Screencasting: Online Video Tutorials

I've been always calling them online video tutorials. These are web pages that contain a video of mouse movements, screens, and typing. I've created a few to help people learn how to remove password protection in Excel, for example.

Well, guess what? There's a different term for online video tutorials.

Jon Udell blogged All About Screencasting.

We have podcasting (putting sound files online), screencasting (putting videos of screen movements with or without a voice-over online), and all other kinds of [whatever]casting.

If we have vblogging (or video blogging), I wonder why people don't prefer podblogging, screenblogging, or whatever-blogging?

Anyway, try screencasting. It helps a lot when you don't have to repeat yourself hoarse explaining or teaching others how to use this or that software.

You don't have to limit yourself to creating tutorials on how to use software. You can even record how you solve a Math problem, for example, using MS Word. Just type in the formulas or algebraic equations step-by-step in MS Word, record your voice-overs, and capture the screenshots as a single screencast.

Voila! A modern way of tutoring which works well for students who like to hear someone speak. How's that for taking into account the many kinds of intelligence your students have, right? Then again, most of the screencasts focus on visual or auditory learners.

There are screencasts that allow the viewer to interact (click a button here or there), so that can take care of the kinesthetic learners. The software needed (Captivate?), however, is quite expensive.

(Check out Jon Udell's 2.75-minute screencast on how to use a single log-in password all over the web.)
[ First posted on 05/12/2005 by Manuel Viloria ]