Screencast Introduction to my Teaching with Tech Course – Warts and All
I use Camtasia for Mac and Camtasia Relay to make screencasts of syllabi for my online courses. Recording a syllabus is a good use of my time for a couple of reasons. First, a syllabus screencast cuts down on student frustration and the number of questions I get asked during the first week of class. I try hard to put all my thoughts in a Word document but students seem to understand better when they can both read and hear me explain it. Second, I usually find mistakes that need correcting. Some I mention while recording (e.g. miscounted points on an assignment rubric). Some I make a note of and fix later (e.g. forgot to give credit to Garrison for using a remix of his Practical Inquiry Model diagram. [pdf] Oops!) Speaking of Garrison, I hope that I am demonstrating good teaching presence by offering this resource to my students. I think it demonstrates good course design, instruction, and even facilitation. Anyway, if you are interested, here is a screencast of my syllabus, warts and all.