This document evaluates and compares two screencast software programs, Adobe Captivate and TechSmith Camtasia Studio. It provides information on features, system requirements, and an evaluation from a colleague of both programs. It ultimately recommends Camtasia Studio for the Communication, Mass Media, and Theatre department due to the perceived complexity and learning curve of Captivate.

1. Kristin StanleyEDIT 5395 Evaluating Software: Screencast programs

2. General Informationand Type of License Name: Kristin Stanley Institution: Angelo State University Department: Communication, Mass Media, and Theatre Software Programs Evaluated/Vendor: Adobe CS4 Captivate/Adobe Camtasia Studio 6/TechSmith Content Area: Communication Media Design and Development Education Level: Higher Education (sophomore) Type of License: Site License for 20 faculty members of the department

3. Screencast Software This presentation will review two Screencast programs: TechSmithCamtasia Studio 6 Adobe Captivate 4

4. Adobe Captivate CS4 Features Runs on both Windowsand Mac platforms Captures high-quality video from the computer screen Record, Edit, Produce, and Share video Most common uses: Creating demos for training Tutorials Quizzes and Testing and Presentations

5. Captivate System Requirements Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, or Intel Core Duo processor Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1 512MB of RAM (1GB is recommended) 1.5GB hard-disk space and additional free space is required during installation 800x600 screen resolution (1,024x768 recommended)

7. TechSmith Camtasia Studio 6 Features Created for Microsoft Windowsand TechSmith just released a version of Camtasia for Mac Captures high-quality video from the computer screen Record, Edit, Produce, and Share video Become your own producer! Most common uses: Creating demos for training Tutorials and Presentations

8. Camtasia System Requirements Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 Microsoft DirectX 9 or later version 1.0 GHz processor minimum (2.0GHz recommended) 500 MB RAM minimum (2.0GB recommended) 115 MB of hard-disk space for program installation

10. Evaluation of Captivate from a Colleague (pg. 38 question) The biggest thing with captivate which I really like is the ability to create demos and trainers. So you can go through a software package or a procedure, say how you would compute mean, average, mode, standard deviation (basic stats) in excel and you can “walk” the student through via the demo and then you can turn the exact same demo into a trainer so the student has to “click” just like they were in the actual software program so they see how to do something, and then they are able to do it to facilitate learning. Evaluation of Captivate from a Colleague continued on next slide

11. Evaluation of Captivate from a Colleague Cont. (pg. 38 question) Depending on the length of your movie (SWF) , they are sometimes very large and hard for students on slower connections to use. You really need a streaming server or something similar to adobe connect to stream your vides for students unless you know the student is on a high speed connection. Justin Louder, MA (EDIT Doctoral Student)

12. Recommendation – Camtasia(recommendation to the CMMT department committee members) Even though Adobe CS4 Captivate comes highly recommended from a colleague (former colleague from the nursing dept. – Justin is highly technically adept), I recommend Camtasia Studio 6. I had difficulty downloading the free trial version of Captivate. The Captivate options were overwhelming and not intuitive. As many of you have stated in surveys, you are not comfortable with technology. I surmise that Captivate would be perceived as too complex; therefore, having a greater learning curve that with Camtasia. I predict Captivate would not be utilized by our department or utilized well. Recommendation continued on next slide

13. Recommendation – Camtasia Cont.(recommendation to the CMMT department committee members)

14. Sources Referenced Adobe Product Website. Retrieved Feb. 11th, 2010 http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/?promoid=DJDVX Is there any alternative to Captivate? Retrieved Feb 10th, 2010. http://www.flashvideorecorder.com/captivate.html Louder, J. (2010, February 11th). Email interview. TechSmithProductWebsite. Data Retrieved Feb. 11th, 2010. http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp