How to make Screen Movies -- with WME 9

Manfred Kuechler

How to make Screen Movies -- with WME 9 (or Camtasia)

Last Update: 14 April 2005

What is a "screen movie"?

A "screen movie" extends a still "screen shot" the same way a video clip extends a still photo. Using either a particular window or a particular area of your computer screen, a screen movie captures everything which appears in this window/area including mouse movements. The screen capture should be accompanied by some instructor narrative (using a microphone connected to the computer) -- and using more advanced software (Camtasia) text and special effects can be added as well.

"Screen movies" provide a complete record of what an instructor presents -- be it

the use of a particular computer program (not relevant for many fields) or
the use of a particular web site (relevant for practically any field) including

using (specific features of) the Blackboard system
using online data bases (EBSCO, Lexis-Nexis, many more)
using the Thomas data base (for legislative information)
using the complex NCES web site (for quantitative information on education)
finding foreign language newspaper and TV sites
making more efficient use of search engines like Google, Yahoo, Altavista, etc.
using special features of advanced search engines (image searches, machine translations)
using the US Bureau of the Census site
finding statistical information about specific neighborhoods
using the archive for a writer, philosopher, painter, composer
finding medical and health related information

evaluating the quality of information found on a specific web site
using e-mail discussion lists (on any topic)

These are just a few examples how the web can be used to enhance instruction in basically any field. And get a few more ideas about pedagogically valuable web sites, check the Scout Report and/or subscribe to their weekly e-mail newsletter. Also, see box below for a concrete example. And if you want to see how screen movies can be used in the context of a real life course web page, visit any of my course web sites . When prompted for a login, sign in as "guest" (click the "preview" button in Blackboard 5; starting with spring 2005 my Bb course site are on the Bb6 server); screen movies and much more are in areas of my course sites which are open to guests.

What is needed to produce a screen movie?

Screen movies are not a particularly new idea. "Lotus Screencam" was one of the earlier software for the production of screen movies; a more recent product is "Camtasia" (from the makers of "SnagIt" -- a very versatile screen shot utility). Now, there is freeware to produce screen movies: Windows Media Encoder (WME) 9. Unfortunately, you need Win XP (or at least Win 2000 -- see system requirements). But, once produced, this material is available to anyone who has the recent version of the free Windows Media Player (WMP) installed. WMP 9 (the current version 10 is not necessary) does not require the Win XP operating system, WMP 9 runs on all still supported Win operating systems (starting with Win 98 SE) and there are matching version for Macs. However, the specific codec used for these screen movies is not supported on the Mac platform, check the Microsoft compatability page. So, playback is possible on Windows stations only. Still, if you have a Win XP station -- and a microphone -- you are all set to produce screen movies to enhance your teaching.

Using WME 9

Using WME is fairly simple, and a "wizard" helps the beginner in reducing the complexity of the various compression choices. More advanced users can override the three basic options ("low", "medium", "high")., but I want to keep things simple for starters.

The main function of WME is to transcode video/audio files for web delivery ("streaming media") and input can come from either a video device (camcorder, camera, VCR) connected to the computer (via a video capture card or a "firewire" [IEEE 1394] adapter), a video/audio file already on disk (in digital format), and -- last but not least -- from the computer screen. The three basic output choices are

low = suitable for 56K modem connections
medium = suitable for DSL/cable connections
high = most suitable for intranet/LAN, T1/OC3 connections (like on the Hunter campus), but also for many DSL/cable connections

The other basic choice is whether include an audio track (instructor comments) or not. For instructional purposes this is no brainer: add an audio track. Otherwise, it is like going to class, just work on the instructor work station (projected on screen) and never say a word. Not the most effective teaching method. So, you need a microphone and here is where you should probably spend some money and buy a decent microphone. You may want to check my earlier advice page on audio (for web enhanced courses) for some advice on microphones and some basics on using a microphone with your computer.

The wizard is very easy to follow, but here are a few recommendations to help you make good choices:

Start with selecting a specific window as source for the recording ("capture"). Do not use full screen, but a smaller size like 800x600 or 640x480. Whatever you select, WME will keep the size of the region/window (in contrast to capturing from a VCR where some resizing is involved). Open this window and the web site/application which is the focus of your movie before you start WME. Note that WME will capture window, but will also follow any pop-up or new window which shows as result of your (mouse) actions like clicking specific links. You can go back to the original window by just clicking it. Alternatively, you can select a specific region of your screen.
If you are recoding audio, make sure that

the microphone is selected as input device (in the "volume control" utility window [icon should appear in your "tray", the lower right corner of your screen] which may show the "playback" rather than the "recording" settings by default; choose "options"/"properties" to display the recording settings)
the microphone booster is in the correct position for your microphone (checkbox under "advanced (recording) session"); hard to tell in advance what is the correct version for your microphone, as a rule: "off" for mikes with their own power supply, "on" for mikes without their own power supply. Use trial-and-error. If audio sounds bad or too weak, try the other setting.
the audio checkbox in the WME wizard is checked (yes, I know this sounds trivial, but ... )

Start with rather short recordings (of say one minute) to check whether you like the quality of the product. Make sure that you include some keyboard action. This helps you fine tune the audio settings (outside WME, in the "volume control" utility) so that your voice can be clearly heard and any keyboard action sounds like typing (and not like machine-gun fire).
In most cases, the "low" settings will produce rather poor quality whereas the difference between "medium" and "high" may not be so big. The "low" setting of WME 9 is mostly useful for audio-only (.wma) files.

Editing your screen movies

Now here is a tricky point. WME does not include any editing features. It works well, if you like or at least are okay with "real time action" where not everything is perfect, where you -- as the instructor -- may misspeak, make mistakes, and maybe even stumble occasionally (like in a real classroom). Personally, I think there is a pedagogical advantage in using such "real time action" video -- as it is sometimes comforting for a student to see that the instructor does not know it all and is less than perfect. (Just think about situations in which you are the "student" learning some new skill.) Yes, there is Windows Movie Maker (another freebie from Microsoft), and you can use video clips recorded with WME as input for Movie Maker which offers extensive editing capabilities. But Movie Maker is rather limited in its output options and I have not found a way to preserve the size (dimension) of the movie while keeping file size and quality constant. And as much as I like "real time action", at times I would like to cut a few minutes in the middle of a longer clip (where nothing much happens as a program or a web site is slow in responding).

Enter Camtasia. Camtasia gives you the same flexibility (and more) in recording screen movies -- like selecting any region of any size from your screen and simultaneous recording of a narrative -- and saves the initial clip in .avi format. But it also gives you extensive editing features. When done editing, Camtasia offers you a wide selection of formats in which you can save your screen movie -- including .wmv and .swf (Shockwave Flash). The latter has the advantage that current browsers come with (free) "Flash Players" (plugins, ActiveX controls) and that these are available on many platforms (including Mac). Camtasia comes bundled with WME 7, but it does use WME 9 if it finds it installed already. So, this way the very efficient "Screen Capture 9" codec can be used and the file size efficiency of WME 9 is fully preserved. The latter, of course, is a major concern for web delivery, much less so when other forms of delivery are intended (see next section).

To illustrate the variation in file size: A screen movie with audio track (narration) of dimension 700x500 pixels of about 5:30 minutes length was almost 24 MB as saved originally by Camtasia (as .avi), a little over 7 MB as Flash (.swf) movie, and just 2MB as .wmv using the "Screen Capture 9" codec and "medium" quality (suitable for DSL/cable connections). So, Camtasia adds extensive editing capabilities while also offering the efficiency of the Windows "codec" for web delivery. (However, recording directly with WME produces even smaller files.) But what does it cost? Well, a single user license is $349 (or $299 as a current special offer), but the good news is that there is also a full feature educational edition where a single user license is currently a more affordable $149. And if ICIT would take the lead, special volume pricing is available to make Camtasia even more affordable.

Making screen movies available to your students

A. Via (streaming media) web server

As said, WME main purpose is to create video/audio files for web delivery -- in streaming media format, i.e., the playback of the media file starts as soon as some portion has been downloaded and further download and playback run concurrently. The outfiles are in .wmv (or .wma) format and meant to be served from a Windows server. However, these files can also be served from the Helix (Real) server which we have available and set up at Hunter (more details about using the Helix server for .wmv files).

Once you have produced such screen movies, they should be placed in the "Content" area of the Helix server (contact Clarence Feng at ICIT), then you should put a link to this file on your course web site (like your Blackboard (Bb) course web site) or any other web page/site you want to use. Alternatively, you can put the .wmv file directly on your web site (Bb course site). Technically speaking, you can serve them via "http" rather than via "mms". In this case, however, you lose the streaming feature. The file will have to be downloaded in its entirety first before playback can start (actually, playback starts when a sufficiently large part of the file is downloaded -- "fast start"). But I recommend to download first to my students anyway because this way they have the screen movie easily available for playback whenever they need it.

Screen movie files can get quite big. As a rough estimate, a three minute screen movie at "medium" quality is about 1.2 MB and can be larger -- depending on how quickly and how often the screen changes during this time. And three minutes are not a lot of time. So, to cover even a rather limited topic in sufficient detail your screen movie is likely to be at least several MB in size. And if you opt for Flash format (.swf) rather than Windows media files (.wmv), possibly adding advanced editing feature the file will be even larger.

This is not much of a problem for students with DSL or cable Internet connection from home. But what about students with a telephone modem connection? The download of the file will take quite a while and not all students will be patient enough to do this. Keep in mind that the "low" setting intended for modem connections produces very low quality and you probably do not want to use it.

B. Via CD or thumb/pen drives (USB drives)

An alternative is distribute such material via CD. Blank CD-R now cost about what a floppy diskette cost just a few years ago, some 25-30 cents when bought in bulk. And -- contingent upon how the CD is written ("burnt") -- is holds at least 500 MB of files or many hours of screen movies. (Of course, if CD distribution is the main mode, other settings for WME 9 could be used to produce higher quality multimedia files.) Depending on teaching style, it may be feasible to produce one or two CD-R ahead of time and distribute them at the beginning of the semester. Many instructors follow strict scripts for their classes where the exact content of each session is determined way in advance. I, however, do not fall in this category. I like to bring in recent material as much as I can and while the topics are predetermined, the exact content evolves over the course of the semester. For example, when I teach my "Social Movement" course I want to want to bring in current legislative action and/or court decisions and use these as my prime examples. So, I am much more likely to produce such material in direct response to what is going on in the outside world and what is going on in the classroom (where I sense particular needs of students to have additional help available). Consequently, it is important to let students download such multi-media files in a Hunter lab (using the fast internal connection) and write them to a CD-R to take home. Note that these CDs can be played in most ordinary CD (-ROM) drives though there are some compatibility issues with older CD-ROM drives.

And even better solution are pen drives; tiny portable drives which plug in to a "USB" port on the computer. They come in different sizes, but 256 and 512 MB are the most common and they sell for as little as $20-30 (using special offers and rebates). These drives are easy to handle as the old floppy drives, no special expertise needed to copy large files back and forth from such drives. I have campaigned for allowing students to use such pen drives in the Hunter computer labs, and I hope that this has become reality by now.

Concrete Example

This example of a screen movie introduces students to a specific feature of the web site of the US Bureau of the Census -- making "thematic" or "statistical" maps. As many people are not particular fond of tables and numbers, the visualization of quantitative information is an important topic in many fields including sociology, political science, and economics.

I chose to record this screen movie without a written script simply commenting on what I was doing off the top of my head like I would in class. So, there are incomplete sentences, occasional pauses, etc. But I never read from lecture notes in class either and prefer to speak without a script in class as well. It's a matter of personal preference and you can certainly create screen movies either way. The movie lasts for about 15 minutes and -- in "medium quality" (as discussed above) -- the file size is about 7 MB.

Streaming version (playback starts almost immediately and runs concurrent with download) -- requires DSL/cable or faster Internet connection
Download version (complete file is downloaded first and can then be played and replayed as often as desired from the downloaded copy) -- right click this link and select "save (link) target as". After download is complete, click the saved file or open the saved file in your browser. Left clicking this link may produce undesirable results depending on browser, browser setup, and operating system. Works for slow telephone modem connections as well, but requires a bit of patience as downloading this file will take approximately 10-12 minutes.

For best results, use the latest version of the free Windows Media Player (version 9 on computers running under Windows) installed.

And, here is a more conventional web document dealing with the same topic and using a series of screen shots. (The link leads to one of my Bb course sites; if prompted, login as "guest" by clicking the "Preview" button.) I include this document (created earlier) for the sake of comparison. However, in my view, this is not an "either-or" situation: rather, screen movies and written documents (with screen shots) complement each other. And the benefit for students of both tools may vary contingent upon students' prior knowledge of the subject and personal learning style. In other words: some students will benefit more from a screen movie than others.

Troubleshooting

Make sure that you have a fast Internet connection when using the streaming version (a telephone modem will not do)
Make sure that you have Windows Media Player 9 (or the an equivalent version for the Mac) installed
Make sure that the (software) volume control on the Player is on a medium to high setting
Make sure that the speakers/earphones are plugged in to your computer (jacks in the backs; there are three color-coded jacks, one each for "microphone", "line in", and "speakers/earphones"), that the power is switched on (in contrast to most speakers, earphones usually do not have their own power supply), and that the (physical) volume control is at an appropriate level. Check another web site with audio delivery (e.g., the CNNRadio link on the CNN home page) to see whether the audio components of your computer are working properly.

Even if you have WMP 9 installed and the audio components are working, the player may need to download an additional "codec" first. "Codecs" (coding/decoding schemes) are special ways to compress the data and reduce file size and more and/or improved codecs become available frequently. If your Windows Media Player lacks the specific codec used for this screen movie, it will try to fix the problem automatically by downloading the needed software from a Microsoft site and install it. If this happens, the playback of the screen movie will be delayed. Over fast Internet connections these updates usually do not take very long, but updating the player over a telephone modem connection may take a few minutes.