This document provides tips for creating effective screencasts. It outlines barriers to screencasting like cost and production skills. It then discusses opportunities like increased access and engagement through reusability. The document recommends mapping your workflow, designing for your context and audience, keeping recordings short, using USB microphones for consistent quality audio, pausing to allow absorption, creating templates to save time and look professional, and organizing an archive for future use and reuse. The goal is to produce concise, well-planned screencasts tailored to users, content, and devices with clear, natural audio and consistent quality.

1. Screencasting Tips & Tricks
Gavin Brockis

2. Barriers
• Cost
• Formats & delivery
• Production skills
Opportunities
• Access & Engagement
• Re-usability
• Consistency

3. 1.Map your Workflow
2.Design for Context
3.Keep it Short (and sweet)
4.USB Microphones = Simple + Consistent
5.Use the Pause...
6.Save time and look good with a Template
7.Organize your Archive

4. 1. Map your Workflow

5. 2. Design for Context
• Learning Objectives
• Target device / channel
• Audience - beginner or expert?
What constraints will these place on format and design?

6. 3. Keep it Short (and sweet)
Compact & bijou Death by screencast
vs
(longer resources can often be divided up)

7. 4. USB Microphones
• self-sufficient
- no soundcard required
• consistent sound
- on different systems
• plug & play
- easy to configure
• good sound quality
- if used correctly
good mic technique pays dividends !

8. 5. Use the Pause...
Shelly Blake-Plock using Jing for feedback

9. 6. Template - look good + save time
• Standardize for team / institution
• Define shared settings & materials
• Avoid duplication of tasks

10. 6. Template – ESU template

11. 7. Organize your Archive
• Archive your master screencasts
• Archive projects for future use & re-use
• Self-contained archives for collaborators
• Tagging and Metadata
• Audio tagging (slate) is a
quick way to record
production details and
contributors

12. Results of good practice:
• Concise, well planned screencasts
• Format, size & length suited to
• users
• content
• target device(s) and context
• Action is fluid and easy to follow.
• Audio is good quality, natural and clear
• Consistency in quality, look & feel
• Archive enables future use & re-use