There are many benefits when someone takes their knowledge and transmits it to other people and uses new tools to do so. Using screen capture of instruction of complex workflows and distributing them on Youtube is a widespread phenomenon that allows you to learn a huge variety of material. Often, they are made by non-teachers and demonstrate skills that are otherwise very hard to find instruction for. Having video content online allows the learner to work at their own pace.
However, crafting a good screencast is very hard. Currently, there is plenty of room to improve interacting with online video content. Also, some criteria must be met to improve on and replace the traditional in-person lecturer.
There are also questions whether a polished instructional material like lynda.com model or the less polished amatuer online tutorial are similarly effective to an IRL teaching experience.
The benefits to online tutorials in video form include
- the learner consumes the information at their own speed
- the learner can revisit the content to improve learning
- the learner can scan the information efficiently
- the length of the content is only related to the content and not the archaic one hour schedule of a traditional lecture
- the content creator has at their disposal post-production tools to increase the polish and delivery of the information
- it is easier to create packets of information (chunking) which is implicated in more efficient learning
- javascript, flash, and other interactive programming can help edit, correct, or improve the learning experience, negating the need for immediate polish
- styling can be used to increase engagement
In memory research, there are generally are some factors that increase memory formation:
1) repeating an act, as well as following someone doing an act
2) strong attention or focus
3) associating information with a place or object
4) your emotional state
Screencasts can achieve all of these things. In discussions in class and inspired by the screencasts of Professor Shiffman, I believe that engagement is a major part to the learning process. Engagement can be seen as the combination of your emotional state and focus. One can also say that some methods of screencasting (long stretches of video with little change or low production value) can decrease engagement.
In this demo, I am interested in testing ways to increase engagement, by introducing small charming or attractive interactives between lessons and changing the gaze of the learner.
I am going to break up a long procedural explanation of an after effects technique. I will place interactive pieces that are related to the topic. The learner has control over what they want to view.
One thing that makes creating online content hard is being preoccupied with perfection. A lecturer does not have this luxury. They are acting in real time. So, in that spirit, I will not edit the video, but plan before what I am going to say.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- what an equirectangular image is.
- how to take a 360 panoram picture using an android phone
- about the file type created from this technique
- techniques how to use this image in after effects
Workflow Details: At first, I wanted to see if I could create a home studio for screencasting only using a laptop. It proved to be a major challenge. I used the amazing, versatile, easy and very powerful screenflow instead. The only downside to the app is it is very expensive, but as a user of many screen capture programs it is easily the best. The only feature it lacks is to capture a view by app name. Instead it does the capture by app region.