My first "official" CE at an MLA meeting was this past weekend, during the Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association Meeting in Troy, MI. When I saw that the class Screencasting: How to Create Effective Instructional Video Content was one of the CE's available, I was excited. Scott Garrison from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo was our instructor.
The class was held off-site at the Beaumont Royal Oak Hospital Computer Lab down the street from the meeting hotel. It held promise to be a fun-filled day as you will see below - we had a most interesting ride to the site:
In the photo you can see instructor Scott Garrison and on the right, Jonathon Koffel from Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at the University of Iowa. This was more of a party bus - and at 7:45 am, I don't think any of us were in THAT much of a party mood. It made for a good ice-breaker!
What I really enjoyed about this class: spending time looking at different instructional design methods like Blooms Taxonomy, the ADDIE method and then took a look at what exactly IS a screencast. As Scott explains in class:
A screencast is a recording of actions a person performs on a computer screen, to demonstrate a computer-based task or set of tasks to others.
We discussed the different software packages and websites that help to create a screencast. Some examples: Jing, Camtasia, and Captivate. The focus was on using Captivate which I have had some experience using in a previous work life.
I think discussing the pedagogical elements prior to creation was so crucial to a successful screencast. Evaluation was also covered - and various means of doing so like using SurveyMonkey.
If you get a chance to participate in a class that covers this topic, I would definitely suggest considering it. Take a look at how you are delivering short informational/instructional content and see if screencasting might help you to achieve this more effectively.
Max Anderson
Technology Coordinator
NN/LM GMR
max@uic.edu
1-800-338-7657