This page describes the objectives, activities, submission guidelines, and on-going work required for the Designing Screencasts workshop.
This workshop establishes standards for technical knowledge and classroom procedures required for this course. During the workshop, you will implement the profile you designed for the Designing Documents: Profile workshop into a 30-second screencast, upload that video to Screencast.com, embed the SHARE link for that video into your profile, and then post the revised version to the Discussion forum that I have provided in SVSU Canvas.
This workshop requires you to complete and submit a screencast video, and engage in discussion through SVSU Canvas. The processes involved in completing these tasks demonstrate some of the core processes for the course. Each of the stages described here sets a standard for work in this course.
During this workshop, you will complete five tasks.
Although your next communication task is to record a screencast video, you need to set up an account at Screencast.com before you do so. Accounts with this service are free. (Although you can purchase additional storage, you will not need to do so for this course.) This account will allow you to store video content in a secure place, and then allow others to stream that content for viewing.
You can create an account from the first page of the site: Screencast.com. Although you can use any email address to complete this task, I recommend that you use your svsu.edu account.
If you require any assistance with this process, see the tutorial section of Techsmith's site: Screencast.com/help/. The support systems provided there are excellent.
Use Techsmith Jing to record a brief (30 second) screencast (video tour) of your profile. That is, with your profile open on your desktop in Adobe Acrobat Reader, launch Jing, and record an introduction of yourself to the class using your profile content as a guide. Note that you cannot use a web cam to complete this project.
I provide a sample screencast that includes an explanation of the video genre (and a sample of what this workshop requires) in Canvas: Files: Workshop 2.
Jing is another free tool. If you prefer to use other screencasting tools, it is your responsibility to research their capabilities, and use to ensure that they meet your needs for assignments in this course. You can download Jing to your own personal computer from the following page of the Techsmith site: Techsmith.com/download/jing/.
Before you record, you will likely find it helpful to view one or more of the tutorial videos available on the Techsmith site: Techsmith.com/tutorial-jing.html.
Jing allows you to designate your entire desktop, or a portion of it as your recording window. Unless otherwise directed, designate the document you need to discuss—the profile, in this case—as the recording window.
Jing offers you only one file format for saving your screencast, small web format (.swf). Although you can save your work to your own computer (and thus back it up on any connected device), to share your work with others, you will need to upload your video to your Screencast.com account. Use your locally stored file as a backup, but store your video online for this workshop.
(If you have other software available to you for recording a screencast, such as Techsmith Snagit or Camtasia, you are free to use such tools. There are also free screencasting services available. Whatever you choose, store your video on Screencast.com, and follow the procedures in this workshop for sharing that video with peers.)
The final phases of this workshop require you to post your revised profile to a forum in Canvas Discussions, and to engage one or more classmates in conversation there.
To share your video, you need to access the file online at Screencast.com. Log in, enter your Jing folder, and go to your video file. The site offers you a few choices of what to do next. Select the Share tab, and look for the following text:
Share URL:
Copy and paste this URL to share content with viewers. For example, paste into email or instant messages.
Copy the link in the box beneath that text. This is your SHARE link for the video. Paste that link into the space you created in your Profile. Then, resave the document, and convert that final version to PDF. This is the version of the profile that you need to attach to your post in Canvas Discussions.
Locate the forum for this workshop in Canvas Discussions. Post a note that invites your classmates to read your profile, and view the embedded screencast. Attach your final profile to that note.
View the videos for all of your classmates. For discussion, you need only engage one person in conversation, but I want you to begin familiarizing yourself with the whole class.
After viewing the videos, ask one classmate three follow-up questions. Seek out a classmate who has not been asked any questions yet. That way, each of you should get asked questions by someone else in the class.
Respond to the questions you are asked.
This section describes the standards by which your work will be evaluated for this workshop. Attend carefully to these details. If you do so, you will earn full credit for the workshop.
There are 50 possible points for this workshop. I will award points according to this standard.
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