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Screencasts for Student Training

Marcus Lam, Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Social Work, wanted his students to learn how to use Quantum GIS to analyze data in his "Community Development and Practice" course, SOCWT7124. He used Screenflow, a Mac-only screencasting tool, to develop seven simple videos in which he narrated his movements around the screen while demonstrating the software.

Some of the advantages to doing this online are a significant time savings since Lam must only record the "lectures" once and eliminated scheduling conflicts since students may watch the videos anytime and needn't meet as a group. In addition, students may work at their own pace, pausing the video so that they may perform the tasks described in the video as they go.

Lam was able to embed each of the videos into his CourseWorks' "lectures" section, where students can easily access the videos and review the materials.