Excel, JavaScript, and Other Helpers and Videos
Bob Jensen

Department of Business Administration
Trinity University

Table of Contents

 

          Camtasia 5

New Camtasia Version 5 Features

September 30, 2007 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

And here is the feature list of Camtasia's version 5:

I’ll have some demos of Camtasia version 5 output available soon.

FEATURE LIST:



RECORDER

*Simpler recording process

*Resizes applications

*Customizable recording toolbar: options to add markers and ScreenDraw



EDITING

Project settings -

*Gives you a real time preview of what your video will look like.

*Eg, you record at 1024x768, then set your project settings to Web.

It will scale your video to 640x480.



SmartFocus -

*Intelligently tracks activity on the screen and zooms in to keep

your viewers focused.

*We've also made Zoom n Pan a lot more flexible, so editing, adding

and removing zoom keyframes is way easier


Housekeeping -

*When saving a project, there's an option for copying or moving all

files associated with the project to a folder.

Transitions -

*New ones include: Fade through Black, Glow, Cube Rotate, Page Turn,

Peel, Roll


Callouts -

*We added a 3D edge effect to make the callouts standout more

Improved stability -

*Though its just one bullet item on here, about 1/3 of our

development effort has gone into shoring up the code, making it much

more stable and predictable

Editing at 30FPS -

*We've moved to a more standard, stable editing approach of 30 frames

per second editing. We initially followed Microsoft Movie Maker,

giving people the illusion of editing at 100ths of a second. But we

found that it actually confused people people, because we didn't have

100 frames per second. So now we've got 30 fps video and editing.

Nice and consistent and more stable.

 

 

No Multimedia Expertise Needed

 

Camtasia Tutorial Video:  How to make interactive Flash quizzes

October 31, 2007 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU]

Below is a link to a movie about the above topic – SCORM is a protocol which dictates how a content authoring system interfaces with a learning management system like WebCT. You must have at least Camtasia version 4 to do this, but this movie was filmed in Camtasia version 5.

Not the controls in the lower right corner of the video – one toggles a popup menu, one goes full-screen and one info / copyright box.

http://www.virtualpublishing.net/scorm2/scorm2.html 

 

 

Yet Another Way to Send Large Files Across the Internet
This is important as we enter the era of sending students our Camtasia videos --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
My PowerPoint file on Camtasia is at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/EdTech/PowerPoint/

 

"Sending Large Files Down the Tubes:  Sharing Content Is Just a Drag And Drop Away," by Katherine Boehret, The Wall Street Journal,  October 3, 2007; Page D8 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119137101138247131.html

 

Too many times, I've shared a large batch of digital files with friends or family members only to realize that I included an unwanted photo or shared with someone accidentally. But once these documents are sent, they're out of my control and on a server somewhere being distributed via email or through a photo-sharing service. Making certain files private or changing who has access to those files is a complicated, time-consuming process.

 

This week, I tested another product in the long line of programs that uses automatic synchronization to simplify the process of sharing large files by giving you the ability to change files and privacy options at any time. It's called Tubes (www.tubesnow.com) from Tubes Networks and it takes its name from the pneumatic vacuum-tube system commonly used in bank drive-throughs that motivated me to join my Mom on visits to the bank as a kid. Mom would pull up and a container would whoosh over through a tube to arrive beside the car window; after a quick exchange it returned with her deposit slip and a lollipop for me.

Tubes aims to work with the same sort of magic. Once installed, its desktop application stays opened on your computer as a place where "tubes" are made for sending files. Any type of file can be dragged, dropped and sent off to share with other people using these virtual tubes. As soon as you release data into a tube, a whoosh sounds (like that of the vacuum tube) and your files are encrypted and uploaded to the Tubes server.

Invited guests view your tube's data in its full, uncompressed format. The owner of the tube always has the final say on what is shared with whom, and changes made to tubes on your hard drive are detected instantly via automatic synchronization, guaranteeing viewers will always see the latest version of the tube. Shared tubes are also accessible via the Web, saving viewers from downloading the Tubes desktop program.

Other products like Sharpcast (www.sharpcast.com) and Pando (www.pando.com) also offer ways to share large digital files; Sharpcast uses synchronization similar to that of Tubes -- it all happens behind the scenes without any work on the user's part.

Tubes is available in a free version that provides a gigabyte of storage, or in paid versions with five, 10 and 20 gigabytes of storage for $6, $11 or $21, respectively.

Most of the time, Tubes worked well for me when I installed it on two Windows machines, one running XP and one running Vista. Tubes' smart use of an already familiar process -- dragging and dropping -- gives you the impression that you already know how to use it and makes sharing files seem easy. I started dragging all sorts of files into tubes that I created, naming them and labeling them with a representative icon (one of 10 offered by Tubes or one of my own images).

For all its usefulness, Tubes certainly has room for improvement. For now, there isn't a Mac version of the program, and when friends and I tried accessing shared tubes using a Mac Web browser, the results were inconsistent and sometimes didn't work at all. Windows Vista had its own issues. After installing Tubes on my Vista laptop, an error message labeled "invalid argument" made me feel like a member of the debate team. And I couldn't see thumbnail images of photos in my tubes using Vista, though I could on Windows XP.

Today, Tubes is releasing an updated version of its program that aims to improve the usability and look of the product, including refining the processes of sharing tubes and looking at tubes via the Web.

Before sharing tubes, I adjusted the permissions granted to each guest by labeling them as a Reader, Author or Editor; only the Owner can invite others to view a tube. But these labels can get confusing. More than once, I granted guests the highest level of permission, which is Editor, allowing them to make changes to the files in my tube, only for the guest to be asked for his registered Tubes email and password, which an invited guest shouldn't need.

The Tubes experience was best when the recipient of my Tubes invitations had the application installed on his or her desktop.

After installing Tubes on a computer at work, I installed it on my home PC and easily auto-synched tubes that I created at work onto my home PC -- a big plus.

Tubes incorporates the Web by assigning a unique URL to every file in every tube, and every tube automatically generates its own Web site, or "tubeSite," as it's called. Individual URLs for each file can be found by right clicking on a file and selecting an option to copy the URL into an email or browser. I copied the URL of a shared MP3 audio file and pasted it into my browser; it played a Fountains of Wayne song with no problem. But sharing these URLs with others is only possible if the owner gives permission.

Comments about tubes can be made in the "tubeBlog" -- accessible through any tube in the application or online. I created a tubeBlog for a tube with photos from one of my vacations, adding descriptions and comments to specific photos. Others, with my permission, could do the same, using the photos from the tube or just leaving comments.

A friend used Tubes to share photos with me while vacationing in Italy and Amsterdam. I added my own travel photos and an itinerary made in Microsoft Word to his tube and changed the tube's title; these alterations synched instantly.

Even if you aren't online, you can access tubes or make changes to them by dragging files in or taking them out; updates are made automatically the next time your computer connects to the Web.

Tubes is off to a good start, but it needs to improve its system to make permission levels more understandable for tube owners and those invited to see a shared tube. With a few improvements, Tubes could be a product that I'll continue using on Windows computers long after this column.

Continued in article

 

Bob Jensen's threads on competing alternatives for sending huge files (many of them free) are at
 http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob4.htm#SendingLargeFiles

 

 

Compressed Versus Uncompressed AVI Camtasia Video Files
Podcasting and Vodcasting Using Camtasia and Screencast

Although I've been using Camtasia for years, I've recently been preparing some Camtasia video for a road show that I will do on education technology. Camtasia is wonderful for making educational videos, especially narrated videos of lessons and tutorials on computer screens, videos of narrated PowerPoint files, interactive videos, podcasts (audio), Vodcasts (video), and narrated sequences of pictures turned into video files.

One really nice thing about Camtasia is that you do not have to record an entire video clip continuously, It's easy to record a segment and then hit the pause button (or F9 that's used both to start a recording session and pause a recording session). That way you have time for each segment to think about what you're going to say and to bring up software, video files, audio files, and/or Websites appropriate for that segment of the clip. When you've finished the entire clip you can hit the stop button (or F10) to generate a avi file. Later on you can "produce" a compressed version of the clip.

Camtasia generally captures video as uncompressed avi files. These uncompressed files are enormous and are not efficient for storing on CDs, DVDs, Web servers, Blackboard servers, WebCT servers, etc. Fortunately Camtasia has software called "Producer" in Camtasia Suite that compresses videos into much smaller files that can be played in common software such as wmv files for Windows Media Player, rm files for RealMedia, mov files for Quicktime, scf files for Adobe flash, mp3 files, and other "production" files.

I thought you might be interested in how much disk space is saved in the compression process. Last weekend I made a number of Camtasia avi videos and then compressed them into wmv video for Windows Media Player. I have both an old Camtasia 2 and a current Camtasia 4 (with updates). I captured the avi files using Camtasia 4, because this will also capture video playing on the screen. However, I found that the Producer software in Camtasia 2 gave me smaller compressed video files for some reason. The savings are shown below comparing the avi files and my compressed files:

Video Uncompressed AVI File Size Compressed Video File Size Video Run Time
Video 1 106,095 KB avi 5,928 KB wmv 02.57minutes
Video 2 319,904 KB avi 29,586 KB wmv 22.28 minutes
Video 3 162,745 KB avi 22,228 KB swf 05.47 minutes
Video 4 25,315 KB avi 4,766 KB wmv 04.49 minutes

Warning:  You can only edit the video (e.g., add fades, delete portions of clips, combine clips, split clits, change volume, etc) in the uncompressed avi video using Producer software. You lose quality in video and audio if you have to re-capture a compressed video as a avi file using Camtasia. Hence, it is best to store the initial avi files somewhere if you think you might want to edit later on.

The video size to runtime ratio varies greatly with both the capture rate and the size of the region on a computer screen that you are capturing. Since all the above videos were captured at the same (default) capture rate, the ratio of file size to run time varies greatly because the capture region varies in size in each of the above videos.  Capturing only a region greatly saves on the size of the captured video file. Capturing full or nearly-full screen sizes greatly adds to the video file size.

Video size relative to video run time also depends heavily on the frame rate at which the video is captured. Camtasia allows you to use a default setting for both the capture rate and audio interleaving. This is fast enough to capture video with audio playing on the screen with reasonable lip synching if the audio shows the face of a speaker. If you were making a video of a PowerPoint file without adding audio narration you could save disk space by greatly slowing down the video capture rate. However, I generally do not mess with the default settings. If you want to change the frame rates, you can read more about it --- Click Here
You can also change playback rates --- Click Here

Camtasia allows you to do some things like highlighting where your cursor is pointing. I generally use a big yellowish translucent circle around my mouse pointer. You can also have audio sounds whenever you click on your mouse and/or keyboard. This may alert student attention. You can also bring up a pen that allows you to write on video screens without writing on the computer program, like Excel, that you are running in the video.

You can also pan and zoom. Zoom lets you point to something like a cell formula in Excel and then make that formula larger and larger and larger. You can subsequently return to normal size. I use the panning feature when I am only recording a region of a screen such as a rectangle about a third of the size of the full computer screen. Capturing only a region greatly saves on the size of the captured video file. I use the panning feature to allow me to float the capture region to wherever I move my mouse. This allows me to capture anything appearing on a computer screen without having to capture a full screen in every video frame.

Years ago I started using Camtasia to field questions posed by students. For example, after technical lessons in my Accounting Information Systems course, I almost always received email messages from students who could not get something to work, especially in Excel and MS Access. I would then record a video tutorial and shared my answers with the entire current class and my future classes. You can download some of my sample wmv tutorials in this regard from http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/
The acronym PQQ stands for Possible Quiz Question source.

I also prepared longer tutorials on more complicated technical lectures in my Accounting Theory course. Most all of my students were confused after my lectures in this course until they viewed my video tutorials over and over and over. Some of my tutorials for the theory course are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/

I also recorded some general tutorials that you can download from http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/Tutorials/

I have other tutorials that are filed away somewhere on CDs. It would take some effort to dig them out now.

The nice thing about Camtasia is that it's is so simple to use when creating and compressing video. Editing video is more complicated. It is also possible to add hot spots to swf flash video that you have compressed such that you can create interactive videos for your students, including examination videos. However, this is extremely tedious. I found it better to create my interactive examination files in Excel and then link to my tutorial videos at any time in those Excel files.

The hard thing about Camtasia is getting the audio to sound professional. Actually, I found my narrations using a cheap microphone adequate for my course tutorials. This weekend I had satisfactory results using only the internal microphone that's built into my Dell laptop. However, audio could be improved with an expensive microphone and a sound proof booth. Ambient noise in your office can be irritating when recorded in video.

If you are recording in your office, you should probably disconnect the telephone during recording sessions. Also put a sign on your office door that you are in a recording session.

It is also possible to make videos of PowerPoint files. If you choose to do so you can easily add a Camtasia toolbar in your PowerPoint file such that you can make videos with audio narrations on any any part or all of a PowerPoint file. That way you can teach from PowerPoint when you're out of town, retired, or dead.Users can download compressed video files of PowerPoint files with less virus risk than from any MS Office files such as doc, xls. or ppt files. However, when I narrate any of my PowerPoint files and make videos of them, I generally find that even the compressed videos are enormous since my PowerPoint files usually have more than 50 slides. Actually, it is probably best to compress PowerPoint vides at a slow frame rate as swf Flash files. Since Powerpoint is not fast moving video, a slower frame rate is usually quite satisfactory.

Nevertheless, recording and serving up entire lectures requires huge amounts of disk space. If your university will not provide you with enough Web, Blackboard, or WebCT server space for such large video files, I suggest that you make a DVD disk of compressed video for each lesson and then make these disks available in the library or by mail to students. Your campus media center may have more creative solutions.

 

A summary video of using Camtasia for recording and serving up Podcasts, Vodcasts, and Audio Enhanced PowerPoint files --- Click Here

Three nice summary videos on how to create interactive Flash videos using Camtasia --- Click Here

You can find out more about Camtasia and related TechSmith products at http://www.techsmith.com/

You can watch an introductory video at http://video.techsmith.com/camtasia/latest/demo/summary/enu/cs_summary.html

TechSmith has a link to Richard Campbell's (University of Rio Grande) interactive examination questions at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/education.asp
However, the link to Richard's files appears to broken, and Richard says he can no longer find the illustration file.

Happy video, podcast, and vodcast producing!

 

Tip 2 of the Day for Camtasia Users:  Choose a Compression Option 

After you create a video Using Camtasia it is an avi file.  One problem is that the avi file may be enormous.  Another problem is that it can only be viewed by users who have installed the Camtasia viewer. 

Not every user has every media player. That’s why Camtasia Studio supports various popular multimedia formats:

·       Macromedia Flash (.flv and .swf)

·       Windows Media (.wmv)

·       Apple QuickTime (.mov)

·       RealNetworks RealMedia (.rm)

·       And More!

Warning:  When I made some of my tutorials on using Camtasia, only the RealMedia compression option was not available.  Until I update that video, keep in mind that the other compression options are now available.  My older tutorial video is linked at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm
One of these days I might find the time to update this tutorial.

The Camtasia homepage is at http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp
For audio, you need a microphone plugged into your computer.  And don’t forget to turn the audio on using menu option (Effects, Audio, Record Audio).  

Question
What is Morae?

Answer
I love Camtasia and use it all the time to make video from my computer screens while I narrate into a microphone --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

Now TechSmith has come out with an even better product called Morae --- http://www.techsmith.com/products/morae/morae.asp 

Morae is a revolutionary new computer recording system based on Rich Recording TechnologyTM, which not only records the computer screen and camera video, but also automatically creates a synchronized chronicle of events occuring behind-the-scenes in applications and the operating system. Now you can search screen and video recordings based on specific events that occurred - like when a user hit a certain keystroke, opened a particular dialog box, clicked a certain tool button or viewed specific text. Easily perform in-depth analysis, mark important segments and quickly create highlight videos to share.

Morae is an easy-to-use and easy-to-implement usability testing tool that allows you to record, log, analyze and present. It was designed from the ground up based on in-depth research and feedback from usability professionals.


Tip 3 
One of the frustrations I have with Camtasia and Morae is that recording audio other than your microphone-in instructions is frustrating.  I received the following message from a technician at Tech Smith.  The link he provides is very informative.

          

Tip 4 (How to Edit Video)

PC editing software answer from Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2005; Page B4 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/mossberg_mailbox.html

Q: A friend of mine is looking for some video-editing software to be used on a PC running Windows. What software would you recommend for this application?

A: I haven't tested this category of software in a while, but any of the leading software packages should do. They include Pinnacle Studio Plus, Adobe Premiere Elements and Roxio Easy Media Creator. The first two are video-editing programs. The last includes a video-editing program, but it is a suite that also handles things like music and photos. Of the two video-only programs, Pinnacle's is probably best for a novice user. It costs about $90.

Jensen Comment
What separates the amateurs like me from the pros is the ability to edit the audio that accompanies the video.  When you want to add or remove frames containing audio, you had best employ a pro.

 

 

Free Multi-featured Sound Recorder (Audacity) --- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/features

Although I prefer Camtasia when I want to narrate a video of my computer screen action (e.g., when preparing a video tutorial on something technical), there are times when audio alone will suffice and take up a whole lot less space on a hard drive or server. 

Those of you who would like to prepare audio podcasting files may also want a good sound recorder on your PC.

I highly recommend the free Audacity software.  It downloads and installs very quickly.  Its many features are listed at --- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/features


Video Courses

Probably the most successful use of video is the Adept program at Stanford University where engineering students can get an entire Masters of Engineering degree almost entirely from video courses http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/cnc9838/cnc9838.html

Basic accounting students At BYU have great success learning accounting from special videos --- http://snipurl.com/videoBYU 

Contact Information: 
Cameron Earl 801-836-5649 cameronearl@byu.edu
Norm Nemrow 801-422-3029 nemrow@byu.edu 

Also see David Cottrell's approach at BYU --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/AAA2003Cottrell.pdf 

Update message on November 3, 2005

Bob has posted our new website in an earlier post, but the new URL to our new website describing our accounting tools is www.accountingcds.com

We have a demo of VSP (the technology that speeds up the video and audio) technology here: http://www.accountingcds.com/learn/links/vspdemo.htm 

Cameron Earl

BYU

Learning Basic Financial Accounting at Brigham Young University (BYU) From Homegrown Videos
Developer and Instructor:  Norman Nemrow [nemrow@byu.edu] 
Title of Package of Eight CDs:  Introduction to Accounting:  The Language of Business
Textbook:  I think this package can be used along with virtually any basic accounting textbook
Pedagogy:  Students learn from video lesson modules before each class.  The video lessons display 
                  the course instructor in video as well as accompanying PowerPoint displays that are auto-
                  matically sequenced with the video.  Students have nifty options to both replay the previous
                  five minutes and to play the videos a double (2x) speed that is an outstanding option
                  for reviewing previously-learned material.
Classes:  Classes are more inspirational than perspirational (e.g., frequent use of visiting speakers)
Outcomes:  Purportedly students perform better vis-à-vis previous lecture pedagogy without video. 
                   See the following evaluation of learning:

 "Variable Speed Playback of Digitally Recorded Lectures: Evaluating Learner Feedback," by Joel D. Galbraith (joel_galbraith@byu.edu ) and Steven G. Spencer --- http://www.enounce.com/docs/BYUPaper020319.pdf 

Cost:

  1. Student purchase of CD set for around $45.  Colleges can negotiate pricing with BYU.
  2. $19.99 for download and installation of the Enounce 2xAV video plug-in --- http://www.enounce.com/ 

Bob Jensen's Bottom-Line Conclusion:  
Bravo Norm!  This is a tremendous pedagogy for all levels of accounting education

Bob Jensen's Recommendations for Improvements:

  1. Flash video is restricted to video of PowerPoint slides accompanying a talking head.  I 
    prefer a Camtasia video development that allows an instructor to easily make video and 
    audio lesson modules from other software such as MS Excel, MS Access, accounting software
    like Intuit, tax software, simulation software, etc.  

     
  2. The product could be greatly improved if instructors could customize lessons by adding their own
    video modules.  This is especially exciting for instructors using Camtasia.  
    See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm#Video 
  3. The 2xAV plug-in allows students to make use of the tremendous double speed advantage when
    there are a lot of video modules to learn and re-learn.  However, this is a pain for campus 
    computing labs that have to install such a plug-in all lab computers.  I recommend an option that
    will allow video playback on computers that do not have the 2xAV plug-in.
  4. There is also a minor glich for Windows XP operating systems.  I got the video lessons to work
    wonderfully on my old computer having a Windows NT operating system.  The lessons did not
    work initially on my new computer running under Windows XP

October 8 message from Cameron Earl [byu@burgoyne.com] 

Bob,

I know exactly what your problem is. We have identified a problem with Windows XP and our CDs due to a legal dispute between Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. I have attached a small document, which will fix your problem. Four files are needed for the fix. Unfortunately, they are too big for me to send with my current internet connection. I will go to campus soon and send them. Please call me anytime (even after normal business hours) if you have any questions. 801-836-5649

Cameron Earl

Find out more about ordering options from Cameron at 801-836-5649 or by email at Cameron Earl [byu@burgoyne.com] 
A Website for this product is still under development at the Marriott School of Business at BYU.

Update February 29, 2004

Basic accounting students At BYU have great success learning accounting from special videos --- http://snipurl.com/videoBYU 

Contact Information: 
Cameron Earl 801-836-5649 cameronearl@byu.edu
Norm Nemrow 801-422-3029 nemrow@byu.edu 

Also see David Cottrell's approach at BYU --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/AAA2003Cottrell.pdf 

Advanced Video Technology
Amy Dunbar developed the following links for all participants in her workshop in Hawaii .  She also gave me permission to share it with readers of New Bookmarks.  Thanks to Amy and her other team members for sharing their presentation materials.
Using Technology to Distribute Course Content On and Off Campus AAA Annual Meeting - 2003
Continuing Education Workshop --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/agenda.htm  

Bob Jensen's threads and videos, including a video on how to develop your own course materials using the cheap and easy Camtasia Studio software can be found at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

July 5, 2005 message from Brigham Young University's Cameron Earl [cameronearl@byu.edu]

Bob,

Its been a while since we have spoken/ emailed. I hope you are doing well. I noticed on your thread that you do not have our updated information- namely our website. Norm Nemrow and I have developed a new website that explains more about our CDs and the teaching model we use at BYU. You may find interesting. In fact, we would love some feedback if you have the time to look at it. The site is brand new and still has one more round of editing (i.e., correcting typos and such) Norm values your opinion greatly. Just thought I would let you know about it. Feel free to share it with others.

Its www.byuaccounting.com 

Take care

Cameron Earl

Also note that David Cottrell from BYU participated in Amy Dunbar's education technology workshop prior to the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting in Hawaii --- http://www.business.uconn.edu/users/adunbar/AAA-CPE/AAA2003Cottrell.pdf

February 28 message from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

I am doing a comparison of Robodemo v5.0 elearning edition and Camtasia v2.02. I use both - sometimes in the same project. Both are very easy to use.

Robodemo advantages over Camtasia: The Flash hotspot output allow for quizzing that can be sent to a LMS (Learning Management System). Robodemo allows for limited scriptability with Javascript.

Camtasia has more output options - avi - mov - real - wnv - Camtasia v2.02 has some minor crash issues for some people,

Camtasia has a "Theater" utility which allows you to chain swf files together. Ehelp did have a utility called RoboPresenter that was and is more flexible that Camtasia's Theater More on this later.

Richard Campbell

February 28, 2004 reply from Bob Jensen

Thank you for the update Richard.

The one feature that I would like to see added is a convenient way of choosing between microphone audio versus line-in audio versus audio that is already stored on the computer. Sometimes what I would really like is to use Camtasia to record audio and/or video clips that are playing on the computer so I can insert these segments.

For example, suppose that I was recording a Camtasia video on fraud. It would be nice to be able to insert a small video segment of an ex con while explaining fraud in some program like Excel, PowerPoint, or Internet Explorer.

I realize that the Camtasia video degrades captured video due to a lower sampling rate (usually 5 frames per second) versus normal video frame rates of 30 per second. However, this may not be a huge problem in short video clips as long as the audio is good.

In Camtasia it is possible to run a hard wire from the audio out jack on the back of the computer to the microphone jack, but this is a pain in the tail and does not generally lead to good capturing of audio.

Is there any solution for this until Tech Smith finally upgrades for better audio and video recording of something other than microphone voice while capturing Camtasia video?

Is this also a problem in Robodemo?

Bob Jensen

Bob Jensen's threads on Camtasia are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 

February 28, 2004 reply from Richard Campbell [campbell@RIO.EDU] 

Bob: To integrate video into Powerpoint you could try the free Microsoft Producer or try apresso:

www.apreso.com 

The link below will integrate a number of alternative file formats and was marketed by ehelp as RoboPresenter until Macromedia bought ehelp.

http://www.articulateglobal.com/main.html 

February 29, 2004 reply from John Schatzel [jschatzel@STONEHILL.EDU] 

 I have been looking into this type of Flash tutorial creation software myself and found that Camtasia was well featured but not as powerful as RoboDemo, which is probably why Macromedia acquired the company. RoboDemo is also the most expensive: $500 Yikes! although educational pricing may be available. At the other end, I like Wink, which is FREE! If it does what you want then you can't beat Wink: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/  If it doesn't, then you have to pay. If your school is picking up the tab, then I would say go for RoboDemo unless you find it too difficult to use. I believe there is a 15-day trial version on the Macromdia site.

John Schatzel 
Professor of Accounting and Information Systems 
Stonehill College

 

Video Helpers

Video and Other Helper Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideosSummary.htm 
(New videos will be added steadily for the next several months.  I love Camtasia.)

Compressed Versus Uncompressed AVI Camtasia Video Files
Podcasting and Vodcasting Using Camtasia and Screencast

Although I've been using Camtasia for years, I've recently been preparing some Camtasia video for a road show that I will do on education technology. Camtasia is wonderful for making educational videos, especially narrated videos of lessons and tutorials on computer screens, videos of narrated PowerPoint files, interactive videos, podcasts (audio), Vodcasts (video), and narrated sequences of pictures turned into video files.

One really nice thing about Camtasia is that you do not have to record an entire video clip continuously, It's easy to record a segment and then hit the pause button (or F9 that's used both to start a recording session and pause a recording session). That way you have time for each segment to think about what you're going to say and to bring up software, video files, audio files, and/or Websites appropriate for that segment of the clip. When you've finished the entire clip you can hit the stop button (or F10) to generate a avi file. Later on you can "produce" a compressed version of the clip.

Camtasia generally captures video as uncompressed avi files. These uncompressed files are enormous and are not efficient for storing on CDs, DVDs, Web servers, Blackboard servers, WebCT servers, etc. Fortunately Camtasia has software called "Producer" in Camtasia Suite that compresses videos into much smaller files that can be played in common software such as wmv files for Windows Media Player, rm files for RealMedia, mov files for Quicktime, scf files for Adobe flash, mp3 files, and other "production" files.

I thought you might be interested in how much disk space is saved in the compression process. Last weekend I made a number of Camtasia avi videos and then compressed them into wmv video for Windows Media Player. I have both an old Camtasia 2 and a current Camtasia 4 (with updates). I captured the avi files using Camtasia 4, because this will also capture video playing on the screen. However, I found that the Producer software in Camtasia 2 gave me smaller compressed video files for some reason. The savings are shown below comparing the avi files and my compressed files:

Video Uncompressed AVI File Size Compressed Video File Size Video Run Time
Video 1 106,095 KB avi 5,928 KB wmv 02.57minutes
Video 2 319,904 KB avi 29,586 KB wmv 22.28 minutes
Video 3 162,745 KB avi 22,228 KB swf 05.47 minutes
Video 4 25,315 KB avi 4,766 KB wmv 04.49 minutes

Warning:  You can only edit the video (e.g., add fades, delete portions of clips, combine clips, split clits, change volume, etc) in the uncompressed avi video using Producer software. You lose quality in video and audio if you have to re-capture a compressed video as a avi file using Camtasia. Hence, it is best to store the initial avi files somewhere if you think you might want to edit later on.

The video size to runtime ratio varies greatly with both the capture rate and the size of the region on a computer screen that you are capturing. Since all the above videos were captured at the same (default) capture rate, the ratio of file size to run time varies greatly because the capture region varies in size in each of the above videos.  Capturing only a region greatly saves on the size of the captured video file. Capturing full or nearly-full screen sizes greatly adds to the video file size.

Video size relative to video run time also depends heavily on the frame rate at which the video is captured. Camtasia allows you to use a default setting for both the capture rate and audio interleaving. This is fast enough to capture video with audio playing on the screen with reasonable lip synching if the audio shows the face of a speaker. If you were making a video of a PowerPoint file without adding audio narration you could save disk space by greatly slowing down the video capture rate. However, I generally do not mess with the default settings. If you want to change the frame rates, you can read more about it --- Click Here
You can also change playback rates --- Click Here

Camtasia allows you to do some things like highlighting where your cursor is pointing. I generally use a big yellowish translucent circle around my mouse pointer. You can also have audio sounds whenever you click on your mouse and/or keyboard. This may alert student attention. You can also bring up a pen that allows you to write on video screens without writing on the computer program, like Excel, that you are running in the video.

You can also pan and zoom. Zoom lets you point to something like a cell formula in Excel and then make that formula larger and larger and larger. You can subsequently return to normal size. I use the panning feature when I am only recording a region of a screen such as a rectangle about a third of the size of the full computer screen. Capturing only a region greatly saves on the size of the captured video file. I use the panning feature to allow me to float the capture region to wherever I move my mouse. This allows me to capture anything appearing on a computer screen without having to capture a full screen in every video frame.

Years ago I started using Camtasia to field questions posed by students. For example, after technical lessons in my Accounting Information Systems course, I almost always received email messages from students who could not get something to work, especially in Excel and MS Access. I would then record a video tutorial and shared my answers with the entire current class and my future classes. You can download some of my sample wmv tutorials in this regard from http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/
The acronym PQQ stands for Possible Quiz Question source.

I also prepared longer tutorials on more complicated technical lectures in my Accounting Theory course. Most all of my students were confused after my lectures in this course until they viewed my video tutorials over and over and over. Some of my tutorials for the theory course are at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5341/

I also recorded some general tutorials that you can download from http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/Tutorials/

I have other tutorials that are filed away somewhere on CDs. It would take some effort to dig them out now.

The nice thing about Camtasia is that it's is so simple to use when creating and compressing video. Editing video is more complicated. It is also possible to add hot spots to swf flash video that you have compressed such that you can create interactive videos for your students, including examination videos. However, this is extremely tedious. I found it better to create my interactive examination files in Excel and then link to my tutorial videos at any time in those Excel files.

The hard thing about Camtasia is getting the audio to sound professional. Actually, I found my narrations using a cheap microphone adequate for my course tutorials. This weekend I had satisfactory results using only the internal microphone that's built into my Dell laptop. However, audio could be improved with an expensive microphone and a sound proof booth. Ambient noise in your office can be irritating when recorded in video.

If you are recording in your office, you should probably disconnect the telephone during recording sessions. Also put a sign on your office door that you are in a recording session.

It is also possible to make videos of PowerPoint files. If you choose to do so you can easily add a Camtasia toolbar in your PowerPoint file such that you can make videos with audio narrations on any any part or all of a PowerPoint file. That way you can teach from PowerPoint when you're out of town, retired, or dead.Users can download compressed video files of PowerPoint files with less virus risk than from any MS Office files such as doc, xls. or ppt files. However, when I narrate any of my PowerPoint files and make videos of them, I generally find that even the compressed videos are enormous since my PowerPoint files usually have more than 50 slides. Actually, it is probably best to compress PowerPoint vides at a slow frame rate as swf Flash files. Since Powerpoint is not fast moving video, a slower frame rate is usually quite satisfactory.

Nevertheless, recording and serving up entire lectures requires huge amounts of disk space. If your university will not provide you with enough Web, Blackboard, or WebCT server space for such large video files, I suggest that you make a DVD disk of compressed video for each lesson and then make these disks available in the library or by mail to students. Your campus media center may have more creative solutions.

 

A summary video of using Camtasia for recording and serving up Podcasts, Vodcasts, and Audio Enhanced PowerPoint files --- Click Here

Three nice summary videos on how to create interactive Flash videos using Camtasia --- Click Here

You can find out more about Camtasia and related TechSmith products at http://www.techsmith.com/

You can watch an introductory video at http://video.techsmith.com/camtasia/latest/demo/summary/enu/cs_summary.html

TechSmith has a link to Richard Campbell's (University of Rio Grande) interactive examination questions at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/education.asp
However, the link to Richard's files appears to broken, and Richard says he can no longer find the illustration file.

Happy video, podcast, and vodcast producing!

How can you capture and send streaming media?

Answer --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#StreamingMedia

Ratings and reviews of media streaming software --- http://www.homeofficereports.com/streaming%20video.htm

Video and Audio Recording for Classrooms

September 8, 2005 message from Glen Gray [glen.gray@CSUN.EDU]

Does anybody have any experience with Microsoft’s OneNote? What caught my eye was the mention in an article that you can use OneNote to record audio (e.g., during a meeting) on your computer (like a tape recorder). I was looking at the program on the Microsoft site and see that OneNote is software for organizing stuff (note, files, graphics, etc.).

Any thoughts for comments on OneNote? Any comments on other programs that I could use to record audio? I particularly want to record during meetings. I know that there are stand alone recorders, but it is one more thing to take to the meeting.

Glen L. Gray, PhD, CPA
Dept. of Accounting & Information Systems
College of Business & Economics
California State University, Northridge
Northridge, CA 91330-8372
818.677.3948
http://www.csun.edu/~vcact00f 

September 9, 2005 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Glen,

There is a highly favorable review (that does not go far into the audio features) at http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/choosingsoftware/a/onenoterev.htm 
I suspect Richard Campbell will weigh in on this with better suggestions.

I would think there is a problem with audio hardware much the same as I have a problem with my video camera at meetings. Unless I sit in the front row, it is difficult to pick up the speaker’s voice. If there is audience/class discussion throughout a room, it is very difficult to capture individual speakers.

The FBI probably has better audio capturing hardware than we can put on our laptops, but I would not expect OneNote software to magically allow us to get quality recordings at many meetings.

That does not mean that we should not download the free trial offer just to test out OneNote for all the many features claimed in the review above. It would seem that it will work optimally with a Tablet PC.

Bob Jensen

September 8, 2005 reply from Amy Dunbar

I don’t have experience with OneNote, but capturing audio is always a struggle for me. Camtasia is wonderful for screen capture video with audio, but to just record audio has presented more problems for me. I used to use the Microsoft Sound Recorder (under Accessories in Windows) and convert the wav file to an .rm file using Real Producer. Now that I have left the Real world (;-)), I am recording in Screenblaster and rendering the file as an MP3 file. I find it annoying, however, to have a music program, like ITunes, open it. I just want it to immediately play when the student clicks the link. If anyone has a better solution for converting wav files to a better format, I would love to hear about it. A UConn ITS person recommended CDEX

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/ , which is open source freeware.

Back to what you were asking, Glen. How would you capture everyone’s voices unless they had mics? I know audio conference tools can capture everyone, but in that case, each person is speaking into a mic at his/her computer.

And speaking of audio conferencing, does anyone know how many people can be in a Skype audio conference? I have only experienced three at a time. I am teaching a small PhD class, and I have asked my students to download Skype ( www.skype.com ) so we can easily find each other because all of us work at home a lot (which is a good thing in these times of skyrocketing gas prices). When a California colleague’s cell phone connection was to weak to have a conversation, we switched to Skype, and it worked like a charm.

Amy at UCon

September 9, 2005 reply from Jim Richards [J.Richards@MURDOCH.EDU.AU]

Hi Amy,

My recollection with Skype is that the maximum is 5.

Cheers,
Jim Richards
Murdoch Business School
Murdoch University South Street
MURDOCH WA
Australia

September 9, 2005 reply from Jim Richards [J.Richards@MURDOCH.EDU.AU]

Hi Glen
You may find that to record using your laptop might need a good quality omni-directional microphone to pick up a sufficiently loud signal.

Some open source software that can be used to record and export mp3 files is Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net ).

We use it at my local Church to record all of our ministry. You need to also download and install LAME to be able to export to mp3.

Cheers.

Jim Richards
Murdoch Business School
Murdoch University South Street
MURDOCH WA 6150 Phone: 61-8-9360-2706 Fax: 61-8-9310-5004

September 8, 2005 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Amy,

I can’t help with you’re SKYPE question.

But I want to add that the new version of Camtasia allows for camcorder input so that the image is no longer just confined to computer screen images. Even though digital video takes up massive amounts of space, Camtasia videos do not have to be space hogging full screens and the videos can be compressed in the final production.

The big problem with video capturing at meetings is that the video is often less interesting than the audio unless the speaker is using visual aids. Capturing video of a talking head is a total waste of space digitally speaking. I still use an analog camera and space is no problem since video tapes are cheap ways to store lots of video.

My problem of course is that my hundreds of video tapes will soon be as obsolete as my withering 8-track audio tapes. Soon we won’t be able to buy new machines that will play video tapes, so take good care of the old players in your house or office. And consider putting them to DVD in the near future.

Bob Jensen

Converting Home Videos to DVDs

Q: Are there services that will take home video and burn it to a DVD that can be played anywhere? I know I can do this on my PC, but it takes too much time and I keep running into problems when I try it.

A: There are such services. One that I have tested and found to be good is called YesVideo (yesvideo.com). You bring your videos into a store that works with YesVideo -- including CVS, Walgreen, Best Buy and Target -- and they send the tapes to YesVideo, which converts them to a very nice DVD. You also can get the same service online, at Sony's ImageStation site ( www.imagestation.com ). Sony calls its service Video2DVD, but it really is just the YesVideo service. My full review of the service is at: ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040128.html. Because YesVideo works through retailers, prices vary, but are usually around $25-$35 for a two-hour video. Each DVD is divided into chapters based on a YesVideo process that tries to detect scene changes in your videos. At the end, there are three 60-second music videos made from scenes on your videos. The company also will put your prints, slides and even old film onto DVD, but this costs more and is handled by fewer retailers. Details are at the YesVideo Web site.
Walter Mossberg, "Converting Home Videos to DVDs," The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2005; Page B3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112492084317722331,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace

At last there will be a way to efficiently store digital video
But this is no ordinary recording process. The disc has more than 60 times the storage capacity of a standard DVD, while the drive writes about 10 times faster than a conventional DVD burner. That means the disc can store up to 128 hours of video content--almost twice enough for the full nine seasons of Seinfeld--and records it all in less than three hours.
Holographic Memory
By Gregory T. Huang , "Holographic Memory," MIT's Technology Review, September 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/09/issue/feature_memory.asp?trk=nl

Convert AVI to WMV, BMP, JPG, etc. - OSS Video Decompiler 4.0 --- http://www.tomdownload.com/multimedia_design/video/oss_video_decompiler.htm

Powerful Video Decompiler that supports decompiling video files to extract the individual image frames. Supports AVI to WMV, AVI to GIF, AVI to (PNG, JPEG, JPG, EMF, WMV, BMP, and more). Video Decompiling (Supported formats AVI to GIF, AVI to PNG (Portable Network Graphics), AVI to JPEG, AVI to TIFF, AVI to EMF, AVI to WMV). Convert multiple video files at once (Batch Conversion). Many modern features were added to the latest versions. Now you can save and load video conversion and effects settings using XML.

 

It appears that Camstudio has a freeware video screen capture system that competes with the non-freeware Camtasia (that I love) for capturing computer screen activity in to video.  The Camstudio software lacks many of the great features of Camtasia, especially the feature that allows for conversion of the AVI files into RealMedia Files (to both save space and avoid having to download a special player for playback).

Hi Bob,

We would like to introduce our new freeware which can record screen activity into standard AVI movie files. It is an ideal tool for developing videos to demonstrate features of a new software, for creating movies used in user training or any other task that requires the capture of desktop activity.

The program is easy to use, and you can select an area or full desktop for recording. You can adjust the video quality settings to reduce file size, use custom cursors and add a soundtrack through your microphone.

[Name and version of app ] 
CamStudio 1.1

[Link to homepage of app] http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc 

[System requirements] Microsoft Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 or later. 400 MHz processor . 64 MB RAM 4 MB of hard-disk space for program installation.

[Download link] http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc/setup.exe 

RenderSoft Software [jupboo@pacific.net.sg] 

The FAQ site has a nice explanation of hardware acceleration problems that can arise when playing back any AVI files on newer computers --- http://www.atomixbuttons.com/vsc/ 

When I play back a full-screen AVI file using Windows Media Player by double clicking it, the text and graphics becomes blurred.

There are two main reasons for the movie being blurred.

One is that you are using Windows Media Player to play back a movie that has a frame size that is as big or bigger than the screen. 

In this case, Windows Media Player will shrink the picture to fit it on the screen. This cause the  text and graphics to be blurry. To view the movie in full quality, you will need to switch Windows Media Player to full screen playback, or switch your monitor to a higher resolution .

You may also record a smaller region to avoid this problem. Otherwise you may need to use the Movie Player software that is distributed with the CamStudio package to playback the movie.

Another reason for the cause of the unclear image is the use of Lossy Codec as your compressor. This means the compressor will degrade the quality of your picture to reduce the size of your AVI file.

To remedy this, you may either set the Quality settings in Video Options to a higher value, or use a Lossless Codec for your compressor (e.g Microsoft RLE is a lossless codec that is available only in the display mode of 256 colors).


When I press the F9 key to stop the recorder when the program is minimized, the save dialog does not appear.

Try minimizing all other windows on your desktop. The save dialog window is probably hidden behind them.


Can I use the AVI files recorded with CamStudio for commercial purposes ?

Yes, of course. The AVI files created with CamStudio may be used for any purposes, including commercial purposes. You may sell your recorded .AVI files or charge users for products that include those AVIs.



How come when I try to record something playing in Windows Media Player (or Real Player or Apple QuickTime), it comes out blank?

This is because hardware acceleration is being used in these players. You may want to disable hardware acceleration in these players :

Windows Media Player 7:
Choose Tools:Options (and select the Performance tab). Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.

Windows Media Player 6.4 and earlier:
Choose View: Options : Playback. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.

Apple QuickTime:
Choose Edit : Preferences : Streaming Transport. Select Video Settings in the combobox and uncheck all DirectDraw options.

RealPlayer G2:
Choose Options/Preferences (and select the Performance tab). Uncheck the "Use Optimized Video Display" setting.

Disabling Hardware Acceleration System Wide
Another solution is to disable hardware acceleration for your whole system.

To do this on Windows 2000, go to the Control Panel, choose Display : Properties : Settings : Advanced : Troubleshooting. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.

For other versions of Windows, go to the Control Panel, choose System, (and under the performance tab), choose Graphics : Advanced. Set the Hardware Acceleration slider to None.



When I record my DVD player, the output is blank.

DVD players usually require hardware acceleration to run. You may not be able to capture movies from your DVD player.



My Win 2000 system freezes when I record with CamStudio.

Try turning off system wide hardware acceleration and reducing the input frame rate of CamStudio.

Turning off system wide hardware acceleration :
Please read FAQ above on how to go about in disabling system wide hardware acceleration.

Reducing Frame Rate:
In CamStudio, go to Options : Video Options and increase the value of "Capture Frames Every __ milliseconds"



When I click the Record button, I get an "Error Creating AVI file" message.

Try going to Options : Video Options, and select a different compressor.



I am recording a game with its sound effects and music. The video comes out fine but how come the audio is missing ?

CamStudio 1.1 can only record audio from the microphone. If you need to record the audio playing in the speakers, one suggestion is to place your microphone near your speakers.


How can I optimize the video settings to get the best results ? Can you suggest a good video setting ?

One setting which gives very good frame rates is to use 256 color display mode with MS RLE as Compressor.

Futhermore, in Options: Video Options

In general, you should adjust the Set Key Frames Every and Playback Rate to be equal 1000/Capture Frame Every. For example, if Capture Frame Every is 5, then the Playback Rate should be 1000/5 = 200.

However, if you are creating a time-lapse movie, (in which your Capture Frame Every is a very large value), you may want to set the Playback Rate to be around 20 to 30 frames/second.



I have fininshed recording with CamStudio and would like to trim/cut some of the frames in the AVI. Are there any freeware video editors that can do this?

VirtualDub is a great freeware video editor for editing AVIs. Download it at http://www.virtualdub.org/index



I am trying to record a DOS application by switching to it from Windows, and it seems to be impossible as all I get is some sort of fuzzy stuff in the playback.

CamStudio cannot record your DOS application when it is running in full screen DOS mode. Try recording your DOS application in windowed mode.

You can make your full-screen DOS application into a window by pressing CTRL-ESC when you are in DOS mode. This will return you to the Windows screen. If you look at the task-bar, you will notice a new item "MS-DOS prompt". By right-clicking on this item, and selecting Properties, a dialog box will be displayed. Choose the Screen tab and under Usage, select Window and click "OK". Your DOS screen will now become a window. You can start recording from here and the output should be fine.



Does CamStudio record DirectX, OpenGL applications and special windows such as the Office Assistant in MS Word?

This actually depends on your system. For most cases, CamStudio should be able to record DirectX and OpenGL programs if they are running in windowed mode rather than full-screen mode.

( I successfully recorded the Office Assistant in one computer running Win Me, but could not do so in another with Win 2000 installed. )



I need to save in the QuickTime or Mpeg format. How can I do that with CamStudio ?

CamStudio does not save videos in the QuickTime or Mpeg movie format directly. You will need third party software to do the conversion.

For Quicktime movies, you may use QuickTime Pro from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

For Mpeg, there is a free AVI to MPEG converter on the internet.   Click here for free AVI to MPEG1 converter




How can I convert AVI files to Windows Media files (.ASF  .WMV) for streaming on the Internet.

You may use the free Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7 to convert AVI files to ASF or WMV format.

Windows Media Encoder is available without charge at:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/wm7/encoder.html



When I record a large window, the computer becomes very slow. How can I capture a large window fast enough?

Capturing a large frame and compressing it are time-intensive operations. Your computer may not be fast able to handle such frame rates at these sizes.

You can try to



I have downloaded your source code and found them very interesting. Would you tell me how the function XXX in file YYY works ?

Please do not direct technical questions related to the source code to us.



I am a programmer. How can I implement the feature of adding text/graphics overlay into the movie ?

You may want take a look at the functions

captureScreenFrame
InsertHighLight

in the file vscapView.cpp of the source code to see how we implemented the drawing of highlights into a frame of the AVI movie. The addition of text/graphics overlay should be very similar.

One of the most frequently asked questions asked in my education technology workshops is as follows:  
"In what ways should course content materials be modified for online learning?"

My quick and dirty response is that faculty who develop content should learn how to use FrontPage or some other good HTML editor and then learn how to screen capture and video capture themselves rather than relying upon technicians.  You can learn Microsoft FrontPage, screen capturing, and Camtasia video capturing in just a few days with a little help from your friends.  With a little added effort, you can make your online course materials more interactive by saving Excel worksheets as interactive Webpages and by learning how to use JavaScript.  You can learn all of these things in less than a week if you have the correct software and hardware.

  1. Use more screen captures, audio captures, and video captures of things that you normally demo in lecture presentations.   Look under "Resources" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm 
    Also see my tutorials at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm 
  2. MP3 Audio
    Audio capturing is especially important since you can let students hear what you like to say in lectures or case discussions.  For example, in an Excel spreadsheet you can add buttons that students can click on to hear your explanation of what is going on in various cells of the spreadsheet.  Look under "Resources" at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/newfaculty.htm 
  3. Camtasia AVI Versus RM Recordings --- See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideosSummary.htm 
    Flash in PowerPoint, Excel, or other presentations with video and audio.  Camtasia works great for both capturing dynamic computer screen presentations in video accompanied by your audio explanations.  Your video files may take up more space than you are allowed on your Web server.  However, you can save them to CD-R or CD-RW disks that can be sold to students for around $1.00 per disk. You can learn more about Camtasia from http://www.techsmith.com/ .  You can make CDs by simply dragging files to a blank CD using Windows Explorer if you first install Easy CD (http://www.roxio.com/en/products/ecdc/ ).  

    For video illustrations and tutorials, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideosSummary.htm 
  4. Excel Saved as Webpages Can Add Interactivity In Imaginative Ways
    Suppose that you want to have students make journal entries in a HTML Webpage.  Or suppose you want to see the impact of interest rate swap valuations with changes in forward yield curve estimates. 

    Or suppose you want an interactive Excel chart imported into a HTML Webpage where the chart will change when the reader changes the loan principal, interest rate, or maturity date. 

     
    Saving an XLS file as a HTM file is Quite Simple

     

    • Create an Excel file that has some formulas and/or graphs derived from numbers in cells.  First save the file as an "xls" file.  Then re-open your Excel file. 
       

    • Click on "Save file as" and then choose an "*.htm" file rather than an "xls" file.
       

    • A new screen will appear that has a button called "Publish".  Click on this button.
       

    • A new screen will appear with a box where you can click in the box for "Add interactivity".  Choose a name for the file and then click on the "Publish" button at the bottom of the page.
       

    • You now have an "htm" file that will read interactively on Internet Explorer browsers (not usually other types of browsers like Foxfire).  What was once coded in Visual Basic in Excel is now coded in DHTML that can be read by Internet Explorer.
       

    • Users will be able to change numbers and see the answers change in formulas.  If you have graphs, users can change the numbers and watch the graphs change.
       

    • When you make your original Excel spreadsheet, you should type in instructions guiding users to where they can change the numbers. 
       

    • Your htm version will not read comments that you placed in your xls file as "Comments" and it will not run any macros that you had in your xls file. 
       

    • You can read this htm file in FrontPage and fix it up somewhat with headings and text.  You cannot change your interactive numbers and graphs without going back to your original xls file.



    For illustrations on publishing Excel workbooks, spreadsheets, or charts as interactive Webpages, see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/dhtml/excel01.htm 

    I have video instructions on how to create these files in the ExcelDHTML.wmv file under ACCT 5342 at  http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~rjensen/video/acct5342/ 


  5. JavaScript Calculations and Interactivity
    Try to make your online materials more interactive by saving Excel workbooks as interactive Webpages and use of JavaScipt.  For my JavaScript tutorials, see  http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HelpersVideos.htm .  
  6. Amy Dunbar's Online Pedagogy
    Make a lot more use of online questions and answers that replace the question and answer type of style that you probably use in lectures.  Amy Dunbar uses this approach extensively.  You can read about how she developed her first online course.  See http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#Motivations 

Excel Tips and Helpers (Including Videos)

Excel Tips and Videos (Pivot Tables and Charts)

Pivot Tables Should Be Used More Often

Roberta has a new article on pivot tables.
"Make Exel and Instant Know-It All," by Robert Ann Jones, Journal of Accountancy, March 2004, pp. 40-43 --- http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/mar2004/jones.htm 

You’re sitting at your computer working on a spreadsheet that displays revenue generated by individual salespersons. Your CEO, hovering anxiously at your elbow, asks you for one employee’s third-quarter sales total. You sort the Salesperson column and then the Order Date column. Then you write you write a formula to identify third-quarter sales. Finally, you sum the order amounts and give your boss the number he wants. Just as you congratulate yourself for coming up with the answer in less than three minutes, he says, “OK, now compare that with the results of the whole sales team.”

You roll your eyes in frustration, scrap all the work you just did and re-sort the columns and rows and write a new set of formulas.

There has to be a better way, you think.

And there is. Instead of repeatedly sorting columns and rows and customizing formulas to answer each question your boss asks, you take a new tack: Immediately after you initially put the worksheet data together you can spend a minute or two using Excel’s PivotTables, which will let you easily reconfigure the data with a mouse so you can produce near-instant answers to most any question about them.

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen's Excel Tips and Videos (Pivot Tables and Charts)
Did you know that Microsoft Corporation presents some of its financial history in Excel pivot tables?  You can download the Excel Workbooks containing pivot tables from "Financial History" at  http://www.microsoft.com/msft/tools.htm 

I also found a link to the 1999 Microsoft financial reports --- these had much better Pivot table than the Years 2000-2005 annual reports. Take a look at http://www.microsoft.com/msft/ar99/lts.htm 

The Year 2005 Microsoft Annual Report pivot tables are at http://www.microsoft.com/msft/history.mspx
Scroll down to the bottom of the page.

For extensions into OLAP (including the Microsofts FinWeb),  see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/XBRLandOLAP.htm 

I prepared a video on how to download and use the Microsoft pivot tables.  The video can be downloaded from PivotMicrosoft.rm

I also have a video illustrating how to make a pivot table