Drexel Puts Course Capture To Work on Desktops

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Drexel Puts Course Capture To Work on Desktops

10/24/2007

By Linda L Briggs

Audio and even video capture of lectures is becoming more common on college campuses, which post the material to their Web sites so that students can revisit a lecture after the fact.

But Drexel University in Philadelphia, long known as a technology powerhouse, is using the university's academic capture product in another way. There, instructors are far more likely to produce recordings from their desktops, including individual commentaries to a student from a professor. Staff members also are using rich media recording software, a product from TechSmith called Camtasia Studio, in new ways, such as creating online training videos for new hires.

Desktop Production
Drexel does use Camtasia as a conventional classroom capture product, in which a professor records lecture content live, then posts it online for viewing later through Blackboard or a professor's individual Web site. However, where Camtasia really shines at the university is in what Drexel's director of academic technology innovation, John Morris, calls "individual capture." Most Drexel instructors who are taking advantage of Camtasia, he said, are using it at their desktops.

Using Camtasia Studio, instructors can create in class video presentations that show a recording of the computer screen while playing an accompanying voice narration. When a PC, tablet PC, or interactive electronic whiteboard is used, Camtasia automatically captures any interaction with the screen as well, along with Web sites visited, imported video from digital camcorders, or any other screen material displayed. Instructors can edit the content before posting it online as Flash or streaming media files. Students can then view the material at their convenience; it can also be used for distance-learning courses.

But on their desktops, Drexel professors are using Camtasia in a more unusual way: to create their own desktop-created tutorials or other presentations for students. A humanities professor at Drexel, for example, is using Camtasia to record the process as he marks up a student paper. By using a tablet PC and Camtasia to create a video that captures his redlining of a student's paper online, along with verbal comments, Professor Scott Warnock is able to comment much more extensively on a student's work than he would be able to via written comments. Warnock said he estimates that using Camtasia in this way might cut grading time by as much as a third, while giving instructors time to provide clearer, more detailed feedback. ( Here's an example of Warnock providing written and audio feedback while marking up a student's paper and recording the process in a Camtasia video.)

Using just a Web browser and Apple's free QuickTime video player, the student recipient can view the personal video commentary as many times as desired, and at any time.

Once a desktop commentary is captured, Camtasia can be used to save the material in a variety of multimedia formats, including for MP3 players and streaming audio.