Video killed the 'PDF' star: taking information resource guides online

Easy-to-use technologies now allow librarians to create their own customised digital and video tutorials. This article takes a look at publisher-created video tutorials. It considers the pros and cons of libraries creating their own video-format guides, and elaborates on DCU Library's own experience in producing video-based tutorials on databases customised to local needs using Camtasia and Screentoaster

Accessibility of Vendor-Created Video Tutorials for People with Disabilities

Many video, screencast, webinar, or interactive tutorials are created and provided by vendors for use by libraries to instruct users in database searching. This study investigates whether these vendor-created database tutorials are accessible for people with disabilities to see whether librarians can use these tutorials instead of creating them in-house. Findings on accessibility were mixed. Positive accessibility features and common accessibility problems are described, with recommendations on how to maximize accessibility

Online Technology Management Student Tutorial Case Study

This paper presents a case study of implementing online video-based tutorials to enhance student learning. Initially, these tutorials were developed using a software product, Camtasia, to mitigate learning differences between traditional-based classrooms versus online classes. Because online students often did not receive the same hands-on and visual learning modality that was available to students on traditional classroom settings, tutorials were assumed to level the playing field between these two groups. However, after two years of developing and integrating these tutorials into online classes, it was found that only a small minority of students were using them. Other issues were that tutorials took a long time to develop, and many lecturers felt they were ineffective. This case describes the reasons the tutorials were developed, the integration process, issues raised, and implications for future development

What Is the Best Way For Developers to Learn New Software Tools? An Empirical Comparison Between a Text and a Video Tutorial

The better developers can learn software tools, the faster they can start using them and the more efficiently they can later work with them. Tutorials are supposed to help here. While in the early days of computing, mostly text tutorials were available, nowadays software developers can choose among a huge number of tutorials for almost any popular software tool. However, only little research was conducted to understand how text tutorials differ from other tutorials, which tutorial types are preferred and, especially, which tutorial types yield the best learning experience in terms of efficiency and effectiveness, especially for programmers. To evaluate these questions, we converted an existing video tutorial for a novel software tool into a content-equivalent text tutorial. We then conducted an experiment in three groups where 42 undergraduate students from a software engineering course were commissioned to operate the software tool after using a tutorial: the first group was provided only with the video tutorial, the second group only with the text tutorial and the third group with both. In this context, the differences in terms of efficiency were almost negligible: We could observe that participants using only the text tutorial completed the tutorial faster than the participants with the video tutorial. However, the participants using only the video tutorial applied the learned content faster, achieving roughly the same bottom line performance. We also found that if both tutorial types are offered, participants prefer video tutorials for learning new content but text tutorials for looking up "missed" information. We mainly gathered our data through questionnaires and screen recordings and analyzed it with suitable statistical hypotheses tests. The data is available at [12]. Since producing tutorials requires effort, knowing with which type of tutorial learnability can be increased to which extent has an immense practical relevance. We conclude that in contexts similar to ours, while it would be ideal if software tool makers would offer both tutorial types, it seems more efficient to produce only text tutorials instead of a passive video tutorial - provided you manage to motivate your learners to use them

Using Camtasia To Create Video Tutorials: Students As Academic Partners Project Report.

The aim of this project was to create a series of online video tutorials for a Level 4 module (COMP1342 – Creative Computing). For various reasons, students may miss a seminar or prefer a different learning style than is presented during a specific Computing session. Thus, some students may benefit from having a series of online tutorials that present similar information presented in a specific seminar. Web links to the videos can be posted to Blackboard where students may view the online tutorials at their convenience. The project was led by a Computing tutor who supervised a Computing student who created six weeks of online video-based tutorials for the COMP1342 module. The tutorials were created with Camtasia, a software product which records both the computer screen activity and audio from the speaker. This can be especially valuable for creating tutorials of computer-based lessons. Results of the first four weeks where the content was available showed that an average of 21% of students did watch the video tutorials. Several students expressed the appreciation of having tutorials that they could watch at their convenience, especially if they did not fully understand the lesson presented in the regular class seminar

Cauldrons of Content: Recipes for Library Video Tutorials

Video tutorials can be a quick and affordable solution for presenting knowledge, skills or resource awareness. They can educate people at their own pace, providing the option for viewers to pause, practice the new skill as they view the video, and even to return to the material over and over again until the skill or knowledge is learned or attained. Regardless of your technical background, this practical session will equip librarians or library staff with all of the essential ingredients needed to begin cooking up video tutorials right away! Key topics will include screen recording software options, best practices for video tutorial content and length, promoting video tutorials, tracking tutorial effectiveness, and tips for liaising with stakeholders within your library

Improving Screencast Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Guidelines and Techniques

Screencast video tutorials are increasingly popular in libraries, but may present access problems for people with disabilities unless specific accessibility features are added during screencast creation. This article reviews existing standards for accessible web-based multimedia and gives guidelines on how to create accessible screencasts based on these standards

Adobe Photoshop : Layer Basics

Find out more about Photoshop layers with this share of links and video tutorials