Tech-Tutorials and Notes

Camtasia--Editing Video(s) Part 5: Zooming and Panning

2009-04-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of working with Camtasia, is having a built-in studio, eliminating the need to save the file in a specific format and import it into another program to crop or otherwise edit your clips or videos. Today, we're going to talk about how to add emphasis to slides, or something within them by adding Zooming or Panning dimensions to our clips or images.

1) Once you have brought up your video, select Zoom-n-Pan from your Edit menu on the Task List.(Like Callouts, this will bring up a new screen in your window.)

2)Click on Add Zoom-n-Pan key frame, found below the box of previously made Zoom-n-Pans.

3)Select whether or not you wish for the pan or zoom to be slow, fast, or instantaneous in it's speed.

4)Next, Scroll down, on the left-hand side of your screen you will see a preview box of your video. It will be a still image, not the preview box which allows you to press play, etc.
Resize by clicking and dragging, the light green outline around the box, to the area in which you wish to zoom or pan to.

5) Click OK at the top of the window.

6) Now you may return to the more familiar preview box on the right-hand side of your screen, and press play to preview your pan/zoom as it will appear within your video. If you are satisfied with this, and done adding panning or zooming to your video, you may click Finished to return to Camtasia's main screen. If you wish to add more panning or zooming to other places in your video simply select Add Zoom-n-Pan key frame to repeat the process.

[Be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tutorials about using Camtasia!]

Camtasia--Editing Video(s) Part 4:Callouts

2009-04-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of working with Camtasia, is having a built-in studio, eliminating the need to save the file in a specific format and import it into another program to crop or otherwise edit your clips or videos. Today, we're going to talk about how to add emphasis to slides, or something within them by adding callouts.

Callouts are exactly what they sound like, a sort of virtual person within your video yelling out "Hey, pay attention to this" to whomever is viewing your video. Arrows are perhaps the most commonly used callouts, but you can also select speech bubbles, and a variety of other shapes and tools to call attetnion to what is important within a clip.

1)Once you have brought up your video, select Callouts... from your Edit menu on the Task List.
(Like Transitions or titles, this will bring up a new screen in your window.)

2)Click on Add Callout, found below the box of previously made callouts.

3)Next, select the shape or type of callout you would like to use. (i.e. arrows, speech/thought bubbles, etc.)

4)Chose a border and Fill color for your callout.

5) By selecting the Make Flash Hot Spot box, you can chose both the time during the clip which your callout enters and exits.

6)Similarly to titles, you can chose where on the screen you wish your callout to appear by moving the light green outline surrounding your callout on the preview screen.

7)Finally, in the box below write and format your text as you wish it to appear in your callout.

8)Properties will allow you to set whether or not your callout fades in or out, or has a shadow when it appears in your clip.

9)When you have finished, scroll back up to the top of the window and select OK.

10) Your callout will now appear in your video where you have specified. You may add another by clikcin the add callout button below the box, or you may modify, copy, or delete the one you have just created.

If you are trhough with adding callouts select the finished button at the top of the page to return to Camtasia's main page.

[Be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tutorials about using Camtasia!]

Camtasia--Editing Video(s) Part 3:Titles

2009-04-27T11:22:00.001-07:00

One of the benefits of working with Camtasia, is having a built-in studio, eliminating the need to save the file in a specific format and import it into another program to crop or otherwise edit your clips or videos. Today, we're going to talk about how to add titles and credits to your videos.

Once you have uploaded several different clips and placed them in the timeline, or you have split, you may wish to add titles or credits to your video.

1)Select Title Clips... from the task list under add. (Like Transitions, this will bring up a new screen in your window. )

2)Give your title clip a name, this will be a means of distinguishing it from other title clips you may later create.

3)You can also click on the color box in background to change the color of the title clip's background

4)If you wish to, you may add an image to the background of your title clip. Select the box Image. Then click on the folder to browse your computer for the one you wish to use. The new background should now be uploaded to your title clip.

5) Click and drag to adjust the green outline in the preview box, this will determine where the text you compose will rest on the title clip.

6)Finally, type the text you wish to appear in your title clip, in the box below Text. You may format the text to any size, font or format you so desire.

7) When you are finished composing your text, select OK, at the top of the screen to return to Camtasia's main page.

8)Your title clip will now appear in the Clip Bin. Click and drag it as you would one of your video files to the timeline below and drop it where you wish it to appear in your video.

9)Select the heading of your entire video, or wherever you wish to begin from and press the spacebar to view a preview of your video with your new title clip. You may create and insert as many title clips as you feel necessary.

[Be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tutorials about using Camtasia!]

Camtasia--Editing Video(s) Part 2:Transitions

2009-04-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits of working with Camtasia, is having a built-in studio, eliminating the need to save the file in a specific format and import it into another program to crop or otherwise edit your clips or videos. Today, we are going to go over how to jazz up your video with transitions.

Once you have uploaded several different clips and placed them in the timeline, or you have split, you may wish to add transitions to your video.

Adding Transitions

1) Select the Transitions... option from the Task list (You will notice that this will take you to a new page, full of transitions you can use for your video, and that your timeline on the bottom of the screen has changed slightly.)

2)To preview a transition you think you may wish to use in your video, select on the transition you like, then click the play button in the preview box to the right.

3) If this is the transition you would like to use, click and drag the transition to the timeline, and drop it inbetween the clips you wish to transition where you see the small box with the arrow pointing right.

4) This transition will now appear in your video. If you wish to use a different transition, simply drag and drop the new one over to the old transition and Camtasia will replace it for you.

5) Once you are done adding transitions to your video, click the finished button above the transitions list. This will bring you back to Camtasia's main page. (Note your timeline has changed back to its previous formatting.)

6) To preview the new changes you have made in your video click at the heading of your timeline and press the spacebar to preview your video.

7)If you would like to save your project, but wish to do more editing later, click on the save icon at the top of the window, represented by the floppy disk.

8)If you are finished with your project and wish to export it, select the folder with the filmstrip icon from the top of the window. (This will bring up a wizard to help you export your new Camtasia video project.
From here you can select whether you want the computer's help to determine which type of file you should use, or you may select the type on your own, set the size (or dimensions) of your video, and of course where you will save it and what it will be titled.
(Please note it does take some time for Camtasia to render your video. When it is finished, Camtasia will bring up a Screencast version for you to preview.)

[Be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tutorials about how to use Camtasia!]

Camtasia--Editing Video(s) Part 1

2009-04-27T10:52:00.001-07:00

One of the benefits of working with Camtasia, is having a built-in studio, eliminating the need to save the file in a specific format and import it into another program to crop or otherwise edit your clips or videos.

1)Once you have imported your videos into Camtasia's Clip Bin, select one that you would like to begin editing, and drag it to the timeline at the bottom the of window.

2) To change when the video begins or ends, click and drag by the black arrows at either end of the clip. (The upper right-hand side of the screen allows you to preview your newly revised clip.)

3) Selecting a region and right-clicking on the clip will provide you with a drop down list of options for editing your video, including the capability to split or cut the selection.

[Be sure to stay tuned for more tips and tutorials about how to use Camtasia to create videos!]

Camtasia--Importing Video

2009-04-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

The first step to editing your video captures, or creating a movie with Camtasia, is to upload footage.

1)Open Camtasia.

2)Select Import Media from the task list on the left-hand side of the screen.

3) Browse and select the file you wish to bring into Camtasia (You may wish to bring in several , repeat this process for each video you wish to import.), then click Open.

4)The videos you have selected will now appear in Camtasia's Clip Bin to the right of your task list.

Camtasia--Getting a Capture

2009-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Camtasia--Getting a Capture

1) Bring up Camtasia and click on the link Record the Screen from the task list on the left-hand side of the screen. (This will open a wizard to help you set up your capture.)

2) Select the Region, Window or Entire Screen for Camtasia to record, then click next.
If you selected region, you may type the specifications or click Select Window to click and drag the cursor over the area you wish to select.

3) Select whether you want to record camera (video), Audio (voiceover, etc.), and if you wish to see a preview while recording. Then select next.

4) Make sure that the microphone you are using is working properly. If it is not, you may need to change the audio device, by selecting a different source from the drop-down menu. Then click next.

5) Your camera settings should set up by default, click next.

6) Click the Finish button.

You are now ready to begin recording with Camtasia. You will see a small box on your screen, if this is in the way of the area you are recording, you can minimize it. If you selected the option you wanted to preview your work while recording, it will appear here.

7) Use the F9 key to start or pause your recording at any time.

8) Use the F10 key to stop your recording and finalize it for Camtasia.

9) A preview will pop up, if you are satisfied with your recording, click on the save button at the bottom of the preview box. If you would like to discard it click delete.

10) If you wish to record again, simply press the F9 key again to begin, but remember that Camtasia will record the same area you have set up for your last recording unless you change your settings.
(You can change your settings by choosing wizard from the drop down menu Capture in your preview box. Or selecting Record the Screen again from the Camtasia studio screen.)

[Stay Tuned for more tips and guides about how to use Camtasia!]

Camtasia & Moodle

2009-04-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, you will know that I have been working for some time with the program Jing, a video capture program, to create video tutorials about adding content to your class page(s) on Moodle.
More recently, I have begun to familiarize myself with a similar capture program: Camtasia. One of the benefits of using Camtasia, is in i's being able to record longer video captures (Jing videos cannot exceed 5-minutes), and it's adaptability.
While Jing offers the ability to project your videos online, via Screencast, it saves any files to your computer as Shockwave Flash Objects by default. Camtasia, on the other hand, offers the user a variety of formats in which to save their videos, which opens up the possibility of using your captures in video editing programs such as Windows Movie-Maker or the Mac equivalent, iMovie. Camtasia also provides it's own easily navigable editing studio. This provides users with security in the knowledge they can make a mistake in their capture, audio or otherwise, without the necessity of re-recording as they might be required to with Jing.
Similarly to iMovie or Windows Movie-Maker, Camtasia offers the ability to import other types of video files and images than the captures you have made with Camtasia, a variety of transitions, adding audio tracks such as music, or even post production narrations, and the capability of adding titles, or credits to your new movie. Offering an intuitive sidebar task list, Camtasia is an easy way to create longer video captures and simple videos. And in being able to save in other formats, provides users with the capability to upload easily to Youtube, a common complaint amongst Jing users.

[Please stay-tuned for future blogs about how to use Camtasia to get video captures, edit and upload video.]

Adding Short Answer Questions to a Moodle Quiz

2009-01-23T09:07:00.001-08:00

Adding a short answer question to your Moodle quiz is much the same as a description question.

1) As with writing any other question for the quiz the first step is to give your question a title.

2)In the box that reads Question text write in your question for your short answer question

3) A short answer question provides spaces for you to provide possible answers

**However it is probably most beneficial for the teacher to review these to insure students receive the appropriate amount of credit for their responses in case they provide a correct response that was not entered in an answer blank. **

4) You may add 3 more answers (or more) if you should so need them.

5) Save your changes, you should now be able to add this question to your quiz.

Adding a Description Question or Essay to a Moodle Quiz

2009-01-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

Adding a description or essay question to a moodle quiz is perhaps the easiest to add of any type of questions.

1) As with writing any other question for the quiz the first step is to give your question a title.

2) In the box that reads Question text write in your question for your description question

3) Save your changes, and you should now be able to add your question to your quiz

**Bear in mind, however, that these questions cannot be graded electronically and must be graded at the discretion of the teacher.**

Adding a True/False Question to a Moodle Quiz

2009-01-23T09:05:00.002-08:00

As with writing any other question for the quiz the first step is to give your question a title.

1) In the box that reads Question text write in your question for your True/False question

2) Use the drop-down menu to select whether the proper answer should be true or false.

3) Also provided you will find boxes in which you can write feedback your student will see based upon whether they answer true or false.

4) Save your changes, and you should now be able to add your true/false question to your quiz.

Adding a Matching Question to a Moodle quiz

2009-01-23T09:05:00.001-08:00

1) As with writing any other question for the quiz the first step is to give your question a title.

2) In the box that reads Question text write in the directions for your set of matching questions

3) Scroll down and in the spaces provided write in matching sets in the questions and answers blanks.

**You can also add more matching sets by clicking on the button that says “3 More Sets of Blanks” **

4) Save your changes, and you should now be able to add your matching questions to your quiz.

Adding a Calculation Question to a Moodle Quiz

2009-01-23T09:02:00.000-08:00

1) As with writing any other question for the quiz the first step is to give your question a title.

2) Next write your question in the next box

3) Set the value of the question (the number of points a student can receive if they answer correctly)

3) Below this you will see a box labeled penalty factor; this will determine how many points or partial points a student can receive for an incorrect or partially incorrect answer.

4) Type the correct answer

5) Next set a tolerance level (how close must a student answer come to the correct one to receive full points.)

6) You can add Feedback if you wish, or you may add another possible answer.

7) Lastly you can add the unit the answer will be using in the box provided.

8) Save this question and you should now be able to add it to your quiz.

Basic Steps-Linking a Document to Moodle

2008-12-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

Linking a document, such as your class sylabus to Moodle is relatively painless process that can be done in a few simple steps.

1.Turn on Editing on your class page

2. Use the drop-down menu "Add a Resource" to select the "Link to a File or Website" option

3. Create a Title for your document

4. Scroll down to the bottom of your page and click upload a file

5. Select the folder in Moodle where you wish to store the file

6. Browse and select the file you wish to upload from your computer

7. Click Upload this file

After a few moments, that file should appear within Moodle

8. Now, select the option that says "Choose" under the "actions" column on the right side of your screen

9. Click "save and return to course"

The Document has now been uploaded to Moodle

****IMPORTANT NOTE****
It is important to remember that when you load a document to Moodle, Moodle retains a frozen copy of the document, much like an email attachment. If you make changes to the document, for example your sylabus, you will need to reload it to Moodle if you want it to reflect those changes.

Basic Steps-Adding a Quiz to Moodle

2008-12-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

The First step to creating a quiz on Moodle comes before questions are even written; setting your quiz preferences.

1. Turn on the editing preferences on your class page

2. Then select "Quiz" from the drop-down menu "Add an Activity"

3. The first thing you should do is Add a name to your quiz in the first blank provided
(you can add a brief description of the quiz in the box below it if you like)

Moodle provides you with lots of choices to format your quiz, you can...

Use the sets of date and time to create a start-time and deadline for students to take your quiz. If you don't wish to do this, simply check the disable box.

You can set a time limit for the quiz, or specify how long a student must wait to retake your quiz.

Specify how many questions will appear on a page at one time

Shuffle the questions or shuffle the possible answers

Allow students to make more than one attempt

Specify how the Moodle will grade the students' quiz attempt(s)

Apply penalties or deduct points for an incorrect response

Select the number of decimal points that will appear in a student' end grade

And finally, perhaps most significantly...

Allows you to provide instant feedback to your students depending upon their grade on the quiz you have created.

Basic Steps-Writing a Multiple Choice Question for Moodle

2008-11-13T10:53:00.000-08:00

go to www.moodle.stmartin.edu/
Find your course and switch to editing mode
select quizzes from the sidebar tab on the left
Click "Create new Question"
Select "Multiple choice" from the drop-down menu
Name your question
select whether the question has one or more correct answers
fill in the banks with possible responses
select the grade a student would recieve for selecting that response
You can use the bank below to write in an automatic response to students who chose that answer
Click "Save Changes"
The question should now appear in your question bank, you can now add it to the quiz you previously programed the settings for.

Jing audio script mini-series: Writing quiz questions (multiple choice)

2008-10-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

[The following is a the script of a Jing tutorial video available on Saint Martin University's Instructional Design Moodle. It is intended to supplement the video should you have any trouble interpreting the audio file and is in no way intended to replace the actual video tutorials. Click on the link to watch the videos that this resource accompanies.]

Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.

Today we are going to show you part two of how to add a quiz to your class page.

So in the first part of this series we showed you how to set your quiz preferences.

Today we are going to begin a mini-series about how to write questions for your quiz.

The first type of question we are going to learn how to write is one of the easiest, multiple choice.

So first you access Saint Martin's Moodle page which again is at moodle.stmartin.edu/ and log in with your user name and password.

Find the class that you want to work on and select it.

When it pulls up the page, click on the button that says turn editing on in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

Next, select quizzes from the border to the left of your screen.

A heading that says Question bank should be on the right, scroll down to "Create New Question", and chose the type of question you wish to create. Let's try a multiple choice question together, shall we?

Next give the question a name, and you can add a description in the box below it if you like. Then scroll down.

You can chose whether there are one or multiple correct responses to this question, and set the preferences so that the quiz answers will be shuffled each time it is taken.

Lastly you can select the nature of the choices, whether your responses are numbered or noted by letters.

Just below that you will enter one possible response in the blank.

Next we select the grade the student will receive for that response.negative percentages will indicate a deduction or penalty for that response, positive percentages will indicate that the student is to be awarded points for that answer. You can chose the percent for partically correct responses to give the student some credit for effort.

The boxes below the answers are the places to write responses to the student's individual answers. You can also automatically respond to any correct or incorrect responses, but we'll get back to that in a minute.

You may provide as many choices as you like, Moodle will provide a standeard of five boxes, but you can click on the link that says "Blanks for three more choices" as needed.

The bottom of the page has boxes for you to write in the automatic response to any correct, partcially correct, or incorrect response. Remember this will supplement the individual comments you have already added to each question if you chose to do so. The response will appear below every desiganted answer as dictated by their score on the question.

Now click save changes.

Your question will now appear below the "Question Bank" heading.

So that's how you write a multiple choice question for your quiz on Moodle.

Stay tuned for how to write other types of questions to your quiz, adding questions to your quiz, and a practice run-through of your quiz as your students will see it.

Thanks for watching!

[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, the mini-series will continue with writing other types of questions, and part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]

Jing audio script 3: Adding a quiz-part 1

2008-10-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

[The following is a the script of a Jing tutorial video available on Saint Martin University's Instructional Design Moodle. It is intended to supplement the video should you have any trouble interpreting the audio file and is in no way intended to replace the actual video tutorials. Click on the link to watch the videos that this resource accompanies.]

Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.

Today we are going to show you part one of how to add a quiz to your page.

The first step to making a quiz is to set the preferences.

After you have accessed your page on Moodle (by logging in at moodle.stmartin.edu/) and turned on the editing preference,

Select add an activity from the drop down menu, and the quiz option.

Be sure to give your quiz a name, and in the box below you can add a brief discription of what the test will be about.

If you scroll down you will see two sets of date and time, this will allow you to control when the test can be taken by your students. If you do not wish to set these limits you can check the disable boxes.

You can also set time limits to take the test, and time limits between the first and second attempts.

Display options allows you to chose how many questions will be displayed on a page,

Shuffle the questions,

Or in the case of multiple choices, shuffle the answers.

Attempts allows you to decide whether or not students will be given an opportunity to retake the quiz once they have taken it.

Grades, allows you to decide whether or not the students final grade will be the average, first, second or highest score they have received on this quiz.

It also allows you to apply penalties or deduct points for incorrect responses if you wish to do so.

You can also select the number of decimal points that will appear in the students final grades.

Review options allows you to chose what your students will see when they finish their quiz.

Finally, overall feedback is the last and perhaps most important,

In this category, you can program the computer to automatically offer specific comments to certain grade percentage scores.

Next click save and return to course.

So there it is on your page, you've now set your preferences for that particular quiz

Don't miss part two, we will show you how to add questions to your quiz.

Thanks for watching!

[Again that was a script for a Jing tutorial video available on the Instructional Design site on Saint Martin's moodle, feel free to click on the title of this blog, or the link at the beginning of this piece to check out the videos in their entirety. Also stayed tuned for further updates, part 2 of adding quizzes will follow soon, we'll show you how to add questions to your quiz, and have a practice test.]

Jing audio script 2: Linking a document

2008-10-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

[The following is a script from the Jing tutorial videos on Saint Martin's Instructional Design Moodle, it is designed to supplement the videos should anyone have any trouble interpreting the audio of the files. To visit the videos themselves, click on the title of this blog to navigate there and click on the respective title you wish to view.]

Hi this is a video tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.

Today we are going to go over how to add a text file to Moodle. Again the first step is to navigate to moodle.stmartin.edu/ and login with your user name and password

First go to your class page and make sure that editing is turned on.

Select the drop down menu that says add a resource.

Then select link to a file or website.

Make sure that you have a title at the top, this is what students will see as a link to this document.

Then scroll down and select chose or upload a file.

Next select the folder you wish to put the file in, now click browse.

Find the file that you want to upload to your Moosle and click upload this file

That file should now appear on Moodle in your files.

Select the option that says choose under the action column on the right

Now click save and return to course, and there is the docment on the page.

You can change its location on the page by selecting the two black arrows icon to the right of the link when editing features are turned on.

Next you can select any of the spaces marked with empty outlined boxes to move your item to, click on one to move the document to it's new location.

It is important to understand that what you have just made today is a link to a document. The document on your Moodle, is similar to an email attachment; if you make any changes to the original document, that you want to make to your Moodle link, you will need to reload the document.

So that's how you link a text file on to your Moodle.

Thanks for watching!

[Please stay tuned in for more Jing scripts and Moodle and Jing related posts coming soon.]

Jing audio script 1: Adding a label

2008-10-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

[The following is the scripts from the jing tutorial videos which are posted on Moodle intended to supplement the videos should anyone have any difficulty interpreting the audio. Please feel free to click on the title of this blog to navigate to Saint Martin's Instructional Design Moodle page to watch the videos.]

Hi this is a video-tutorial series about how to add content to your classes on Moodle.

First of all you go the Saint Martin's Moodle page, which is moodle.stmartin.edu/

And log in with your user name and password from your email account

Your main page should pull up a list of your classes. Your active classes will be orange, classes that are turned off will be gray links.

So when you select a non-active class page it will probably look something like this.

So let's start out with adding a label first. Since we are borrowing a Biology page, how about, "Welcome to Biology"

Select the menu that says add a resource, and click on insert a label.

Type a message, so in this case, "Welcome to Biology"

You can change the font, size or color if you want to suit your needs

Now scroll down and click on save and return to course.

If you want to see the page as your students will see it, return to the upper right-hand side of your screen and switch your role to "student"

And there it is, "Welcome to Biology".

So that's how you add a label to your class page on Moodle.

Thanks for watching!

[Keep watching for other scripts, and more posts about Jing and Moodle to be updated soon!]

Moodle and Jing

2008-10-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Welcome back! Delighted to see that you have once again navigated through the wide world of cyber-space back to my page. It has been awhile since I last posted something, now I have several posts for you I am going to be putting up in quick succession. The basic gist of them is that they will all have to do with the two new programs I am familiarizing myself with, those programs being Moodle and Jing.
Moodle, for those of you who are not familar with the program is, is an online course management system. Instructors can use Moodle to set up a web page for their class, that can supplement their traditional classroom teaching with features such as quizzes with instant grades and responses (excepting essay and short answer responses), upload documents, such as their course sylabus, etc. Be sure to visit Irina Gendelman's blog page "Curious" for more information about Moodle, or visit Saint Martin's Moodle and explore.
I also mentioned Jing. Jing is, for the time being, free for download, and a wonderful resource available for both Macs and PCs. Jing simplifies the process of explaining to someone that you cannot be in psychical contact with how to accomplish any given task on the computer. Where once we would have relied on emails full of step-by-step directions and pray the recipients understood our terminology, or perhaps the more technical may have included several screen-shots, Jing alows you to send videos. Jing is easy to use, and the site you upload it from offers help and tutorials on how to use it. You can easily record any actions that you do on your own computer screen, and use a microphone to record your instructions verbally. You can save your videos as a file, upload them to the site provided by Jing, or email them directly to your colleagues.
These past two weeks I have diligently writing scripts and recording Jing videos about how to add content to class pages on Moodle in an effort to help those who are not familiar with the program. To view some of the videos use the link to orient to SMU's Instructional Design page on Moodle where you can watch the videos or just browse the page for other resources to help you learn more about using Moodle. You can log in as a guest if you do not have a Saint Martin's log in. I will very soon be adding the full scripts as individual blogs to supplement the Jing videos.

More to follow, so stay tuned!

Making a Video with iMovie

2008-09-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

Making a Video with iMovie

Tools and Programs:
-Video Camera
-Macbook
-iMovie
-Internet Explorer
-Computer Mic.
-iTunes

Summary of Process:

To keep it simple, I did not change any of the settings or use any of the video camera’s special features, and decided to wait to enhance any video I shot once I got it uploaded to the computer. I only used only the record and zoom features of the camera. I spent the first part of two days recording various video around the Library. It is always better to shoot more video than you need to be sure you have enough, it can always be edited later.

To upload video to the program iMovie is fairly simple. Your video Camera, regardless of which brand or model should have a cable that plugs into your computer. Plug in your camera to the computer and turn it on. iMovie will recognize that a camera has been plugged in and bring up an upload screen. At this point, you can tell the computer to automatically upload, meaning it will rewind the tape and load all your video to iMovie, or manually upload, which allows you to rewind or forward to the clips or footage you want to upload rather than load the whole video tape.

(see image below)The latest iMovie (‘08, version 7.1.4) will place all of your video clips in whole segments in your library and allow you to place them in your video and edit them without altering your originally loaded clips. To edit a clip in iMovie, drag your mouse over the beginning of the video clip you wish to alter, several icons should appear in white on the clip. The sun icon, allows you to adjust the brightness of your footage. The frame icon, allows you to crop your clips to focus on a particular portion in the field of view of your clips. The speaker icon, allows you to adjust the volume of your clip. This is a particularly important feature for most iMovie users. When you are filming it is not only possible, but entirely probable you will pick up outside noises that will distract from your video. Since this video would eventually have a voice-over for much of the film, I muted all the volume from my video clips. The icon which consists of two arrows in opposite directions allows you to fine tune when your video clip begins and ends, and enables you to increase the time lapse between each of your clips. Finally, the stop-watch icon, this allows you to edit the clip length, and cut out any of the footage you do not wish to keep. You determine when in the clip you would like to begin and end the footage. If perhaps you want several intermittent splices in one particular clip, you may place another copy of the original clip from your library and edit to the desired section, and the next, etc.

On the far right of the tool bar in the middle of your screen there are several other important tools. The music note of course, allows you to add music to your video from your iTunes library, or sound effects from your computer. The camera allows you to add still photos from your iPhoto library, any still images you add to your project iMovie will automatically assign a certain duration of time in the video. To edit this, click on the stop-watch icon. The frame icon has a lot more flexibility with still images. Still photos have three options in terms of cropping. They can be made to fit the entire image ( the ‘Fit’ button), they can be cut down to your specified dimensions (‘Crop’), or they can be made to make any number of movements to draw focus from one point of the image to another (‘Ken Burns’). iMovie will often use the Ken Burns option automatically if the image is larger than a certain size. It is important to check your newly added images to ensure the computer has placed the focus on the parts of the image you wish to draw the viewers’ attention to. The picture can also be rotated, and you may preview the changes you have made before pressing ‘done’. With this new method of editing iMovie has made, no changes you make in editing are permanent, you can go back and change them anytime you wish.

The ‘T’ button, brings up Titles. This allows you to add text to your video or still images for a certain duration. When you find the type of title you like simply drag it over top of the clip or still you wish to use and drop it. iMovie will frequently assign its own duration for it, but you can adjust this, by clicking and dragging the blue ballon that appears above the clip to the desired length of time and choose when it appears in the clip or image.

The last icon, the rectangle with two shaded in triangles, is the transitions button. iMovie automatically puts a very brief pause between each photo or video clip, but this allows you to choose how to fluidly change between clips and stills. When you find the transition you like, drag it over to your video, and hold it between the two clips where you want it to appear, a thick lime green line should appear between the clips or stills, you can now drop the transition. Again, iMovie will generally assign its own duration to transitions (standard is .4 seconds, unless you change your preferences). This too can be changed, click on the transition, when it is highlighted yellow hold the command key and ‘r’ and it will bring up a window to alter the length. Keep in mind however, iMovie will not allow you to make your transition longer than half the time length of either of the clips it rests between.

To create a voice-over, click on the microphone icon in the middle of our tool bar above your library. Many computers now have built-in microphones, but you can just as easily hook up a microphone if you would prefer. Next click on the clip you wish to create a voice-over for. iMovie will automatically backtrack a three seconds from the point you wish to record and indicate when it begins recording with a series of beeps. You can click and drag on either end of the bubble that appear below the clip to cut you voice-over to the desired length.

iMovie automatically saves any changes you make to drafted movies/videos, but in order to access it outside of the program iMovie, you will need to publish it. Select the drop-down menu at the top of your screen which says 'share' and select 'export movie...' or press control and 'e' this will allow you to save your video to the desktop or another specified folder on your computer.