Screencasting is probably the easiest way to create instructional videos using your computer. Screencasting software essentially records whatever is on your computer screen while you narrate into a microphone. A great example of how you could use this would be if you want to create a narrated slidshow-based lecture using PowerPoint or Google Slides. In this example, you would open your presentation, turn on the screencasting software to record, and then just deliver that lecture on your screen. Once done, you would have a narrated video of your presentation which can be uploaded to Google Drive, Google Classroom or YouTube.
There are two ways you can create a screencast video. First, you can use software that is already installed on your PC or Mac. For example, Game Bar is a feature available in Windows that can be easily accessed on your educator laptop. Alternatively there are several great online screencasting software tools you can download for free.
Record your lessons or announcements in Zoom,
Store recordings on your computer
Upload the videos to Google Classroom or equivalent distributed learning platform.
Both Windows and MacOS have built in options for creating screencast videos. Thank you to Colin Boorman for creating these excellent tutorial videos on each option.
Two great online options for screencasting include Screencast-o-matic and Screencastify . Both of these programs have free options but limit your video recording in length. There are also some key difference between them so before choosing one please read the descriptions below.
You need to download the Screencast-o-matic recorder to your computer (works with PCs, Macs and Chromebooks)
Allows you to easily trim video length.
The free version is limited to 15 minutes
You have the option to download the video to your computer, upload it directly to Google Drive or upload directly to YouTube
You will need to add the Screencastify Google Chrome extension to Google Chrome.
You don’t have to install any additional software to make it work
The free version is limited to 5 minutes
Educators can purchase the Unlimited license for $29/year.
Your video is automatically added to a folder in your Google Drive. You can also share directly to Google Classroom, Publish to YouTube, Download it to your computer or export as an MP4.
Another great option for creating video lessons is to video yourself presenting a lesson on a whiteboard or on paper using your educator laptop or cell phone. Once you have created your video you can then upload the video to Google Classroom or YouTube (or Google Drive). I would recommend that you keep your videos short (less than 15 minutes) to improve the processing speed and time limitations.
This video shows you how to add a recorded video that is stored on your computer directly into Google Classroom.
This video show you how to add a video from YouTube (your own or someone else's) into Google Classroom.
This video shows you how to add a video from Google Drive to Google Classroom.
Please remember that there is a 15 minute limit for video uploads to a standard YouTube account.
To increase this limit go to: https://www.youtube.com/features?nv=1, log in, and under Longer Videos click on the enable button to verify your account.