Project Specification
Objective: Design, produce, and evaluate a screencast that provides instruction for a short, computer-based procedure.
Product: A screencast that is no more than five minutes long and makes judicious use of sound and visuals. The evaluation of the site must include feedback from at least two classmates and two learners from outside the class.
Timeline: This project took two weeks from conception to execution.
Project Development Process
I first learned basic information about screencasts: what they are and how to make them. I decided to create a screencast on publishing and editing a website on ECU’s MyWeb server. I first created a 5-minute tutorial video presentation. I further refined the topic for a 3-minute walk-through screencast on how to add a file to the ECU MyWeb server. I chose the topic because classmates expressed having trouble with the process. I had just updated my own webspace and found the new system confusing myself.
I had not set out to create two videos. The first video I created would more accurately be called a tutorial presentation. I opted for a slideshow presentation with still shots instead of live navigation because there were too many moving parts, navigating between pages and applications. After several hours of going through the process and thinking about how to break the process down, collecting the necessary screenshots, and writing a script, I assembled the presentation and recorded it.
Thanks to prompt feedback from my professor, I began to recognize the screencast genre as characterized by active walk-through rather than a static slideshow recording. I pared down my topic so it would be less complicated, and quickly shot an unscripted screencast. Doing both videos helped me get a clear sense of how scope affects decisions on presentation style, and how important it is to have a very tight topic for a screencast video.
Project’s Connection to Professional Goals & Objectives
This project has helped me formalize a concept about “genres” of instructional design. This is valuable for my professional practice since I teach three online asynchronous courses to a total of about 200 students each semester. The clarity and nuance I have gained in my understanding of this design methods like this one has already helped me to be more efficient in my work.
This summer, I intend to begin a complete revision to my four-semester Latin sequence. One of many changes to the courses is to replace the too-frequent slideshow presentation video with other forms of information delivery, such as short and hyper-focused screencasts when appropriate for the content. An on-demand resource bank of screencasts would also be a great help to students.