Proposition:
A key component of our design for the Bio12 course is to have students learn how to operate in Google Spreadsheets to perform calculations as part of their work in the scientific process. To help students be able to do this, we designed to offer them a number of 'tutorials' available in the course content that would be narrated walkthroughs of the process. We expected to use Camtasia for Mac to capture and edit these screen casts and then export them to .swf format for upload and playback through Blogs at PSU platform. But we've run into a problem: turns out, Camtasia for Mac does not export to .swf format.
Problem:
- Camtasia for Mac does not export to .swf format (unbelievable)
- It does export to MP4 format; however, this format does not play when uploaded to blog space and run through the lite box feature we typically use for media play back in the Bio12 course
- Can host these screen casts elsewhere such as Screencast.com or youtube but we would like to avoid having course content hosted outside of the platform (control issue)
Seeking Solutions:
- Backup plan will be do provide good process documents, complete with screen shots, for students to open and reference (format could be pdf or google doc)
- Working with Brad K. to come up with usable solution within Blogs at PSU platform. May work to create some custom video code for mp4 format.
- The issue with this is that creating custom code for content does not fit our desired model for development where little to no customization of the tool sets are required.
- If this code is created, we want it to be applicable to all users of Blogs at PSU
Our next step here will include working with Brad and Chris to see if a 'custom lite box' for mpeg-4 videos is possible. If it doesn't work in an appropriate timeframe, we may try to look at some methods for converting these camtasia project files into .swf format through a more elaborative process. This would not be ideal because it would be some type of 'in between' process that is more in the domain of development types instead of the 'regular' user of the tool sets we are employing.
Current Solution (1/7/10):
We have exported the screen cast from Camtasia using the feature that has the file launch from an index.html file that points to a 'media' folder to play the screen cast. This allows us to upload these files to the dedicated blog space folder for the module and then launch the screen cast playback through a separate browser window. This solution is working properly.
Next: We are still investigating playing these mpeg-4 files within a lite-box.
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