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How to record screencasts with Kaltura in Moodle 2

    1. Go to your video assignment in Moodle: image_thumb15.
    2. Click “Record screen”, “Add”, and pass the Java security Dialogues: image
    3. The default video resolution is  640*480, but you can change this by unfolding the drop down menu:  image
    4. Full screen is recommended for a Slideshow: image
    5. To start, click the red record button: image
    6. You will get a few seconds to collect your thoughts: image
    7. After finishing your slide show, stop the recording from the taskbar icon, and stop the recording: image.
    8. From the video  window that opens:
      1. You can preview itclip_image001[4]

        And upload it which includes encoding which takes a bit of time (but not as much as encoding of webcam footage).

        clip_image002[4]

        clip_image003

    9. Finally,
      1. you can see the result in your media library
      2. image
      3. preview it once more:

        clip_image002

      4. and submit your video content from the media library.
    10. Kaltura screencasts can be used from any Java-compatible device. In the LRC, however, you can also record screencasts to files, using MS-Community Clips which you can still upload to Kaltura – extra step, though –, while maintaining compatibility with Mahara.

Faculty Workshop Fall 2013: Creating Mahara language learner portfolio pieces in the digital audio lab

    1. Thanks to all who came out to this workshop.
      1. You have already been emailed your portfolio pieces, like your students will be, by the LangLabEmailer.
      2. Converting your recordings to a file for Question/Response exams will take a little longer, let me know if/when you would like to use it.
    2. In addition, here are the workshop files:
      1. my slide handout as PDF with clickable links (includes “Can do”- Statements aligned with the Common European Reference Framework for language proficiency levels, which can help operationalizing your ePortfolio strategy)
      2. my slide deck embedded:
      3. my slide deck as a downloadable PowerPoint show: you can click through the animations at your own speed, view the animated GIFs, and listen (or jump over!) to my full presentation narration (both as of yet not supported in PowerPoint Web App)
      4. a screencast of the back stage view (Sanako tutor mostly), full HD resolution (big, but streaming), with complete uninterrupted (and unedited! please fast forward manually through the hands-on parts) audio . To facilitate your navigation, here is a table of contents :
        1. 0:00: Table of contents
        2. 2:30: Portfolio Pedagogy
        3. 13:47: Technical infrastructure: Moodle Mahara portfolio, Sanako, LangLabEmailer
          1. 17:47: Q&A
        4. 19:45: Option 1: presentation as screencast, examples from 1st-year Russian
        5. 34:50: Option 2: Free-form conversation audio, Examples from 2nd-year English  and 2nd-year Japanese
          1. 52:00: Q&A: Why a LangLabEmailer?
        6. 53:00: Option 3: question-response audio, examples from 4th-year Spanish.

How to work around “Audio init failed” when recording in MyLanguageLab

  1. If you see this (or similar errors): image
  2. Try running the browser tune-up, image
    1. check for any new software versions (you can update Java, unfortunately only for your current session on this computer)
    2. finally run the voice recording setup wizard to check for results. image
  3. Suggest you do this before entering a homework assignment, since a timer may be keeping running while you troubleshoot

How to create screencasts of student presentations for the language learner ePortfolio in the digital audio lab

image

  1. Students can now easily video-record their own screens during class presentations – not only when using PowerPoint; instead students could demo a website, like their Facebook page.
  2. Last year, we were limited to PowerPoint’s record slideshow with timing and narration feature, and either send the PPSX (small, but requires the PowerPoint viewer) or the “Save as” video (new in PowerPoint 2010; computing intensive and large file size).
  3. Now with MS-Community Clips, screencasts are
    1. minimal effort to create (keyboard shortcut WIN+ALT+R or T; save on desktop; drag/drop into Sanako homework folder)
    2. and little effort to distribute:
      1. Students could have uploaded to a Moodle’ file upload assignment (default file size limit: 64MB) or Kaltura file upload assignment (not sure whether there is a size limit). This seems more suitable for assignments with screencasts recordings.
      2. In this instance
        1. Sanako collected the Homework files to the Sanako share,
        2. my langlabemailer emailed them as attachment (so far tested to allow for 25MB attachment size, the equivalent of 7-8 minute screencast, a hefty space to fill in L2!  We also established: 45MB is too much… Smile)  to the originating student and teacher, for review, grading –
      3. and – provided it passes muster as an attractive and significant piece – possibly for re-use in the student’s language learner ePortfolio.
  4. In addition,
    1. Before the presentations, the teacher easily collaborated on proof-reading the slide decks of individual students, by using the Sanako Remote control screen sharing feature.
    2. During the presentation, students followed more closely – which seemed to increase their attention and comprehension -, thanks to audio and screen being shared to them from the presenter, using the Sanako’s  “Model student” feature.

How to record your screen with MS-Community Clips

  1. During presentations, when creating demonstrations etc., it can be useful to record your screen (and your voice, if you speak into the headphone microphone). In the LRC, we have MS Community Clips pre-installed for this purpose. To start recording: image
  2. To stop recording, follow the same steps, but in step 3 choose “stop”.
  3. Or forget about the menus and remember the keyboard shortcuts: WIN+ALT+R or T.
  4. The video will play automatically. Click stop, menu: Save, Save your recording where you need it (e.g. Desktop). image
  5. If your teacher wants you to submit your recording, in the LRC you can drop it into the Sanako Homework window and “send” it: image

Forced downgrade to Color scheme Windows 7 Basic since “exceeded its allowed memory”

 

 

  1. clip_image001
  2. This warning and forced downgrade appeared on the teacher after starting using MS-Community Clips (which is just a GUI wrapper for Windows Media Encoder internally, which we used on the same machine successfully while it was still on XP).
  3. The error seems slightly more informative than what we received earlier, but I did not manage to investigate since this was in the middle of supporting a teaching use .

Common video resolutions and ratios

Proposing for a free Moodle audio recorder: Technical options and faculty needs survey results

  1. Current popular options for a free Moodle audio recorder: 
    1. Nanogong is a popular, feature-rich and simple recorder that go entangled in the recent java politics and security scares. Since the company has a non-free offering, chances are higher it will get updated to address these security warnings. It seems the long-term outlook for java in the enterprise is excellent, but i  cannot judge the long term outlook for java as a client/in-browse solution.
    2. Poodle which played the 2nd fiddle to Nanogong for most of the time, seems to have caught up to Nanogong based on the above. that it is "server based" – but on theirs, not ours – Poodle has a freemium business model (could be an issue). Does this include the audio compression load? Does this have FERPA implications (and can they be resolved like with Kaltura)?
    3. Paul Nicholls has a number of flash-based popular audio recorder plugins , where record assignment submission seems to have superseded record assignment type for newer versions of Moodle, and assignment type offers student recording, while  Record Audio repository complements this with teacher recording (and the same interface; i am not sure i understand which end user setup is required for repository).
  2. In the results of faculty survey on learning needs (sum of 0-centered Likert-scale), I find notable
    1. that teacher recording is considered almost as vital as student recording, and
    2. that most faculty even would be willing to deal with some complexity for the additional learning features that some of these recorders offer (Nanogong especially).

Question_text

Rank

It is important that my students can record their speech in my Moodle course (without need for separate software and file upload).

14

It is important that the setup work that the teacher has to do before being able to assign  audio recorder is minimal.

13

It is that the teacher can record her voice in Moodle (without need for separate software and file upload), providing oral instead of written cues or feedback.

11

Simplicity is more important to me than feature richness (controlling volume, limiting the amount of time a student can record, maximum number of recordings, Recordings can be slowed down  or sped up ,  Peer review of recordings).

7

I expect my students to have a microphone connected to or built-in to their home computer.

5

It is important that other media than audio can be "recorded"  (video (outside of Kaltura), webcam snapshots, whiteboard drawings).

5