Creation and Use of Screencasts for Large Lecture Exam Reviews Using MacIntosh Computers

Elmo J. Mawk & Vickie M. Williamson
Texas A & M University
BCCE 2008
(PDF Version)

Hardware:

Wacom Tablet-(Graphire 4 4X5 USB Tablet, http://www.wacom.com, $99.99)
USB Headset-(Logitech Premium USB Headset 350, http://www.logitech.com, $30-40)

Screen capture Software:

iShowU-(http://www.shinywhitebox.com, $20)
Ultimate Pen-(http://www.snowmintcs.com, $19.95)

Editing Software:

QuickTime Pro-(http://www.apple.com/quicktime)

To Make Chapters:

Chapter Headings- Make the text file from scratch

Type the list of questions with a return after each.

Q1

Q2

Q3

Save as plain text.

From within QuickTime, choose open file. (you will see a black screen with ‘Q1’ in it.)

Choose File, then export. In export popup, choose ‘text to text’ AND in the Use popup, choose ‘text with descriptors’. Click on options, then in the text export settings choose ‘Show Text, Descriptors, and Time’, ‘movie’, and ‘1/30’. Click OK and Save. Allow to replace your old file. Then close the movie in QuickTime.

Open the file with your word processor. It will look like this:

{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:30}{width:160}{height:48}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}

[00:00:00.00]

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q1

[00:00:02.00]

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q2

[00:00:04.00]

Now change the timestamps. The first will be [00:00:00.00] as written. This is the start of question 1. Change the timestamp that follows question 1 to be the time question 2 begins. The time at the end is the duration.

The files will now look like this:

{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:30}{width:160}{height:48}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}

[00:00:00.00]

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q1

[00:04:42.89]

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q2

[00:06:04.11]

Chapter Headings- Make the text file from an old file

Make a file with your word processor. It will look like this:

{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:30}{width:160}{height:48}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}

[00:00:00.00]

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q1

[00:00:02.00]

Save it as plain text.

Now change the timestamp that follows question 1. The first will be [00:00:00.00] as written. This is the start of question 1. Change the timestamp that follows question 1 to be the time question 2 begins. Continue adding the line that begins “{textbox:” with the timestamp below it until you have added enough for each question. The timestamp should be the one that begins question 3

{textBox: 0, 0, 50, 160}Q2

[00:06:04.11]

The time at the end of the last question is the duration.

Save file as plain text.

Chapter Headings- Putting them into the movie file

From within QuickTime, choose ‘open file’ from the file menu to open the text file with the question headings.

From the edit menu, choose ‘select all’, then choose ‘copy’, and close the movie.

Then open the QuickTime movie of working the problems.

Choose ‘select all’ from the edit menu (all of track should be highlighted)

Choose ‘add to movie’ from the edit menu.

Choose ‘show movie properties’ from the windows menu

In the properties menu, deselect ‘text track’

In the properties menu, click on the video track, choose ‘other settings’ and choose ‘text track’ in the chapters popup.

Close the properties box. The movie should now show the question #’s at the right side, and you should be able to go to any question.

Save the movie as a self-contained movie.