A Screen Recorder: Screencast-O-Matic

Today the off-class teaching and learning activities are also very popular, so today I want to introduce a screen record software, Screencast-O-Matic, to you.

How to use it?

Screencast-O-Matic is very user-friendly. When you enter this website you can just click the blue “start recording” button to start your record. 

Then the record setting interface will appear on your screen. You can drag the dashed frame to the area you want to record. You may change the size of the frame, which is similar as you change the size of a picture on the computer. Now everything is ready, and you can start your recording.

There are three versions of record you can choose, at the top of the black box. The first one “screen” refers to the only screen-record. The second one “Webcam” will turn on your camera, which will only record you. And the last one will record both you and the screen at the same time, so when you begin your record, the record from your camera will appear at the top right corner, and your screen record is still the main part. I have to remind you that, before you do these settings you should also check the “Narration”. It is a test for your microphone, to check if your microphone can receive sounds. So if there are green or red bar appear in this area, it means that your sound can be heard by your computer. 

Once you press the red “Rec” button at the left bottom corner, your record will start. You will have three seconds for your last preparation. Take a deep breath, smile, your record starts.

When you move your mouse within the frame during record, you will find that your mouse has been highlighted with a yellow circle which helps your audience follow your pace. I love this feature.

 During the recording process, you can have a pause. If you want to stop your record at this moment, click “Done”.

Then the preview version will appear to you. If you feel satisfied about that, you can choose how to deal with your record. You have three options, save to your own computer as a video file, or upload to the Screencast-O-Matic, or upload to the YouTube. You may feel unsatisfied about this video, you can click the “Cancel” button to discard your video.

Here is a record made by me, about my hometown.

How to make it assist your teaching?

1.   To Practice Speaking English      

Since the software allows users to share their videos, I think maybe we can ask students to record their own speaking, and share it within a class, maybe on Moodle or their own blog. We teachers and classmates can give comments on it.

In this way, some students who are very shy will have more courage to practice their speaking. Moreover, compared with the traditional face-to-face class practice, this asynchronous practice can involve every student in practice, and the teacher has the opportunities to give attention to everyone.

Nevertheless, the drawbacks of this kind of practice cannot be neglected. Firstly, students have more time to prepare their content, but some of the students may just read out their writing which looses the original purpose of oral practice. Secondly, Chinese teaching special teaching situation leads this kind of exercise hard to be practical. In China, each class may have 40-60 students, if each student shares their oral records to their teachers, teacher will have a huge extra working load. Thus in China, the comments from peers may be more efficient, and the learner-learner interaction will help them to improve in a different way.

2.   To Give A Distant Teaching

It is easy to make a courseware with Screencast-O-Matic. You can just use the frame to select the presentation screen to record, and you can have a brief look on the following content from the left preview column.

This is a PPT from my ICT class. I use this as an example.:p

This kind of lesson is very suitable for a distance learner, or an absent student. Since the students can download and save this video, they can watch it for times. Thus, it allows the students to learn at their own pace. However, the free version only allows 15 minutes record, so you have to keep the video short. The other shortage is that the interactive activities cannot be achieved within this software. You may add some questions or quiz in your courseware, but you cannot get the students' reactions. If you can embed your video in other software, like Nearpod, I think the interaction problem can overcome.

3.   To Give A Writing Feedback

Owing to the talk and mouse highlighter features, Screencast-O-Matic is easy to give comments on writing. You can open a Word document of students' writing, and put it under the frame. Now you can record while you go through the student’s work. If you find anything can be improved, just speak it out and add some suggestions or directly edit on this document, since either way of comments can be recorded by Screencast-O-Matic.

This software will be very helpful on after class activities, and facilitate distance learning activities. Although some computers may be asked to download a plug-in, once you have already set up for one time, then later using is convenient.