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A screencast is a video of someone showing how to do something on a computer.  The screencast Screencast software captures what is happening on the computer screen along with an audio recording of the speaker explaining what he or she is doing.  Many people enjoy learning online procedures from screencasts, and the KnowledgeBase makes frequent use of the screencast format for teaching people how to use or deploy our software.

You can create your own screencast and contribute the resulting video to KnowledgeBase.  There are four parts to creating screencasts:   1. Planning what you are going to present,  2. Choosing screencast recording software, 3. Making the recording, and 4. Producing the final screencast video. This guide will walk you through those steps.

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Screencasts are an effective way of providing the user communities quick tutorials on specific tasks or functionality. 

This guide will help you through the five easy steps to creating a screencast:

1. Planning a screencast
2. Choosing screencast recording software
3. Making the recording
4. Producing the final screencast video
5. Posting the screencast video

Planning a screencast

First, select the topic of your screencast.  Good topics for screencasts are ones that show people steps for completing a task online.  The viewer will be watching a recording of your computer screen, following your mouse movements, and listening to your explanation of what you are doing.  To the extent that your recording is clear, interesting to watch, and instructive, your screencast will be a success.  Here are some guidelines for planning your screencast:

• Pick a topic from the KnowledgeBase table of contents for DSpace or Fedora.  Make sure you give your screencast the same name as the KnowledgeBase topic you've chosen.
• An effective screencast lasts in the neighborhood of five minutes.  It might be necessary to go longer if you are describing a process that needs to be presented in one piece.  On the other hand, you may want to divide your topic into two or more screencasts, if appropriate (e.g., "Getting Started with DSpace Access Controls, Part One" and "...Part Two").
• Do you need to write out a script for your screencast?  Perhaps, but not necessarily.  A simple outline might do, or just some reminders on a page.  Informal, extemporaneous screencasts are not at all uncommon on the Internet.  You may find it easier not to juggle a written script while you're navigating through the flow of screens.  In any case, you will probably want to rehearse your presentation a couple of times before recording it.
• Make sure your computer software is configured for the screencast.  In addition to the screencast software (more on that next), you will need to have an application environment set up for whatever you are going to demonstrate (e.g., Internet connection, if required; applications installed; test data pre-configured, etc.)
• Your best bet for quality audio is to use a headset with microphone.  We have found that the Logitech USB headsets work very well, but most any USB headset should do nicely.

Choosing Screencast Recording Software

There are a number of software products that are suitable for creating screencasts.  Some of them are open source or otherwise freely available for download, others are licensed for a fee.  Techsmith's Camtasia Studio is a very full-featured commercial product for Windows or Mac. We have had good results with Screencast-O-Matic, which features a free online product for all platforms and is fairly simply to learn and use.  Quicktime, as available on the Mac, will record screencasts, though you will need a video editor like iMovie if you would like to do post-production edits.  There are a few Linux-only products that may be used. as well.  Consult our charts of Video Tools below for more information.

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We are looking forward to receiving your work!

Posting the Screencast Video

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