Learning the basics of creating videos is an essential tool for instructional designers. There was a time I was intimidated by the thought of learning to put together a video, and this was my first video project that wasn't a screencast! My production and audio skills have come a long way, but this shows that with the right software and a willingness to jump right in and "play around," the ability to create quality videos isn't out of anyone's reach!
I had so much fun learning by doing as I created this project. After this, I was officially hooked! I recorded my video in multiple parts and completed media cuts and editing in Camtasia. For recording, I used:
Camtasia to record the “talking head” portion of the recording.
Audacity for all other audio narration, which I downloaded as MP3s, then imported into Camtasia.
PowerPoint for the “stills." I imported the slides into my Camtasia project. Camtasia automatically converted the slides to .PNG to add them to the media library.
My Android phone to record the screen demonstration (without audio). I blurred my phone’s password using the pixelate feature in Camtasia.
Because I used several tracks in my Camtasia project, I found it helpful to group elements that were layered in the timeline to make them easier to move without needing to re-align them later. This made it easy to add predecessor elements to the timeline, experiment with clip speed (to get the main content under a minute), and more, and essentially work “out of order” of the final product. I added the pointer animations and screen transitions in Camtasia.
Project Output: How to Improve the Speed of Your Android Mobile Hotspot Video
Don't worry: by Term 3, I'll be relaxed and looking at the camera like a pro! And the audio gets a lot better, too. We've all gotta start somewhere, right?