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• Make a Video for when You or Students are Absent

Make a Video for when You or Students are Absent

You’ve all had this problem. When students are absent, it’s a lot of time on your end to round up what they miss and try to get them up to speed. On the other hand, if you need to plan for a sub, it not only takes a long time to prepare, but when you get back you sometimes have to spend time figuring out what students were really told, and if they understood it.

Camtasia Studio can help you out in both situations.

Pre-record a Lesson When You’ll be Out

Record a Lesson for Absent Students

Pre-record a Lesson When You’ll be Out

What you need:

• A projector to display the video
• Speakers with enough volume so all the students can hear
• A means for the guest teacher or a student to get access to the computer and instructions to launch the video

Planning and recording your video

Since this video will probably only viewed once—and only seen by your students, we don’t have to worry about making everything perfect. Speed is the key here.

First, open any documents, PowerPoint Presentations, websites and other digital material you want the students to see. Since you may be switching around a bit, make sure your computer desktop doesn’t have anything you don’t want the students to see, and you might want to close your email.

Next, make a quick outline of what you want to cover. For example:

1. Record worksheet. Go over it and preemptively explain areas where students may be confused.
2. Open website associated with worksheet. Explain expectations for what students should be doing here. (This is as much for the guest teacher too.)
3. Return to document or PowerPoint slide explaining clearly in writing expectations, deadlines, etc.

Record

1. Open Camtasia Recorder.
2. Select Full Screen.
3. Verify Audio is enabled. (Look for a green light under the microphone icon.) If you find later that you need to re-record some part you can try Camtasia Studio’s Voice Narration feature.

4. Click Record. Go through your outline.

Tip: If you make a big mess up and it’s early in the recording, press F10 to stop the recording and start over. If you’re in to your recording a ways, just stop speaking for 3 seconds, (let the Recorder keep recording) then just resume from the beginning of that section. You can cut the bad part out in Camtasia Studio and that 3 second pause will make it easier to find the part you want to cut. The students may know you made a cut, but we’re not trying to win an Oscar here.

5. Press F10 to stop recording.
6. Click Edit to save your recording and open Camtasia Studio.

Edit

1. In Camtasia Studio, drag your recording from the Clip Bin to the Timeline. (If you came straight from the Recorder, the recording will already be on the Timeline.)
2. To remove any portions of the video, click and drag the playhead, select the area to remove and click Cut.

Tip: Add callouts to make “notes” to students either pointing out something you forgot to mention or reinforcing key points.

Produce

There are many options for producing your video. Here are two popular methods.

• Produce your video and save it locally. Use the HD preset to produce an MP4 video. Save the video to your desktop.

• Produce your video and upload to Screencast.com. Use the Screencast.com preset to produce an MP4 video. Then you can bookmark the page or paste a shortcut on the desktop to the content. Learn more about producing videos.

Record a Lesson for Absent Students

Have one or more absent kids? You might as well make a recording even if you’re not necessarily doing something on your computer all the time. In fact, did you know that Camtasia Studio can record your screen and webcam video at the same time? Camtasia Studio can also make a web-friendly video students could watch at home on their own computer.

This is a really easy way to incorporate Camtasia Studio in your classroom. We’re just using it to roughly document a period in time—not making a perfect video or trying to explain something in detail.

Here’s some tips to keep in mind:

• If there’s sensitive stuff on your desktop, make sure to close it before you record.
• If you want a webcam, it’s probably best to enable it in the Recorder before you start recording. Alternatively, you can add camera video in Camtasia Studio by selecting Record camera from the Task List.

• When you record you will not see the webcam image but it will still be recording. The webcam is positioned, sized, shown and hidden during the editing process.
• Remember, you’re recording…and it’s pulling from your microphone. Pause if you have to take a phone call or you need to have a private conversation.
• The microphone won’t likely pick up student questions. You may want to repeat important ones.

Publish Video for Students

Putting the video on Screencast.com might be the most convenient way for students to watch the video. You could use the Screencast.com publish preset or if you’d like more control and customization, you can produce the video in Flash format and upload it to Screencast.com near the end of the Production Wizard. Learn more.

Download a free copy of Camtasia Studio.

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