ETmantra eLearning Solutions
Madhav Suratkar
Video tutorials are the new age learning material. When a student want to learn something he/she search for the video of that topic on YouTube. Video tutorials are being used in flipped classrooms around the globe. With the help of videos a teacher can teach process and procedures very easily. A video, once recorded, can be used for all batches of the same course.
Video tutorials can be divided in two categories based on the ways they are recorded. 1.) With the help of Camera and 2) recording of computer screen or mobile screen, known as ScreenCast.
You need a video camera if you want to create a video tutorial. You need to use a screen recording or screen capture program if you want to create a ScreenCast. In this article I will list some most used screen capture software for windows with pros and cons. I believe this article will help you in selecting the most appropriate screen recorder for your requirements.
Most of the video screen recording software share common features like:
- Record full screen or selected region.
- Record audio from system or mic with the video.
- Record video from webcam in picture-in-picture form.
Produced ScreenCasts may be uploaded to YouTube, posted on web pages or social media, and/or uploaded to e-Learning courses.
Here is a list of the mostly used video screen recording software (free and paid) for windows.
Camtasia Studio
My favorite screen recorder, with Camtasia, you can record and edit your computer screen. Camtasia is easy to use, it comes with a lot unique in that it can create interactive videos containing clickable links to generate dynamic video content suitable for use in the classroom or the workplace.
Pros
- records on multiple video and audio tracks
- has green screen effect to make it seem as if you are a part of the action
- easy to incorporate animated items, like callouts and scrolling text
- Google drive integration
- free app available to record videos on mobile devices and transfer to Camtasia for editing
Cons
- demo of full software is only free for 30 days
- users are prohibited from creating videos for commercial purposes when using the free version
Here’s what you get with the paid version
Camtasia is $299.00 USD to purchase a software key for a single user license. You can save a bit of money (about $50.00) if you purchase 5-9 licenses. Discounts increase to about $90.00 per license when you buy 15-24 licenses. When you purchase a license you get:
- updates to your purchased version
- permission to install the software on up to 2 machines
Pro
Cons
Price
OBS
Pro
Cons
Price
Screencast-o-matic
Pro
Cons
Price
Xsplit Broadcaster
Pro
Cons
Price
Microsoft expression
Pro
Cons
Price
I have used Microsoft expression free version for all the videos that I have done for udemy with the exception of my talking head videos. You need the paid version to encode to mp4 format which is why I think most instructors like to go with others choices like camtasia. WMV files work absolutely fine on udemy though and the software has been more than good enough for me. The only drawback is encode times which take a bit longer on Microsoft expression than some of the others.
