Guest Blog Post by: Brian Craig
In my experience so far, Camtasia has become one of my
favorite tools for creating audio lectures in my online classes. In Summer
Quarter 2013, I tested different software for recording audio lectures
including Audacity, Screencast-O-Matic , Camtasia Relay. I used Audacity to
create a 15 minute audio lecture on the history of the U.S. Constitution in my
LA198 Constitutional Issues class but this included just audio with no visuals.
A student in my class commented that she is a much more visual learner and
asked if I would create lectures with more visuals. I then used Camtasia Relay
with more visuals and images and students seemed to like this a lot more than
just the audio.
Camtasia has a lot of different options including the
ability to show your webcam and closed captioning. If you have a PowerPoint
presentation, you can display the PowerPoint slideshow different from your
computer and then use your microphone to narrate the concepts. I find it better
to provide your own explanations and not just read the text in your PowerPoint slides.
Images can also enhance your PowerPoint presentations.
With the free version of Jing/screencast.com, you can only
record up to five minutes for screencasts but I often wanted to record longer
tutorials. I previously had to create separate recordings such as "Unit 5
Lecture Part 1" and "Unit 5 Lecture Part 2" for longer lectures
using Jing. For online instructors at GEN now with Camtasia, you can record
longer lectures. You also don't have to worry about approaching your file size
limit for Jing/screencast.com. I was over 90% of my file size limit with the
free account on screencast.com and now I can record as many lectures as I want
without worrying about approaching my file size limit.
While there is a little bit of a learning curve in learning
how to record and use Camtasia Relay, I think Camtasia Relay is a great tool
for creating and sharing audio lectures for students in online classes.
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