Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting)

Transcription

1 [Type here] Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) Camtasia Relay is the software name for a simple tool for recording lectures, Powerpoint presentations, or anything that appears on your computer screen, as well as audio (if you have a microphone or a webcam with a built in microphone). It consists of a piece of client software that is installed on your computer -this handles the actual screen and audio recording and the Camtasia Relay website, which is hosted on a university server where the recording you make are saved and stored. This document looks at how you could use Camtasia Relay in your Learning and Teaching. Last updated By Adam Bailey, Marion Curdy, Fion MacNeil On April 2013 This document and other Information Services documents are held online on our website:

2 University of Brighton Information Services Contents What is Screencasting?... 3 What is Camtasia Relay?... 3 Additional technology you might need... 3 Preparation Tips... 4 Downloading the Recorder to your own computer... 4 Logging-in and Setting up... 4 Making a recording... 9 Recording your Lecture in PowerPoint (PC only)...10 Preview and Edit your recording...11 Publish your recording...12 Deleting a recording...15 Using Captions...16 What are Captions?...16 Search in captioned videos...18 Getting your recording online...18 Using Guest Presenters...20 Using the Portable Recorder...21 How to Install the Portable Recorder...21 Recording with the Portable Recorder...22 Uploading Your Offline Recording...23 Page 2 last update April 2013

3 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) What is Screencasting? In its simplest form it is a video recording of a computer screen that captures onscreen activity in real-time and usually includes a voiceover narration to help guide the viewer. Screencasts are usually used for demonstration and presentation purposes but can be used for a wide range of teaching and learning applications, e.g.: Delivering online lectures Providing feedback Software instruction Induction/welcome information What is Camtasia Relay? Camtasia Relay is the software name for a simple tool for recording lectures, PowerPoint presentations, or anything that appears on your computer screen, as well as audio (if you have a microphone or a webcam with a built in microphone). It consists of a piece of client software that is installed on your computer - this handles the actual screen and audio recording and the Camtasia Relay website, which is hosted on a university server where the recording you make are uploaded and streamed. The recordings are converted into several different formats that are suitable various forms of delivery by either the web or mobile device. You can visit the website to find and use the web links that have been generated for your recordings. These links can be copied and used to let others view your recordings. It now has a companion mobile app called Fuse which is free from your appropriate app store (Android and Apple). This works from your phone or tablet and also stores the recordings on the University server. It records from the camera of your device so is slightly different. An explanatory document can be found in the elearning blog Additional technology you might need 1. Many laptops have a built in camera and/or microphone but if you re using a desktop computer you may need some/all of the following. 2. WebCam or Audio Input device we recommend using the Microsoft LifeCam although other webcams or microphones will do. We would recommend you use one with a USB connector. JISC Digital Media have written a useful guide on choosing a USB Microphone, see: Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 3

4 University of Brighton Information Services Preparation Tips Here are some practical hints and tips to think about before you start recording. Find a quiet space and time to record. Make sure you won t get disturbed. (Put a sign on the door.) Take the phone off the hook and turn your mobile phone to silent Close down any applications you don t want to see in the screen capture. E.g. . Write down some notes to plan what you want to say and record. Break down a long presentation in to smaller chunks; look to make them into short easy to record sections, so you don t have to start a recording from the beginning if something goes wrong. Short bite-sized recordings are easier for students to view online and grasp. Downloading the Recorder to your own computer If you want to use Camtasia Relay on a University computer please contact the Service Desk servicedesk@brighton.ac.uk to request this software is installed. As a member of the University you can download and use Camtasia Relay on your own personal computer at home. Camtasia Relay can be used on both PC and MAC. To install it on a home computer go to log-in and click on Download Camtasia Relay Recorders. Choose the option from the list that matches your computer. Use the files that are downloaded to your computer to install the software as appropriate. Logging-in and Setting up 1 Locate the Camtasia Relay icon on the desktop 2 Double click the icon to open Relay 3 Enter your university username and password Page 4 last update April 2013

5 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 4 Click Log In. 5 You simply need to speak into your computer / microphone to check your audio level by default this is the built-in microphone on your computer. If you have attached a microphone, you might need to select it 6 To select an alternative audio input click Audio from the menu and the audio options will be listed for you to choose from 7 The Auto button should be green which means that the audio volume is adjusting automatically you ll notice the indicator bar moving from green to red as you speak 1. Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 5

6 University of Brighton Information Services 8 If you have more than one screen attached to your computer, you can use the Display option to choose which one you want to record 9 By default, the camera is set to "do not record. If you want to record yourself as well as the screen, click Camera and select the appropriate device 10 The camera option gives the ability to include a talking head in the recording. This could be useful if the recording is for students who are out on placement and you wish to maintain contact or simply so that the students can see the tutor when delivering a lecture Your talking head will appear on the screen alongside the recording Page 6 last update April 2013

7 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 11 The Hotkey button allows you to customise shortcut keys for pause, restarting and stopping the recording. We recommend you choose F9 for Record/Pause and F10 for Stop since these keys are rarely used in other applications. Click OK to save your settings 12 It is preferable to test everything out to make sure your settings are appropriate so click the blue test button Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 7

8 University of Brighton Information Services 13 This gives you a 10 second test clip which allows you to check your audio levels, screen and camera 14 If you re happy with the test recording you are set to go Page 8 last update April 2013

9 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) Making a recording 1 Select a Profile based on what you want to use the recordings for. The options are gives All formats Web and mobile recordings Quick web format single recording at Medium size suitable for web and mobile. Camtasia studio recording for downloading and editing in Camtasia Studio software. With captions (All formats) recordings with text captions added. Upload and decide later allows you to chose profile after recording. 2 Camtasia Relay also has the ability to automatically interpret your dialogue and convert this into text captions. If you d like to try this feature choose the With captions (all formats) profile. Note : this may take a long time to process and you will have to edit them (explained in Section 7 below) 3 Give your recording a Title. This becomes part of the final URL so make sure you use a web friendly, short and meaningful name with no spaces etc. e.g. Week1Lecture 4 You may also want to include a Description. This is for you (it is not shown in the final recording) so could be the date you recorded the presentation, the intended audience and a summary of content 5 Click the red rec button to start capturing the screen and record your presentation Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 9

10 University of Brighton Information Services 6 Note: There is a 3 second countdown before the recording begins and when the recoding begins the Camtasia Relay dialogue box is automatically minimised to the tray (PC) or Dock (MAC) as an icon. 7 During your recording you can Pause using the appropriate Hotkey (e.g. F9) or stop when you have completed your recording using F10 or the hotkey you selected Recording your Lecture in PowerPoint (PC only) Camtasia Relay can record straight from PowerPoint capturing each slide along with what you say with them in a presentation. Once installed, Camtasia Relay interacts with PowerPoint and you ll be prompted to record each time you run your presentation as a SlideShow. 1 Open PowerPoint and under Add-Ins make sure the Auto record with Camtasia Relay option is highlighted. (Click to select it if it isn t highlighted.) 2 Bring up your PowerPoint presentation as a Slideshow on your computer. A pop up box will appear asking you if you want to make a recording of the slideshow 3 When you re ready to go, click Record Slide Show or press the appropriate hotkey 4 You ll see a 3 second countdown and then you will start your recording as above 5 Note: As above, you can pause to take a break during recording which could be useful should you want to change what is being displayed on your screen, e.g open a web browser Page 10 last update April 2013

11 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 6 Click through the presentation and talk into the microphone. 7 When you get to the end of the presentation click Yes to Stop Recording. 8 You will then be returned to Camtasia Relay where you can preview your recorded lecture before sending it to the website for publishing to the web. Preview and Edit your recording Editing options are limited in Camtasia Relay. If you have a shaky start or end you can remove this from the recording using the Trimming button. When you ve just finished, your recording is shown in a preview window with playback controls and a timeline to indicate the position in the recording. 1 Preview your recording by clicking the Play button. 2 Pause the recording using the Pause button restart by clicking the play button again. 3 Click the Trimming button to show the editing buttons and use these to cut out the unwanted recording Use the Trimming function to trim the start and end of your video Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 11

12 University of Brighton Information Services 4 Click on either: The left hand Set Presentation Start button, to highlight in red, the part of the recording on the timeline you want to remove up to the point you paused in the preview, Or the right hand Set Presentation End button, to highlight in red, the part of the recording on the timeline you want to remove after the point you paused in the preview. Click the Cancel Trim button if you ve made a mistake to and don t want to edit. Note, you can click the Discard button if need to rerecord. The recording is deleted and cannot be recovered. Publish your recording 1 Once you are happy with the recording, click Submit. There are two ways of retrieving your work, the easiest option is to wait for the various s which will arrive, and each will include a URL that accesses your recording, one sent for each format. You also have a web based area that lets you retrieve the recordings. The following instructions guide you through this. Important Note: It is not possible to edit the Title and Description of the recording once it has been uploaded to the website and published. 2 At the bottom of the Relay window you ll see a link that gives you access to the website, click that link or go to to access the website directly 3 A browser window will open and you should now see the Relay page. You will need to login to access your video. Use your University username and password. Page 12 last update April 2013

13 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 4 You ll now see a list of your most Recent Presentations on the opening page and clicking on the Presentations tab will show all of your recordings 5 Click on the title of a presentation to see the details and find out if it has been processed. This will show you links to the finished video in its various formats Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 13

14 University of Brighton Information Services Video s 6 If your presentation is still being processed you see a blue processing icon next to the title of your recording. When the presentation has successfully been processed a green tick icon is shown Note: You will receive an to your University account to inform you when the processing of your recording has been completed. The web links to the different video formats are available in this 7 The profile you choose to record with produces the following file formats: 8 All formats. MP4 with Smart Player (Medium) This format is suitable for playing on mobile devices and desktop computers. MP3 (Audio only) - Is the sound track of the recording. MP4 (Original size) This is not suitable for mobile devices. 9 Camtasia Studio editing. Camtasia for MAC recording file format for downloading and using with the desktop editing software Camtasia Studio on a MAC. Camtaisa Studio recording - file format for downloading and using with the desktop editing software Camtasia Studio on a PC. 10 Quick Web format. MP4 with Smart Player (Medium) This format is suitable for playing on mobile devices and desktop computers. Page 14 last update April 2013

15 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 11 With captions (All formats). Produces a recording with the same file formats as All formats inserts a text version of the audio narration on screen for accessibility. 12 Click the (View ) link next to a format to open and view the presentation on screen 13 The video will open in a new browser window. To test the video, click the Play button in the middle of the preview. 14 The web address in the browser Address Bar can be placed on the Internet or studentcentral or sent to people you want to see the presentation video Deleting a recording To delete a recording go into the University Camtasia Relay website: Go to Presentation List and click on the presentation you want to delete. In the right hand side panel with the recording details, click the Remove from List button Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 15

16 University of Brighton Information Services Using Captions What are Captions? Captions are essentially subtitles. They are the textual version of the audio narration and run in time with a recording. These can be helpful to assist accessibility for students and allow viewers to search the recording by keyword and jump to the place in the recording. Note: Testing has shown that the voice recognition does not accurately interpret the presenter s voice and that the captions require substantial editing. Enabling captioning when recording can be useful where you d like to include brief notes with your recording that reflect what is happening on screen or the audio narration given. These notes would need to be added after the recording and the inaccurate automatically generated captions removed. When your recording is uploaded to the website, processing your videos is put on hold until you have checked and approved the captions. To do this: 1 Go to the Camtasia Relay website 2 Click the Presentations tab and find your captioned recording 3 You will see a message that your uploaded recording is being held for captioning. (Note: you may have to wait a short while for this to appear if you have just uploaded a recording). Click on the Edit Captions button to launch the Caption Editor Page 16 last update April 2013

17 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 4 The server has attempted to convert the audio in your recording to text and has placed these captions where they occur in the recording. These will invariably be wrong, (and often amusing) but at least they will be in the right place 5 Scroll along the time line (by dragging the slider circled in red) to find your captions 6 An editing box appears where you can type in your corrected caption. Edit your captions here 7 To change the point in the recording where the caption first appears, roll the cursor over the left edge of the small caption icon below the timeline, then click and drag to the left to edit the point where the caption appears. Do the same for the end point to edit how long it stays on screen 8 Note: You can add further captions or delete existing ones by using the caption toolbar at the bottom of the screen Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 17

18 University of Brighton Information Services 1 Once you have edited all your captions, click on the Preview and Submit tab to confirm that you have finished. You will see a preview of your movie with the captions. You can further edit the captions at this stage 9 Clicking Save will save what you have been doing but gives you the opportunity to continue editing later 10 When you are finished, click the Publish button 11 The other formats now start to process Search in captioned videos The addition of caption text allows a viewer to search a video for a particular word or phrase. If a searched for keyword is found, the video will jump to that point in the timeline where the word/phrase occurs. The search box appears on the left hand side of the screen when viewing a recording and results are listed below it. Click on a result to go to that point in the video. Getting your recording online 1 Open studentcentral and go to the content area in which you want to add your video 2 To create a link to the Relay movie click Build Content > URL 3 In 1 : URL Information, type an appropriate friendly name for the movie 4 Copy the URL (CTRL + C) from the format /formats you want the students to be able to access 5 If you just want the web format we recommend using the Flash (Medium) format option on the presentation page in the Relay website Page 18 last update April 2013

19 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) 6 Return to studentcentral and paste this link into the URL box (CTRL + V) 7 In the Text area you may want to include a description and instructions for your students 8 In 3 : Options, click Yes for Open in New Window 9 Click Submit Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 19

20 University of Brighton Information Services Using Guest Presenters Guest Presenter can be used where the person who needs to record does not have a University account. To use the Guest Presenter account: 1 At the Relay log-in window, click on Guest 2 Your Name Enter the name of the person who is recording. 3 Guest of - Enter the address of the member of University staff the recording should be associated with. (Use their University address.) 4 Click Submit. 5 The Relay recorder can now be used as normal. Note: The recording will then show up in their account when they next log-in to the Relay website. They will also receive and when the recording has been submitted to the website. Page 20 last update April 2013

21 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) Using the Portable Recorder The portable recorder can be downloaded and installed from the website at It can be used on a mobile storage device, such as a USB flash drive. The portable recorder is useful when: You need to record on a computer where you do not have permission to install applications. You need to record on a computer that has limited or no network access. You want to record several presentations and upload them collectively at a later time. Student use: Your students can only make use of the Portable Recorder if: They can install the desktop version of Camtasia Relay on a personally owned computer They have access to a pool room computer with the desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed (not installed as standard). Please note: installing the software on a mobile storage device does not provide a standalone software solution, a computer with the software installed and an Internet connection is required for upload of video recordings. How to Install the Portable Recorder In order to use the Portable Recorder from a mobile storage device with your Camtasia Relay login credentials you will need access to a computer, which already has the desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed. Please refer to the installation instructions on page 5. If you want to use Camtasia Relay on a University computer please contact the Service Desk servicedesk@brighton.ac.uk to request this software. 1 Ensure that the computer which you are working on already has the desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed in the local applications folder. The computer must also have an active Internet connection. 2 Plug in a mobile storage device (such as a USB flash drive) and format the device as FAT32. Follow the instructions at the website ehow How to format a flash drive 3 Click Download Portable Recorder and save the PortableCamtasiaRelay.zip file to your computer. 4 Locate the.zip file then right-click on it and select Extract All. Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 21

22 University of Brighton Information Services 5 Copy the resulting uncompressed file (now unzipped) onto the mobile storage device. The complete file needs to be copied to the root of the device. After the copy process is complete you may delete the.zip file and the uncompressed file from your desktop. 6 Navigate to the new file, PortableCamtasiaRelay on your mobile storage device and double-click on the application called PC Camtasia Relay. This will launch the application. When prompted, log in with your University of Brighton user credentials. This initial launch of the application stores your login credentials for later offline use. 7 You may now safely eject the mobile storage device and use the Portable Recorder offline or from another computer. To use the Portable Recorder from another computer, connect the mobile storage device to the computer and then launch the application as outlined in step 7. 8 For a video tutorial go to the Camtasia Relay help site Recording with the Portable Recorder 1 Launch the Portable Recorder application from your mobile storage device. 2 Log in with your University user credentials (if you see an error message, refer to troubleshooting section). 3 Start and stop your recording as outlined on page 10 of this document. You will not have an option to select a profile; it will show as Upload and Decide Later. 4 Once you have added a title and a description and you are happy with your recording select the Save button on the right-hand side (flash drive icon). This will save your recording to your mobile storage device so that you can upload it to the Camtasia Relay website later; details of the upload process are included below. 5 Confirmation message when saving to a mobile storage device. Page 22 last update April 2013

23 Recording your lectures using Camtasia Relay (Screencasting) Troubleshooting If you did not complete step 5 during the installation process, when you try to login to the Portable Recorder you will receive an error message (show below). In this case you can still use the Recorder but you will need to use Guest access as outlined on page 23, except in this case it is you must leave the Guest of field blank and then click Submit. The recording and saving process will then be the same as outlined above. Uploading Your Offline Recording 1 Plug your mobile storage device into a computer with and an Internet connection and the desktop version of Camtasia Relay installed. 2 Launch the Portable Recorder application from your mobile storage device and it should automatically reconnect to the Camtasia Relay server and show you a prompt to let you know that Saved Presentations Found [SIC]. 3 If you are ready, you can select Submit All or if you would like to review your recordings first, select View Saved Presentations. Printed Wednesday, 29 July 2015 Page 23

24 University of Brighton Information Services 4 Within the Saved Presentations area you can edit the title and description, upload your recording or delete. Page 24 last update April 2013