This document provides best practices and tips for creating effective screencast tutorials. It begins with an introduction to screencasts, including what they are, why they are used, and examples of screencasts created by librarians. It then discusses how students use screencasts for point-of-need learning, reviewing lectures, and as study aids. The document outlines best practices for screencast design, such as keeping videos short, including clear narration, using accessible features, and testing screencasts before publishing. It concludes with tips for screencast creation, recording, and editing.

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.