Reaching More Students with Online Instruction

The first pre-conference session that I attended was on the topic of creating engaging online library instruction components using screen recording software. These programs (such as Camtasia or Macromedia Captivate) allow the user to record "video" of on-screen actions, annotate the project with text call-outs, informational slides, and audio narration, and then publish it as a Flash file for others to view. Furthermore, through the use of interactive elements the creator can make the "video" an interactive simulation, guiding the end user through the steps of the recorded process.

The first part of the workshop addressed the need to plan proposed tutorials carefully before doing any recording in order to produce an effective product. Especially highlighted were the need to identify the audience, determine the knowledge and/or skills that needs to be taught, and create a storyboard or outline of the tutorial. The second part consisted of a basic demonstration of how to use Camtasia to create a demonstration tutorial (not an interactive simulation).

For most of the attendees, I think this was a good session. This kind of software seemed to be new to many--or perhaps something that they've heard of but never seen in action. For me, since I have experience creating some rough tutorials using Macromedia Captivate that I hope to polish this summer into some ready for public use, the workshop was less helpful. One of the big things that I took away was that I'm really glad I had Covenant purchase Macromedia Captivate instead of Camtasia.

From what I saw in the demonstration, Camtasia literally creates a full-motion video of all actions on the screen. Accordingly, editing a Camtasia project is exactly like editing a movie in iMovie. There's a timeline and clips, which can be trimmed and split and spliced, etc. This all seems well and good, except that video editing can be a time consuming process. Macromedia Captivate, on the other hand, is based on screenshots/slides with added animation effects of mouse movement, typing, and scrolling to create the illusion of full-motion video. Furthermore, each of these animation elements are created as individual objects on the current slide background, and can be altered or time-shifted individually. This strategy has several advantages:

1. Typically, using a computer program or web-interface involves interacting with a series of static screens rather than a dynamic environment that would require full-motion video to capture. Captivate only uses the bandwidth and complexity of full-motion when necessary.


2. Breaking the process up into discrete slides that match the discrete steps of the process makes it easier to manage the project by allowing the creator to quickly add, remove, or replace elements. Each discrete step can be selected with one click rather than having to precisely select a span of a timeline.


3. The timing of a Captivate presentation is much more flexible. When recording with Camtasia, the creator must go through the process slowly to ensure enough time to add in text descriptions and/or audio narration and then cut out unneeded frames. On the other hand, when recording with Captivate, the creator can go through the process quickly and then easily alter the timing of the slides and animation elements to fit the time requirements of the text descriptions and audio narration.

Captivate certainly has its share of quirks, such as the occasional need to force it to take a screenshot because it didn't recognize that a significant action occurred. However, the ease of editing and time-shifting slide-based content with overlaid animation elements makes Captivate the better choice for tutorial creation in my opinion.