Narrowing the Distance in Distance Ed.
Not only has Jean Kent become proficient at using Camtasia Studio in her own teaching at North Seattle Community College. She also shares that knowledge with other instructors by giving Camtasia workshops around Washington State.
Read on to learn four different ways Jean is using Camtasia Studio to help students succeed in her online course: IT 111 Internet & Web Authoring.
#1 - Orientation video lays groundwork for success
Six months ago, Jean created an online orientation video that students have to watch before they start the online class. The video, which is split up into logical chunks, runs a little over 30 minutes and addresses the same topics you'd normally cover on the first day of class: welcome, introduction, expectations, tools and resources, housekeeping issues.
“I believe the online orientation will help students understand how the class works and what will be required of them during the quarter. This improves their chance for success,” said Jean.
#2 - Tutorials build technical skills early
The learning curve during the first few weeks of IT 111 can be sharp for many students. They need to learn how to use the required software, code Web pages, and get around in the virtual classroom.
To help students through the curve, Jean supplements her course materials with video tutorials produced using Camtasia Studio.
“I had a good sense from teaching the class face-to-face which course-related tasks were the most difficult and these were the projects I worked on first,” she said. She also creates tutorials in response to student requests.
A great example is Jean's tutorial on using Picasa, which is divided into sections so students can skip over what they already know. “The Camtasia theater menu works really well for this type of delivery,” Jean reports.
#3 - Weekly PowerPoint lecture introduces new concepts
This semester, Jean is experimenting with posting PowerPoint lectures as videos, too! For each chapter in the textbook, she introduces the most important new concepts with a video…like this one.
#4 - Visual feedback: more effective for students, instructor
Jean often uses Camtasia Studio to give feedback on homework assignments. For a Web coding project, she 
can record a short movie that shows a student's coding errors and provides suggestions for fixing them.
“Students love getting feedback this way and I think it works much, much better than sending an email message,” she said.
Plus these videos can be reused for future classes…especially when they show how to avoid a common pitfall like using the ampersand incorrectly.
How does she do it? A note on process…
For most of her videos, Jean starts with a rough storyboard, then writes a script. “The time spent planning means that the recording usually goes well and I don't have to do too much editing,” she said.
Depending on the complexity of the topic, a five-minute video takes her from 30-60 minutes to complete. “But my homework feedback movies are produced on-the-fly,” she noted.
Jean gathers student feedback on her videos via anonymous surveys. She reports that students are especially enthusiastic about them early in the quarter. This student comment is typical, “I found them extremely helpful. I think you should continue using this type of material.”
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