Presentation from Teaching with Screencasts workshop, delivered as part of Teaching Focus Week, 15 September 2014.

1. Teaching with Screencasts
Dr Paul Reilly
Department of Media and Communication
Terese Bird
Leicester Learning Institute
www.le.ac.uk

2. Overview:
• Pedagogical benefits of using screencasts
• Getting Started
• Guidance on what makes for a good screencast
• Record your own!

3. Nie et al (2008): Student perspective on
‘lecturecasting’:
• “I think it’s a simple way of getting information in a
portable format as well, so you can have it on the
move. And ten minutes worth of rather than an hour
lecture. I mean this is simply put in student language,
so how does a student look at the topic and a person
who doesnt do this course they can get the
information in a simple and quick way and a portable
way.”

4. Reilly ((iinn pprreessss)):: SSccrreeeennccaassttss ppooppuullaarr
aammoonnggsstt iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall ddiisssseerrttaattiioonn
ss•ttuudd5ee8.nn8t tpssercent of participants agreed that they had
been useful for their projects
• 18.8 percent strongly agreeing with this statement
• 17.5 percent unsure whether it had helped
• Only 3.8 percent felt it hadn’t been useful

5. Focus GGrroouupp rreessuullttss:: UUnniinntteennddeedd lleeaarrnniinngg
oouuttccoommeess ffrroomm SSccrreeeennccaassttss??
• “Basically if there are screencasts or something on
the Blackboard it will help us to take notes and listen
to lectures later on” (Focus Group 1, Participant 2)
• “Sometimes it’s fast, maybe I need to listen again to
understand” (Focus Group 3, Participant 2)
• “The thing is everyone just learns the different places
and ways. Someone prefer reading, someone prefer
listening and watching so that is the point of the
screencasts to me” (Focus Group 3, Participant 4)

6. Screencasts iinn MMeeddiiaa SSttuuddiieess:: AAiimmss aanndd
OObbjjeeccttiivveess
• Demonstrate potential role of screencasts in
addressing learning needs of international
students across the university.
• Enhance existing provision of learning resources
for media and communication students
• Empower students to take greater ownership of
their learning and provide resources that aid their
preparation for assessed work such as essays and
examinations.

7. Questionnaire Results:
• 45.2% of participants strongly agreed that the screencasts
had helped them revise main points from lecture (a further
19% agree)
• 28.6% strongly agreed that their classmates should watch
screencasts to aid their preparation for assessments (a
further 28.6% agree)
• 85.7% participants access screencasts on laptop/Macbook
• 83.3% do so at home, with only 9.5% accessing this content
on campus e.g library

8. Media lecturers: screencasts as signposting tool
• “At first I found that sort of five minutes was quite good for
sort of focusing the mind about thinking what do I want to tell
them in this. [….]Well you talk about how it maybe links it to
what you talked about last week, what we’re going to talk
about the week after, that kind of stuff.”
• “I found the recording process quite straightforward actually,
and I expected it to be more complicated […] It reminded me
of conversations I would have during office hours, where the
same points would come up. So I found myself speaking in a
similar way. and it was kind of a point of reference for
students. You pointed them to it if they had further
questions.”

9. Preparing your slides: some handy tips
• Select the most important slides from your lecture (5-7
should normally do)
• Remove the date from the first slide if you wish to reuse
the content for next year’s cohort
• Try to use Creative Commons licenced pictures (if
available) to illustrate key issues but don’t place too much
information on the slides
• Save a copy of your lecture summary on your PC/laptop –
you may want to re-record this screencast at some point in
the future

10. Recording your first screencast: SSoommee hhaannddyy ttiippss
• Consider how you will begin and end your screencast (I introduce myself at
the start)
• Remember your audience – try to speak clearly and slowly
• Timing is important- try not to spend too much time talking about one slide
if it means you have to rush towards the end
• Don’t be too much of a perfectionist- this should be conversational rather
than a formal lecture
• Listen to your screencast once (and only once) before publishing it on the
site – this will help with future recordings
• Examples of screencasts can be found here:
http://screencastsinmediastudies.wordpress.com/examples-of-screencasts-
2/

11. Recording your first screencast:

12. Resize the frame and click record:

13. Review and Publish your screencast:
• You will then be able to preview your screencast
before deciding whether to publish on blog, wiki,
YouTube.

14. Example of Screenr Homepage:

15. Task: Record your first screencast
• Use one of the laptops provided (headphones and
microphones may be available)
• Create a summary of this session (5-7 slides approx)
• Don’t be afraid of pressing cancel and starting again
– the first time you record a screencast will be the
most challenging
• Ask us for assistance – either in the workshop or
afterwards

16. Some in-browser software packages to
try:
• Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.html
• Screenbird https://github.com/adamhub/screenbird
• Screenr https://www.screenr.com
• Screen-o-matic http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

17. Suggested Reading:
• Nie, M., Armellini, A., Harrington, S. Barklamb, K. and Randall, R. (2010).
'The role of podcasting in effective curriculum renewal'. ALT-J, 18 (2),pp.
105-118.
• O’Malley, P. J. (2010). Combining a tablet personal computer and
screencasting for chemistry teaching. New Directions, 6, 64-67.
• Reilly, P (in press) The right blend? The use of Blackboard to support
international dissertation students, Journal of Excellence in Teaching and
Learning.
• Seery, M.K. (2013) Harnessing Technology in Chemistry Education. NDIR,
9, 1.
• For more references, check out the project blog:
http://screencastsinmediastudies.wordpress.com/screencast-research/