Camtasia Boot Camp

Are you thinking of creating a screen-cast video? Have you tried screencasting and found it baffling? Have you successfully created a screen cast and want to improve the quality of your finished product? This workshop is for you.
In this hands-on workshop we will walk through some of the basic and intermediate steps of creating a polished, impressive screencast video. Using pre-created clips and a few assets we will create in the session, you will walk through the process of screencasting using your own equipment and getting real hands-on experience.
Check jillasmith.com on Thursday morning for links to download materials!

Syllabus
This intensive, hands-on workshop will cover the entire process of planning, recording, and editing a Camtasia tutorial. It will include both pre-created and in-class created materials. The workshop will include:

1. Gettting started: writing the script and planning the project, creating visual assets to help explain conceptually difficult ideas, the interface and layout of Camtasia Recorder and Camtasia Studio, basic settings to ward off headaches later, other media supported natively in Camtasia, and how to get and stay organized.
2. Recording: aspect ratios and capture dimensions, different ways of recording Powerpoint, tips and tricks for live screen capture, and tips and tricks for producing clear, professional audio.
3. Editing: the Camtasia Studio interface, basic trimming and extending tools, using callouts effectively (and tips and tricks for keeping callouts organized and functioning smoothly), using zoom and pan, visual properties including animation of non-video objects, editing audio, and selecting and using transitions.
4. Chaptering: while the trend has been to create more (and shorter) videos, there are ways of making longer videos more navigable.
5. Quizzes and self-evaluation: creation of good questions, ways of extending feedback.
6. Producing and sharing: ensuring ADA compliance with closed-captioning, options for hosting and backup.

Required equipment:

• Laptop with Camtasia 8 installed.  Please see the Camtasia Studio 8 and Camtasia for Mac system requirements. If you don't have Camtasia, you can download the 30-day free trial of the software shortly before CALI (don’t download it more than 30 days out!) - it is a full version of the software - not limited or handicapped in any way.
• Headphones or earbuds.
• You may also want to bring a mouse if you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with your laptop’s trackpad.

Jill Smith has been creating video tutorials for law schools for five years, both at Georgetown Law Center and The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.  She has spoken extensively on the topic of screencasting, including a session at last year's CALI conference and last year's LegalED conference. In addition to the standard J.D./M.L.S. degrees possessed by so many law librarians, she also holds a B.F.A. in Theatre.