E-Learning with Camtasia Studio

November 26, 2014 at 4:36 pm | Posted in lecture recording, software | Leave a comment

I’ve been a fan of Camtasia for some years now, and this screen recording/video editing software has been the subject of several posts on this blog, so I wasn’t too surprised when I was approached by Packt Publishing to review their ebook E-Learning with Camtasia Studio. Weighing in at 188 pages, it turned out to be a really useful introduction to the thinking, processes and planning required for almost any multimedia learning/training resource, as well as covering Camtasia-specific features. The author, David B. Demyan has obviously has a great deal of practical experience in using Camtasia to produce interactive learning and communicates this clearly in his writing.

As mentioned, a significant portion of the book is devoted to non-technical but essential issues, from establishing the learning outcomes and the learner profiles to planning, scripting and storyboarding. It goes on to cover the essentials of creating and editing using Camtasia – introducing each of the key features (such as pan-and-zoom) without un-necessary detail of every option. This is a good thing as there are plenty of other online resources including the TechSmith website that provide that level of detail. What is really useful and new, however, are the chapters on the addition of interactive features (hotspots, quizzes) and the integration with learning management systems using SCORM. Even if you already know Camtasia, you will probably find that these sections alone justify the modest cost. The e-book comes with a ZIP file of sample files that you can download so that you can follow through the exercises and example production – and this includes all the planning documents as well as the media files. Recommended.

Packt Publishing offer two further books on Camtasia by different authors – one on Advanced Editing and Publishing and another on Building an E-Learning Course with Camtasia Studio – and the latter seems to broadly cover the same material.

I’ve also been a long-time subscriber to Daniel Park’s helpful emails about Camtasia from dappertext.com, although I never got around to buying his well reviewed (but more expensive) Camtasia Guide. Prompted by writing this review, and looking through the sample chapters Daniel provides, I think that the book reviewed above is not as comprehensive, but provides better coverage of the topics it does include – and the example project management files are  the icing on the cake.