How to made a screencast?

1. General steps

2. Before you starting

1.     Why you need a video?

Finding a ready-made video on the internet that fits a specific lesson can be time-consuming. In addition, you must take into account the copyrights to videos created by other people.

Creating your own screencasts gives you a video that aligns with your lesson objectives, and it can be a very rewarding experience. Moreover, you can reuse them for future classes.

2.     Choose your screencasting tool

Select the right screencasting tool for your needs.

Most of the screencasting tools come with very basic functionality, so you’ll be up-and-running in minutes and won’t spend ages tinkering.

3.     Watch the tutorial videos

3. Preparing before the record

Preparing to record can be long and complicated process, but you will gain confidence while you are recording.

• Begin with clarifying the audience and objectives of the record.
• Create a storyboard of your video to sketch your video. You should see where and how the content elements and other effects will go.
• Check out the basic terminology and concepts of screen capture. A bit of understanding about video sizes, video file formats, screencasting will make you feel more prepared and confident.
• Very importantly, you should think about the file size of your screencast.  If the video is too long, your audience may lose interest. It is recommended that you keep the length of your video to no more than 6 minutes.
• Choose the program you want to record screencasting.
• Arrange your desktop computer to clear unwanted icons, programs, bookmarks, etc.
•  Find and arrange the necessary files for the recording: graphics, videos, texts, etc.
• Create a folder for each of your video projects. In that folder, put all of your recordings, project files, produced videos, and media files.

4. Creating the screencast

Start your selected screencast tool.
If you are well prepared before the record, it will no longer be too time consuming and complicated. A few tests should help you to find the most appropriate arrangement to set up the screen, your voice and relax.

When you have recorded the audio, recording the screencast is much easier. Playback the audio as you record the screencast. This allows the visual moves to be perfectly timed to the audio and allows you to edit easier.

If you are speaking directly during the screencasting, remember that the recording can be stopped anytime and then continued. Thus, errors do not mean that the record is restarted.

Remember that the screencast could be viewed likely on a smart phone, so focus in on what’s really relevant, capturing just the most important part of the screen.

Make changes and adjustments as needed.

Save (export) the screencasting in a video format.

5. Editing of screencast

You can edit the ready screencast by adding a new objects, voice tracks. The image shows editing in Active Presenter, but similar principles can be found in other programs.

It's not difficult - just try it!

Arrow shows areas where audio tracks are mounted, objects added - images, backgrounds. It's possible to hide the places you do not want to show in the record.

This way, you can always upgrade or update your video. It is important to remember only to save the source document, as it was before exporting to the video.

6. Storing and sharing your screencasts

• You can host them as private videos on YouTube or Vimeo, where only users with a link can view them. 

• Store the video files in Dropbox (or any other cloud service) and share the link with the people who need it.

• Share the link on your learning platform, website or simply send it to students.

• If you need to make only a couple screencasts, it might not be worth the time it takes to set up and learn how to use a screencasting tool.

• Making a screencast can take a lot of time, if it requires editing or other enhancements, — that could take a couple hours to do. However, the benefits of a video material will be greater than the initial efforts.

•  Will the screencast save you some time later on? For example, will it mean that you don’t need to explain something many times to many people? 

The best answer could be to create your own training video library and make sure these materials are useful for themselves.