Tech Favorites

Screen Capturing with Screencast-o-matic

I use Screencast-o-matic to make all my videos. It's FREE, easy to use, and doesn't require you to install anything.

Check it out here: https://screencast-o-matic.com/

Bonus:

  • It highlights your cursor, which is very useful to point things out, especially when demonstrating software!
  • Can be used with or without a webcam.

Video hosting, editing, and captioning with YouTube

Click on the image to the left to see my YouTube page.

I like to organize my videos into playlists by topic.

Some recommendations from my students:

  • Keep your videos SHORT (5 minutes). You can link them in a playlist, but try to do a single question or topic at a time. It will make it easier for students reviewing before an exam and keep them from feeling like the video lectures are a chore.
  • Record at most 1 hour of video per hour of class. If you want to record more, make those videos optional or additional examples.
  • Give the opportunity for students to pause the video to attempt a problem or formulate a hypothesis about the topic at hand.
  • Provide guided lecture notes for them to fill in as they watch.

One of my proudest moments of the semester was added this "Pawse" graphic to my videos on YouTube!

If you want to see it in action, play the video at the 4:25 timestamp.

There are a ton of 'how to' videos on using the YouTube editor.

Note: This was before I realized how much my students hated videos longer than 5 minutes! In retrospect, I would divide this into two videos.

Katie Palacios, our instructional designer, has a series of videos on captioning in YouTube.

The automatic captioning has come a LONG way since this video was made. When I deal with my captions, I usually only have to make a few edits.

Note: Don't feel like you need to add punctuation to your captions!

Embedding Questions in Videos using EDpuzzle

EDpuzzle is a FREE site that allows you to:

  • Add open-ended or multiple choice questions for a grade or survey/check in questions.
  • See how much of a video each student watched.
  • Download grades for embedded questions & video progress.

I'll upload a video with a quick summary later in the semester, but it's really easy to use and set up! You can embed questions in your own videos or videos from any of the sources to the right.

Other Resources

Remind - an online site to communicate with students via text or email (student's can choose) and distribute handouts!

Zoom - web conferencing tool, could be used for office hours, project presentations, collaboration...

Flippity

Google Docs / Drive / Slides / Forms...


No matter what you do, remember to have fun and not stress about being perfect! Students love when you're genuine - I always got comments in class about silly moments like my husband interrupting a video or my cat meowing in the background.