This resource page brings all of the examples and tools from Tracy's Camtasia training into one handy location!
Sample Instructional Videos
Course Welcome |
Introduce Yourself |
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When your students first arrive on your home page, personally greet them with video!
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Let your students get to know you so that they discover connections and start to feel at home in your class.
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Course Tour
A course tour is a great way to show students how to navigate your course. No two courses are alike, so a tour is helpful for both novice and experienced online learners. This is your chance to emphasize what's important and show students how to perform key functions. Use arrows, spotlights, and annotations to reinforce key points and illustrate procedures.
Intro to New Week
Build enthusiasm for the new week with a video introduction! These videos can also address common student questions so that you aren't answering them all week long from your Inbox.
Lecture Content
If you are hoping to repurpose those classroom PowerPoints for your online students, video can help. Slides are designed to be visual aids during a presentation, not a stand-in for the presentation, and students don't pay much attention to a deck of slides simply dumped into a class. Why not a record a screencast of your lecture? Students can see your slides and hear you discuss them, just like in a face-to-face classroom. Here is one of my first screencasts!
Feedback on Student Work |
Micro-Lesson Feedback |
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This is a sample demonstrating how I use video to provide feedback on student writing, using a fake student to protect privacy. After years of text feedback, students love the use of video.
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This idea combines the power of targeted feedback with the lure of extra credit! Notice how it teaches a single lesson and then provides an incentive for students to apply this lesson to their own work.
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How-To Guide
Use screencasting to walk your students through important processes. My students email me often to tell me how much they appreciate this visual explanation, especially when it comes to new technology.
Green Screen Magic
Put yourself in front of any background you wish, using just a green screen and Camtasia:
Resources for Making Videos
Working with Scripts
Download an editable copy of the script template we used in our workshop:
| video_script_template.docx |
You might also want to try an online teleprompter like CuePrompter.
Adding Images and Video
To avoid copyright issues when using found images, video clips, and songs in your videos, limit your search to Creative Commons licensed and public domain material. Here are some helpful resources:
- Creative Commons search and attribution info
- Pexels for high-quality, free, public domain stock videos and photos (great for green screen backgrounds!)
- Make your own graphics with Canva!
Producing Your Video
Here are two common options for storing and captioning your videos:
- Upload to 3C Media Solutions and request captions with one click!
- Upload to YouTube (you already have an SWC account) and either edit the automatic captions or use SWC's captioning service for free, professional captioning.
Ready to Learn More?
- I learned everything I know from TechSmith's Camtasia tutorials!
- To learn more about green screen videos, check out my 2016 Online Teaching Conference presentation and Green Screen Magic training resources.
