Best practices and practical tips

1. Screencasting tutorials:
Best practices and practical tips
Kristina Oldenburg | koldenburg@vcc.ca
Mari Paz Vera | mavera@vcc.ca

2.  References & resources:
libguides.vcc.ca/screencasting

3.  Screencasting introduction
 What, why, how, and when?
 Best practices
 From the literature
 Demonstration
 Screencast-o-matic
 Hands-on
 Screencast-o-matic

4. Screencasts: What are they?
 Record what’s happening on computer
screen
 Can record audio, add images, zoom, or edit
 Free, cheap, or expensive software available
 Upload to YouTube or create a file
 Embed on course site
 Email to students to respond to questions

5. Screencasts: What are they?
 VCC librarian Bill created a screencast to
demo searching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHissVdZ
ms
 Searching for images of tooth decay

6. Why would you use screencasts?
 Increase accessibility to content by
providing multiple formats (Oud, 2011)
 Audio, visual demo, text

7. How do students use screencasts?
 Point of need
 Demo of a library research database
 Watched when finding articles for an
assignment
(Senior nursing students - Baker, 2014)
 How to use specific software
 Review Excel procedures taught in lecture
(Tekinarslan, 2013)

8. How do students use screencasts?
 Lecture summaries & for review
(Morris & Chickwa, 2014)
 “I watched them several times…. The parts
which I found the most difficult to
understand I listened to many times.”
(Food studies undergraduate, quoted in Morris &
Chickwa)

9. How do students use screencasts?
 Some students with dyslexia found them
very useful
 Pre-lecture: New words & concepts
 Post-lecture: Comprehension self-check
 Students with dyslexia use study aids more
than other students
(Embryology students, Evans 2011, p. 62)

10. Students’ thoughts
 Shouldn’t be a replacement for
conventional in-person lectures
(Food science undergraduate comments
reported in Morris & Chickwa, 2014)

11. Student behaviour
 Availability of screencast tutorials didn’t
impact lecture attendance
(Evans, 2011)

12. Students’ thoughts
 More students preferred online to in-
person library instruction
 Required session scheduled outside of class
time
 28.8% prefer classroom
 63.5% prefer web tutorial
(Silver & Nickel, 2007)

13.  Flexibly-timed, at-home learning may be
easier for students,
especially if difficulties with:
 Mobility
 Concentration
 Scheduling
(Case & Davidson, 2011)

14. Screencasts: When & why to use?
 Is it faster to record or explain?
 Is it the best instructional tool for that
situation, and how your students learn?

15. Think & discuss for a minute:
 Is there a situation where you could use
screencasts?

16. Screencasting best practices
 Accessible design is good lesson planning
(Oud 2011)

17. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Oud)
 Provide more than one way to access
content
 Eg Create captions or a script for audio
content
 Or provide the script as a separate text
document (not PDF)

18. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Oud)
 Make videos keyboard-controllable
 Eg don’t insert quizzes that require mouse
clicks

19. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Oud)
 Allow viewers to pause & replay videos if
needed
 YouTube has this option

20. Accessible design (Oud 2011)
 Highlight main points
 Eg arrow, or highlighted cursor
 Meaningful graphics
 Clear organization
 Consistent
 Fonts, styles, colours, labels, and sizes, etc.
 Simple language
 Clear instructions
 If requiring viewers to do something (eg
quiz)

21. Best practices: Video length
 Keep screencasts short
(Morris & Chikwa, 2014)
 41% of students preferred 1-3 minute
videos
 24% liked 3-5 minutes
 10% liked 5-10 minutes
 No respondents preferred >10 minute videos
(Baker, 2012)

22. Best practices: Audio pacing
 Narration pace of about 3 words/second
(Baker, 2014)

23. Best practices: Zooming
 Zooming in only when necessary
(Baker, 2014)
 Eg CanLII video

24. Best practices: Callouts
 Callouts are labels you can add when
editing a screencast

25. Best practices: Callouts
 Callouts only when necessary
 Some students thought 4 callouts/minute
were too many
 (Baker, 2014)

26. Best practices: Visuals
 Students asked for larger images & type
(Silver & Nickel, 2007)
 Easy to see = more accessible
 High contrast images & text
 Large, clear font
(Oud 2011)

27. Best practices: Audio
 Include meaningful voice narration for
visual content
 Closed captioned for hearing impaired
 Option to hide captions
 Reading a full transcript can be too much to
process for viewers who can also hear

28. Before recording:
 How much time should you spend?
Consider:
 Simple & clear, with no callouts, might be
effective
 Is the content likely to change soon?
 Does your video have a marketing purpose?
 Plot out your screencast in a logical order
 Is it worth preparing a script?

29. Before recording:
 Consider the recording size for your needs
 Are you recording for HD, or for an iPhone?
 If recording audio, get a quality
microphone.
 They needn’t be expensive, but poor audio can
be extremely distracting.
 Does your video even need audio?

30. While recording:
 When you record, you can do double or
triple takes of a sentence
 Easier to cut the takes you don't like
 Pause occasionally.
 Makes editing, re-recording, or inserting
something new easier
 The pause means you won’t cut into other
content

31. While recording:
 A well-branded title slide for the opening of
the video can add a professional quality
 Especially true if you’re making a series.

32.  References & resources:
libguides.vcc.ca/screencasting

33.  Questions?
 Now you try!
[will provide link to Screencast-o-matic test
account]

34. Selected references
Baker, A. (2014). Students’ preferences regarding four characteristics of
information literacy screencasts. Journal of Library & Information Services in
Distance Learning, 8(1/2), 67-80. doi:10.1080/1533290X.2014.916247
Case, D. E., & Davidson, R. C. (2011). Accessible online learning. New
Directions for Student Services, 134, 47-58.
Evans, D. J. (2011). Using embryology screencasts: A useful addition to the
student learning experience? Anatomical Sciences Education, 4(2), 57-63.
Morris, C., & Chikwa, G. (2014). Screencasts: How effective are they and how
do students engage with them? Active Learning in Higher Education, 15(1), 25-
37.
Oud, J. (2011). Improving screencast accessibility for people with disabilities:
Guidelines and techniques. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 16(3), 129-
144.
Silver, S. L., & Nickel, L. T. (2005). Are online tutorials effective? A comparison
of online and classroom library instruction methods. Research Strategies,
20(4), 389-396.
Tekinarslan, E. (2013). Effects of screencasting on the Turkish undergraduate
students’ achievement and knowledge acquisitions in spreadsheet applications.