Latest info on educational pricing for Adobe Captivate can be found here.
Paul B.
Mashable has a nice article on 12 screencasting tools - http://mashable.com/2008/02/21/screencasting-video-tutorials/ and I thought some of you might be interested. There are a number of free tools listed.
Also, I guess my latest Captivate tutorials are almost ready for primetime:
http://hsclibrary.uchsc.edu/education/library-orientation-tutorials.php
I created them for a unit in the Non-traditional PharmD (distance) course on evidence based searching. I'm really proud of the Cochrane tutorial! (I didn't do the You Tube video - that's from Cochrane.) I hope it will help others in the state who are Cochrane subscribers.
Lynne
Paul Pival, the Distant Librarian, has a nice post comparing two screencasting software programs for Macs. It has taken a while for a robust screencasting program to appear for Mac users, but it looks like now there are at least a couple good options. Looks like Paul has also been busy with a site redesign for his blog!
http://distlib.blogs.com/distlib/2008/02/osx-screenshot.html
Get a free copy of Camtasia Studio 3.1.3!
Until January 7, Techsmith is offering a free version of Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 (the latest version is up to version 5.0).
http://www.notess.com/screencasting/2008/01/03/free-older-version-of-camtasia-studio/
Paul Betty
A couple of good posts from the LibCasting blog. The first covers the new productivity website Sketchcast.com, a mix between screencasting and those ubiquitous white dry erase boards common in classrooms today. The second post covers some of the (hidden) limitations with Jing and its associated screencast.com account.
http://www.notess.com/screencasting/2007/10/12/sketchcasting/
http://www.notess.com/screencasting/2007/10/12/the-problems-with-free-jing/
Paul Betty
Thanks Lynne for the news. I have also found that, once you become familiar with whichever screencasting software you are using, the subtle details of audio, synchronization, and so on are what can be most unnerving. As mentioned in the quote, drop down menus can be really tricky, as with other javascript events. You can manually force a screen capture if necessary, and you can customize the hot-keys for this in Captivate 2 using the Options menu --> Recording options --> Change recording keys.
Paul Betty
A fellow staff member at UCDHSC has done some Captivate screencasts for a new web based room reservation system. I emailed him to compliment him and he wrote back about his experiences with Captivate. He had some broadcast experience in a past job, which I think helped him get a really natural sound to his narration. Anyway, I asked if I could share his comments, which I think might be helpful for what we do . . . Here's his observations about Captivate tutorial creation:
"Thanks for the compliments. I worked very hard on those and stayed up way too late at night trying to get them finished before we implemented the software. I just watched your tutorials and think that you did an excellent job as well. I used Captivate 2 to do these. I have heard that Camtasia doesn’t have the editing features like Captivate does so I didn’t even try it. They took me about 10 to 20 hours to do each one because I first had to learn how to use the scheduling software myself and then script it. I had to try reserving the rooms first using the exact date and time or else I wouldn’t get the results that I wanted to use. I did not script the dialog because I am not good at reading a script in such a way as to make it sound natural so I would practice it a few times and then do it in a more natural way. I then had to go back in and edit it because I would have long pauses or flubs. I found it to be choppy until I changed my technique which was to avoid talking while clicking on things or moving the mouse. This also made editing easier as I tried to complete a thought before changing slides which happens when you move the mouse or click on something. I also had to force some of the screen shots for mouse over menus. I think the technique was Control-Print Screen. Full motion could be choppy because of the refresh rate but I there is a setting for full motion which I did turn on to make the mouse movements look smoother. I recently got an email about Captivate 3 being released so it may be improved from what you are using."
Hope this is helpful for some of us who are just venturing into this software.
Lynne Fox
BlipTV host
Some of you may have noticed that Youtube does not accept the .swf file format. If you don't have access to a web server, and you are looking for an alternative to Youtube for hosting needs, take a look at Bliptv. Here is what they offer in terms of format:
"You shouldn't have to choose between great quality Flash video and compatibility with iTunes. Your videos should work everywhere, no question. That's why blip.tv supports every video format under the sun, from Flash 8 (much higher quality than most Flash video) to Quicktime (for the all-important iTunes) to DivX and 3gp (we think cell phones are cool, too)."
That's good news if your working in flash or targeting mobile users!
Multi Mode recording in Captivate 3
Dexterous at the All About Adobe Captivate blog has a nice entry about the different recording modes in Captivate 3.
The UCDHSC Health Sciences Library now has some Captivate Tutorials online. http://hsclibrary.uchsc.edu/education/library-orientation-tutorials.php There are still lots of modules to be done, but I've gotten the basic library use modules done for the most part. I'll be adding modules as I have time to complete more. The library has now convened a group to make more tutorials, so users can have a little variety in the narrator. I also hope to build in some testing or tracking of viewers and to offer an opportunity to evaluate the tutorials.
Captivate is relatively easy to use, although I had a few problems with the transition from the Macromedia version to the Adobe version (Adobe purchased Macromedia about a year or so). My advice (probably good when working on any of these programs) is to save often. Also, I had problems with one module saving to .swf properly because of how I edited the audio after initial narration/capture. (Turns out that there's an audio library where versions of edited audio is stored -- when I cleaned that up it worked fine.)
Generally it went well, even though it was a bit time-consuming. I recommend trying it (or Jing - see below - while it's free ).
Thanks to Paul for sharing his knowledge on this! It definitely was a good little shove for me to get going on my project.
Lynne M. Fox, AMLS, MA, AHIP, Education Librarian Health Sciences Library, UCHSC, Campus Box A003/ Room 3D06M 4200 East Ninth Avenue, Denver, Colorado 80262 303-315-4299, 303-315-0294 (FAX), Lynne.Fox@uchsc.edu ; http://hsclibrary.uchsc.edu/ NEW LIBRARY OPENS OCTOBER 2007!
New screencasting software
Techsmith, the folks who gave us the popular commercial screencasting software Camtasia, are working on a new screencasting/screen-capture program called Jing. Looks like output is limited to .SWF files, but it is free for now! It also runs on the MAC OSX operating system! Could be an alternative to the freeware program Wink.
Screencasting Bibliography
Here is a link to the screencasting bibliography I have compiled. There are links to all the sites and resources I mentioned during the brief presentation at the Brown Bag Luncheon in May 2007. Look for the full article in the upcoming Library Instruction issue of Colorado Libraries (Vol 33 Issue 3)
You can also view the Regis Libraries current selection of screencasts, under the online tutorials section, at the following URL:
http://www.regis.edu/library.asp?page=research.tutorials
I'll try to add links to other sites and resources as I come across them. Feel free to add any interesting tid-bits about screencasting you find too!
If you have any questions, or want to discuss screencasting further, please contact me!
Paul Betty
Distance Learning Librarian
Regis University
Dayton Memorial Library
3333 Regis Blvd. D-20
Denver, CO 80221-1099
(303) 964-5772
1-800-388-2366 x5772
pbetty@regis.edu
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