit academic freedom and arbitrate student success/failure to a non-trivial degree.” – Kris Shaffer (@krisshaffer), April 2, 2014

Getting Started

By the time I decided to have our class write an open textbook together, I had many sources of inspiration, but still felt unsure on much of the process.

Orientation

During our class orientation, I spoke at length about the problem with what are often referred to as throw-away assignments. Contrasting writing a research paper for our class that would only be read by me with co-writing a book together generated quite a bit of excitement. Alan Levine’ story about his first experience competing a renewable assignment in 1984 is inspiring. I was excited to create something more meaningful for and with this group of individuals.

What I wish I would have done during the orientation was to have students read through some clarifying text and asked them to digitally fill in their understanding of some core ways we would approach this endeavor together:

  • Authorship. The book would be authored by them, but did not need to have their name listed as an author in the book. They could use a pen name, or be an anonymous author. While I stated this multiple times during the orientation and during our first online meeting together, there was at least one person who had enough of a concern about this to send a note to the person I report to as an adjunct at this institution.
  • Book sales. The book would be sold on Amazon, both as an ebook and as a printed book. While I would receive some portion of money on each sale, these monies would likely only help me get closer to breaking even on the expenses I had already incurred to purchase a license from Pressbooks to publish in these formats.
  • Roles. They would take on various roles throughout the writing process, some of which would involve coaching each other and more intense collaboration than they would have grown accustomed to in the program so far. I was fortunate in that I had a wonderful project lead for this eight-week adventure. There were many hard workers without whom the project would not have succeeded. In some cases, they were misaligned in the roles that they took, or there was some misunderstanding about the extent to which I would be able to individually coach each person on their writing, versus having a role of editor include peer coaching.

The Finished Open Textbook

By the time our final meeting rolled around, we had written an 80-page open textbook entitled:

Igniting Your Teaching with Educational Technology: A Resource for New Teachers

We also had the following assets to “show” for our work:

The process was ridiculously hard and exquisitely invigorating. What made it hard was partially because anytime you try to get a group of 16 people together to accomplish anything worthwhile, it is going to get messy. There were also a whole bunch of things that came up along the way that I did not anticipate. Most of these were small (wait times for the book, once it was uploaded to Create Space, for example), but made the need for flexibility in our planning that much more important. It was completely worth it, however, and I am grateful to each person who was involved in the journey.

Tools

Thank goodness that I was aware of most of the tools that were essential in us reaching our goals for this project. The Individuals working on the project had done some blogging on WordPress and worked on the Google platforms, which helped.

  • Google Team Drive – The doctoral cohort had already established a Google Team Drive that they had used to coordinate some of the logistics of their recent trip to Washington DC. I had only ever created shared folders on Google Drive in the past and now see the huge benefits of having a shared Team Drive for projects like this. That way, each time you create a new folder or add new information, you don’t have to worry about reinventing your group to the newly created content.
  • Google Docs – The bulk of the writing took place on Google Docs. We could make comments that people could then later address and mark as resolved. All edits took place in real-time, as we were typing. We could see a detailed revision history and even know who else was working on the book on a particular evening.
  • Pressbooks – The bulk of the book formatting and cover design took place on Pressbooks. If you have ever used WordPress, you will be comfortable using Pressbooks, as it is build off WordPress. Pressbooks is a freemium service, meaning that it is free to create a book using their tool, and have that book available online in a digital format for free. However, if you want to have an ebook that could be read on an ebook reader, such as a Kindle or the Kindle app, or you want it to be available to be printed on demand, you need to purchase a paid license for that one book title.
  • PowerPoint – I was originally going to use a graphics editor to design the background art for the book cover, but due to an uninteresting rabbit trail, I wound up just using PowerPoint (exported the individual slide as a .jpg graphic). Pressbooks has a cover generator that adds the title, authors, ISBN number, and other information onto the cover. However, if you want some kind of a background, as well, you need to upload a graphic.

Probably the two technical skills most essential in writing an open textbook would be having to do with text formatting. Word Processors can have formatting that shows up “behind the scenes” that make some of the beautiful template you select in Pressbooks not shine through. It is essential to copy and paste text into Pressbooks that doesn’t contain any unseen formatting that could potentially mess things up.

I recommend highlighting one chapter or section at a time and pressing command or control – c on your keyboard to copy the text. Then, find the standard text editor that is on your preferred operating system (notepad on Windows; textedit on Mac) and choose edit- paste to match destination formatting or paste unformatted text. The goal is to paste only the text and not any of the formatting from the word processor.

Applying formatting in PressBooksThen, copy and paste the text from the text editor into Pressbooks. Finally, apply the formatting from the predefined styles within the Pressbooks text editor. That way, you can leverage the way that the various themes within Pressbooks make headings and subheadings stand out and also have these items appear in your table of contents.

There is much more I could write about what I learned from this experience. However, it is new year’s eve and is time to get ready for our early celebration this afternoon. We will be celebrating with you New Yorkers, as the kids and adults attending our get together need our sleep.

Other Resources

Below are a few more resources to help you get started writing your own open text book, if you are interested.

I welcome any questions you have about the process, as I have a feeling I will be revisiting this topic, again, in the future. I would also love to hear about your experiences working with or writing open textbooks.

Reflections on the 2017 Digital Media and Learning Conference

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DML conference
Credit: Jason Frohlichstein, Frohlichstein Inc. Design & Direction

It was my first time attending the Digital Media and Learning conference.

Then, I found out that it was actually the last year that the event would be held. Starting next year, DML will partner with the Connected Learning Summit, an entity associated with MIT. The merged conference will rotate each year from the East Coast (at MIT) to the West Coast (at UCI).

Still, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this year's event.

SketchNotes from the DML Conference

Once again, I attempted to grow my sketchnotes skills. I still draw like a five year-old. But, I know that the only way to get better is to get more practice in, accompanied with additional resources to help structure the ways in which I attempt to build my skills.

Some of the attempts I made at DML are below, along with a few notes about what I took away from the sessions.

I wasn't familiar with Danah Boyd until attending DML. She's certainly someone now who I won't soon forget. Her presentation was called Learning All the Wrong Things. She described her plans for her talk as follows:

“I will interrogate some of the darker sides of networked media engagement: media manipulation, strategic harassment, and youth radicalization. And then we'll think through different kinds of interventions – and the unintended consequences of good intentions in a world where the internet mirrors and magnifies the good, bad, and ugly.” – Danah Boyd

You can view her keynote online (starts just after the 10 minute mark), as well as listen to the big announcement at the beginning of the video about their doing away with the DML conference and what is to come next.

Another person I had never heard of before DML was Esra'a Al-Shafei, “a Bahraini civil rights activist, blogger, and the founder and executive director of Mideast Youth and its related projects, including CrowdVoice.org.

I found her entire talk compelling and especially appreciated her descriptions of the ways in which music is amplifying the voices of those who would otherwise not be heard.

Another inspirational session was put on by two gifted individuals (Gabe Lyon and Edge Quintanilla) from the Chicago Architecture Foundation. They shared about DiscoverDesign.org, an “online platform where students, teachers, and mentors come together to design solutions for the real world.

Other Inspiring Sessions

There's only so much sketchnoting I can do before I wonder if I shouldn't give up hope. In other DML sessions, I took notes furiously and bookmarked items voraciously.

Elizabeth Lawley, a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, gave a fantastic session entitled: Fork Your Syllabus, You Slacker: Using GitHub and Slack to Collaborate with Students (and Colleagues). She created some amazing supporting materials that are worth exploring.

Another well-documented session that is worth visiting is the page built by Remi Kalir, for his session called: Annotating DML. Remi is going to be on the podcast soon and I'm looking forward to learning even more from him.

There's so much more I could share about, but I need to head to bed to get ready for day one of the Open Education 2017 conference tomorrow.

Yes, it is quite the busy couple of weeks with conferences, but I really wanted to take advantage of these being so close to home. In the meantime, consider checking out some of the videos from the DML conference. Especially energizing are the ignite talks, which are just five minute presentations on a wide variety of topics.

 

Hosting or Participating in Video Conferencing Sessions

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Yesterday, I had a virtual conference with three people in New York who I've never met in person. Today, I connected, online, with Doug McKee for an upcoming episode of the Teach Better podcast. Tomorrow, my department is interviewing someone, virtually, for an open faculty position we have.

When I woke up this morning, I saw the listing of all the Virtually Connecting sessions that are going on surrounding the New Media Consortium's annual conference. Virtually Connecting makes it possible for those of us who aren't able to get to every conference we would like to (which I imagine might be all of us) to connect with people who are there and to have opportunities to learn from them.

The Virtually Connecting manifesto shares more of their values, motives, and goals.

People from all over the world join the sessions via their laptops and get to speak with presenters and others who are engaged at the event. Some conference presenters bring Virtually Connecting into their sessions (group conversation / workshop or virtual breakout session), while others share mover informally in-between the events they're attending in-person (hallway conversations).

As I reflect on how many times I'll be connecting with others on some type of virtual conference this summer, that number pales in comparison to when I'm in a season of teaching.

I use synchronous conferencing tools for all my classes (which are primarily taught in a blended format). Students also connect with me virtually for office hours, as do the faculty I coach in my role as Director of Teaching Excellence and Digital Pedagogy.

Zoom

My preferred synchronous video conferencing tool is Zoom. It is easy to use, is the closest thing I've ever found to feeling like I'm in the same room as the others who are on a session, and has crystal clear audio and video. I'm not alone in my affection for Zoom. Doug McKee describes how he uses Zoom in his teaching.

For more information on using Zoom to its fullest, check out Andy Traub's Master Zoom course.

Recommendations for Better Video Conferencing

In this post, I'll provide recommendations for how to make virtual sessions you either lead or participate in better. I'll also let you know what tools you can use to most of the opportunities to connect.

Get the lighting right

The lighting in the room you’re participating from makes a big difference in how welcoming you can be perceived to others on the session. You want most of the light sources to be coming from in front of you, not behind you.

If you’re unable to make that happen with your existing lighting, consider purchasing a desk light that will accomplish that feat for you. This one was recommended on a professional Zoom course that I took, recently:

TaoTronics Desk Lamp, LED Desk Lamp with USB Charging Port, Dimmable LED Desk Lamp Eye- care, Metal, Glare-Free, 5 Color Temperatures with 5 Brightness Levels, Touch Control, Memory Function

In particular, the warmth of the light makes a big difference and I wouldn’t purchase a light that didn’t have that option available.

Pay attention to the camera level

If you’re participating in a session using some kind of a device or your laptop, be sure you haven’t positioned the camera to be giving a nice shot of your neck and nostrils.

Use something to raise the level of your device up high enough that it is pointed toward your eyes and is fairly level (if not pointing slightly down at you).

I’ve used a stack of notebooks, a lap desk, and even a couple of pillows to accomplish this task. No one on the session is going to see what you have your laptop resting on, but they will notice if you are literally looking down at them the entire time.

If you're using a smart phone or a tablet to connect, virtually, consider getting an inexpensive tripod or multifunctional device to capture your video at the proper level. Or, you can get creative with stacking books, as well.

I probably could  have saved myself the four paragraphs, above, and just posted this picture of the difference it makes to have the camera at a good level. Hello chin! Hello nostrils!

See the difference it makes when the camera is at eye-level?

Avoid feedback noise

When you’re on an online session, the noise that comes out of your speakers can be picked up by your computer’s microphone and can start to cause feedback.

Depending on the way you’re connecting, this won’t necessarily happen 100% of the time. However, it is a good idea to always have a headset that has a microphone, to ensure that you won’t be causing all the other attendees to cringe as they hear the feedback amplifying in their ears.

Overall, avoid having the sound come out from your computer, but get it playing in your ears, instead.

Make eye contact

When you look at a web cam, you simulate eye contact with the attendees. If you look at the video of the other people in the session, you will appear to be looking down.

The goal is to be doing two things, simultaneously:

  1. Read the expressions on other attendees’ faces and identify ways that we might better engage them, while…
  2. Looking like we’re making eye contact with the “audience.”

When in a session with a small number of people, it’s typically feasible to position the video of the others’ faces in such a way that it is near your web cam. That way, when you watch the video of others, you’re also looking toward the camera and will appear focused on what’s happening.

If presenting in front of a larger group, you may want to spend more time looking directly at the web cam and then making glances at the chat box and the video of attendees.

Here is a video of me showing some of the dos and don't for live sessions involving eye contact, lighting, and distractors.

Let them know who you are

Most online, synchronous tools have some way for you to indicate who you are. Google Hangouts has the lower third banner, where you can include your name and a title, as well as a logo. Social Traffic Lab shows us how to create our lower third, when we join a Google Hangout.

Other tools have you simply type your name when you join the session. Be sure to use the name that you would prefer people refer to you as on the session.

Your Turn

What advice do you have for people who are participating in or leading virtual, live sessions?

How do you balance out the desire to have everything “perfect,” and potentially missing opportunities to engage, waiting to reach that point?