Basic Training Training (per participant)
Online Training: $895.00 (one day), 1350.00 (two day)
Classroom: $895.00 (one day), 1350.00 (two day)
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Learn while you develop (per participant)
Online Training, Classroom, or Onsite: $3995.00 (4 days)
*You develop 3 "real" training videos with audio for your organization during these training sessions. We know it's not cheap but it's worth it.
This training option is best suited for participants
who want to learn through hands-on-training. You develop your own content that you can use inyour video library immediately.
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Custom Development Addons (can be added to 1 day or 2 day training courses)
Add a "Developing for Handheld Devices" module for the iPhone, Blackberry, or Google Android ($399.00)
Develop a real training video(s) for your organization during the training sessions. (599.00 per video)
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Learn to use Techsmith Camtasia
Techsmith Camtasia training course teaches participants to build software demonstrations and interactive training/ assessment simulations. Using a task-based approach, participants learn the key features of Camtasia and apply best practices throughout the creation of an in-class project. Participants also learn how to create, maintain and update projects.
After Training Support
Six months of support is provided to all participants at no extra cost. Participants can communicate with their instructors by telephone, email, and receive immediate impromptu support through our remote desktop training tool.
Course Outline
Unit 1: Developing a Content Development Plan
This sections teaches you the basics required to plan your training development project. At the end of this section you will have a complete development plan that you can use for your projects.
Analyzing your Audience
- Bandwidth Considerations
- Analyzing your Resources
- Analyzing your Constraints
- Screen Resolution
- Instructional Design
- Linear or Interactive flow
Defining your Objectives
- Overall Training Objectives
- Activity Objectives
- Task Objectives
Creating a Content Outline
- Instructional Design for your Project
- Defining Modules
- Chunking Content
- Understanding Linear and Interactive Paths
- Interactive Module Access Points
Writing a Two-column Script
- Understanding the communication column and the Actions Column
- Writing to be Heard
- Associating Narrative and Screen Actions
- Writing for Team Development
- Defining your audio file name in your script
Creating a Storyboard
- Developing a Key Frame Storyboard
- Identifying Major Transitions
- Communicating Transitions and Actions
Defining Interactivity
- Creating an Interactive Flowchart
- Understanding Linear and Interactive Content
- Maintaining a Users Attention
- Planning to Create Multiple Paths - Branching
- Structuring your Camtasia Movies
Manually Recording a Simulation
- Describing your Movie Assignment
- Describing the Working Environment
- Introducing Camtasia Recorder
- Understanding the Recorder Interface
Manually Recording a New Movie
- Previewing a Movie
- Practice
- What you have learned
Manually Recording Audio
- Describing your Audio Assignment
- Describing the Working Environment
- Introducing Camtasia Audio Editor
- Understanding the Audio Editor Interface
Recording Audio
- Editing Audio
- Viewing Video in Audio Editor
- Synchronizing Video and Audio
- Saving your File
- Practice
- What you have learned
Producing your Movie – Importing Content
- Describing your Production Assignment
- Describing the Production Environment
- Introducing Camtasia Studio
- Understanding the Studio Interface
Importing Media Content
- Adding and editing AVI files
- Adding and editing Audio
- Adding Images
Producing your Movie – Editing Media
- Describing your Editing Assignment
- Describing your Editing Tools
- Adjusting Video
- Adjusting Audio
- Using Transitions
- Adding Callouts
- Flash HotSpots
- Zoom-n-Pan
Producing your Movie – Producing Content
- Describing your Production Assignment
- Describing your Production Options
- Understanding the benefits of Various Outputs
Producing Content
- AVI video file
- Flash (SWF) movie file
- Flash Video (FLV) file
- QuickTime (MOV) movie file
- Windows Media (WMV) streaming media file
- RealMedia (RM) streaming media file
- Camtasia for RealPlayer (CAMV) streaming media file
- Gif animation file
- Custom Production Profile
Creating an Interface – Camtasia MenuMaker
- Describing your Interface Development Assignment
- Describing your MenuMaker Interface Development Environment
- Introducing Camtasia MenuMaker
- Understanding the MenuMaker Interface
- Creating a Menu
- Exporting the Interface
- How does it Work
Creating an Interface – Camtasia Theater
- Describing your Interface Development Assignment
- Describing your Theater Interface Development Environment
- Introducing Camtasia Theater
- Understanding the Theater Interface
- Creating a Menu
- Exporting the Interface
- How does it Work
Course Review
- What you have learned
- Tips and Tricks
- Communicating with your instructor for support
- Certificates and course assessment
Camtasia Training Tips
Tip April 21, 2010: Recording your first Camtasia Training Video
Recording audio while capturing your computer screen with Camtasia
When recording your video with Camtasia, you always have the option of narrating as you go. Clicking the Audio button records your audio
narration during recording (it's on by default). Clearly, you must also
have a microphone hooked up to your machine to use this option.
While recording your narration this way is certainly an option, capturing
the screen recording and remembering your lines at the same time can
often prove too much to handle. As a best practice, record my audio seperately for a professional quality result.
Of course, there are times when recording a voice-over as you go
is perfectly appropriate, such as when you're giving a quick "how to"
to a friend or colleague, and they probably won't mind the "umms" and
awkward timing as long as the information is good, so go right ahead if
the video isn't for public consumption. With this option enabled, you
can lay in an audio track with your voice narration that will be perfectly
synchronized with the screen video, and there's a certain convenience
with getting all your content created at once.
If you do decide you want to use Camtasia to capture audio at the same time as
you capture video, it's now time to set up the device, source, and volume for
your recording. If the volume meter on the main Camtasia Recorder
window is showing activity when you speak into your microphone,
then you're probably more or less set. If the meter is flatlining, then
you'll need to make adjustments. This is done by clicking the Audio
options... button, which is the little upside-down triangle next to the main
Audio button from the main Recorder window and then choosing
Options..., which will spit you out onto the Audio tab of the Tools
Options dialog.
When choosing your settings, the first thing you'll want to do is select
an Audio device. This is most likely your sound card, though audio
interface boxes also count as audio devices. This device can support
one or more Recording sources. You can have Camtasia Studio
auto-select your Microphone input (for recording from the mic) or
Speaker audio input (for recording your system sound). If desired,
you can even choose to have Camtasia Recorder record from both your
microphone and your computer system at the same time. To custom-manage your source, you can also select an input manually. Finally, be
sure to check your Input level to ensure that Camtasia Studio is
receiving audio. You can adjust the recording volume level with the
accompanying slider bar.
Tip November 24, 2009: Understanding Resolution and Recording Size in your Camtasia Training Videos
As you develop your Camtasia Training video, every click you make with your mouse will result in one screen capture.
Before you record, you should be aware of two things that control how sharp and how large your Camtasia screen captures will be: display resolution and recording area.
Understanding Screen Resolution in Camtasia Training
A computer monitor is measured in pixels (a pixel is a little square that is the basic component of any computer graphic). If a monitor is set to show more pixels, it is known as increasing the resolution. At a higher resolution, graphics and text will look sharper. but smaller. The fewer pixels you request, the lower the resolution, and larger the-screen elements appear.
If your computer is set to a high resolution (such as 1280x1024) when you record your Camtasia Training video, a user viewing your published project at a lower display resolution (such as 800 x 600) will have to scroll significantly to see the action you recorded.
However, if your computer is set to a lower display resolution (such as 1024x768) when you record your project, a customer with a higher screen resolution will have no trouble viewing your project. However, if you record your projects at the lower screen resolution, you may not be happy with the appearance of the screen icons and fonts (they may be too big and not as sharp as they would appear at the higher screen resolution).
Understanding Recording Area in Camtasia Training
The Recording Area is not the same thing as display resolution (although the two settings are constantly confused). The display resolution is set via the Windows Display control panel.
The Recording Area is set from within Camtasia and is the physical amount of the screen that you will be capturing during the recording process.
There are several preset sizes available within Camtasia from 220 x270 up to 1024 x 768, and you can specify your own.
With so many choices, what should you do? We recommend that you set your display resolution to 1024x768. And we recommend that you set your Camtasia recording Area no larger than 800 x 600 if possible.
Now there are a number of additional concerns that you might would to consider before setting your recording area, but if you're unsure, use a recording area no larger than 800 x 600 pixels. Your Camtasia Training viewers will thank you.
Tip November 15, 2009:Determine your Camtasia Training Specifications Ahead of Time
Although we believe that Camtasia Training Videos should never be a slave to the technology, the reality of our modern workplace is that the IT departments of many companies place stringent restrictions on what you're allowed to do from a technical perspective. You may be forced to present your Camtasia Training videos on a particular computer display setting, browser type, or audio environment etc., while abandoning all others. Make sure that you find out the policies of your particular situation so that you can safely work within the confines of those rules.
Keep in mind that some of these restrictions may not always be explicit, meaning that you're going to have to involve some other people. While some of you may be employed in an academic or small business situation where you're the sole decision maker (at least when it comes to producing video content), chances are that you're creating Camtasia Training Videos as part of a larger team effort. Be certain to include the decision makers from IT management, and anyone else who has a stake in the content you're producing. Before recording a single frame of video on a new project, do make sure that you reach a consensus on the following points.
Method of deployment for your Camtasia Training Videos
Ask Certain Questions: Will these videos be posted to your web site? The corporate intranet? Will CD-ROMs be created? What about a DVD for viewing on console televisions? These decisions will affect your video dimensions as well as the output format of your final production. And, whether online or on CD, it's never too early to start planning your menu navigation.
Maximum file size or bandwidth requirements. It's especially important to clarify this if your organization will be hosting these Camtasia Training videos on its servers. If you're deploying on CD-ROM, then you should try to compute how much space, on average, each of your planned Camtasia Training Video is allowed.
Camtasia Training Video dimensions
Smaller video dimensions generally mean smaller file sizes. Larger video dimensions mean better visibility, but a corresponding high file size, plus the risk of those with smaller monitors not being able to view your creation without scrolling (bad) or scaling your content (even worse).
Will the Camtasia Training videos be narrated? Unnarrated video titles don't necessitate the hassle of setting up audio equipment, but you'll see a corresponding need for captions and text callouts. Narrated videos should ideally have a script in place prior to recording, so that you can appropriately time the recording of your segments. In fact, as you'll see, effective scripting and storyboarding is a good idea regardless of narration.
While Camtasia Videos are used for all kinds of purposes, training is one purpose that Camtasia is very strong in. In the work that we do for our clients, more often than not they engage us to create an online tutorial, knowledge base video, or some other form of training. This can run the gamut from some quickie "Getting Started" videos (to give new downloaders a leg up) to a polished, menu-driven CD-ROM, complete with comprehensive tutorials on every aspect of the software, which can then be sold (or given) to those customers who have already made their purchase.
Tip November 14, 2009:Why build Training videos with Camtasia
Camtasia Training videos can serve to augment traditional stand-up training or, in certain instances, replace it entirely. While nothing's as good as being there, Camtasia Training Vidoes, with its capacity for video narration (so that you see the face of the trainer, hear the voice, and see the screen simultaneously), actually comes pretty darned close. Camtasia Training videos also have the following advantages over traditional stand-up training:
Camtasia Training Videos never tire of repetition. If users don't understand something, they can always go back and view it again.
Camtasia Training Videos are scalable. Deploy your training content to 10 people or 10,000, without a lot of extra time, effort, or money.
Camtasia Training Videos travel better than people do. If you have 20 different people who require training in 20 different locations around the world, there's no need to summon them to one spot in order to deliver training.
Camtasia Training Videos are always available. Unlike trainers, who have a scheclule to keep, training videos are always at the ready, even at 3 a.m. If the trainees decide they've had enough for the day, they can come back to it the following day (or week) with no worries.
Camtasia Trainng Videos are hassle-free. Stand-up training involves scheduling, reserving a classroom, and communicating with both the trainer and trainees to make sure everyone shows up at the appointed time. Not to mention the coffee and donuts. The logistics of video deployment are quite a bit simpler. Your Camtasia Training Videos can act as a "front line of defense." People in the IT support department love training videos because they know that those users who never read documentation might just take the time to watch a video. In fact, many companies build whole video reference libraries of solutions to common problems. When they receive an e-mail from a frantic customer or colleague, they can simply send a link to the appropriate video along with the tag, "Contact me again if you have any additional questions." Simply Camtasia Training Videos can handle the training jobs no one else wants. I've heard of several companies who now use training videos as part of their standard new employee orientation, helping them to teach the more mundane aspects of the job, such as requisitioning office supplies or filling out a timecard. Not placing this training burden on your staff means not having to remove them from their normal duties every time you bring on someone new.
But chances are I'm preaching to the choir here - after all, you probably wouldn't have come to Pentext if you didn't already know that Camtasia Training video content excels as a training device. So, let's move on to devising the best training program we possibly can. These tips are arranged in no particular order; they're mainly here to get you thinking about your audience and the information you want to convey to them before you sit down to forge your masterpiece.
People understand a Camtasia Training video better when words are presented as verbal narration alone, rather than both verbally and as on-screen text (redundancy principle).
This should already be familiar to those of you who have had to sit through a dull PowerPoint presentation where the host "presented" by reading all the bullet points off the screen. If we replace those bullet points with a chart, an animation, or a screen video, comprehension can be enhanced. Filling up the screen with narration text can waste a good opportunity for engaging the brain with visual media. There are a few exceptions to this principle, such as when introducing unfamiliar terms, or when the audience members are hearing impaired or nonnative speakers of your language. In those cases, you'd want to reinforce narration with text. Fortunately, Camtasia Training offers text callouts as well as captioning to address these situations.
People learn better when Camtasia Training is presented in bite-sized chunks (segmentation principle).
For our purposes as video content providers, this principle has a profound impact on how we split up our content. For tutorial videos, I typically find that three to five minutes for each "chapter" works best. As you work your way through the book, I'11 show you techniques for dividing your content automatically, and even creating a clickable table of contents, so that your users can seamlessly navigate your segments.
People learn better when Camtasia Training is presented using clear outlines and headings (signalling principle).
When utilizing Camtasia Training, the signalling principle is instructive in a number of ways. First, it illustrates the importance of using title screens to announce your content. People seem to have an innate need to know what to expect. Title screens help to convey this information.
The running time and duration displayed in the Camtasia Training video's control bar aid in this as well, by informing the audience how long the video has been playing and, more importantly, how far they have to go. The users can then plan accordingly depending on how much free time they have in their day.
People learn better when Camtasia Training is presented in a conversational style rather than a formal one (personalization principle).
I think most people know this from experience on a conscious level, but I still see countless Camtasia Training videos where the narrator is as stiff as a board. It's usually the result of committee review where any shred of the creator's personality is systematically removed for the sake of "professionalism." This is a mistake. When narrating your Camtasia Training video segments, you need to stay warm and approachable, which includes both your terminology and your tone. It is possible to be both informal and professional at the same time. It can be a balancing act, of course, but the rewards are great if successfully executed.
People learn better when on-screen text is presented near any corresponding images in your Camtasia Training video (spatial contiguity principle).
This principle comes into play when placing callouts in your Camtasia Training video.
People learn better when any extraneous information is removed (coherence principle). This is definitely something you want to be cognizant of while recording. Remember to keep the focus on the material you want to convey, and eliminate everything else. If your Windows desktop is going to be recorded at any point, change your desktop to a solid color. Move any nonessential icons out of the recording area. Close any renegade windows. You want to make your Camtasia Training recordings as clean as possible. In addition to trimming out all the junk mentioned above, take care not to add irrelevant words, sounds, pictures, or music, as these can actually serve to hinder the audience from absorbing the Camtasia Training material.
People learn better from animation and narration than animation with explanatory on-screen text (modality principle).
Of all the human senses, Camtasia Training video presentations typically engage two: sight and hearing. These are individual receptors, or pathways into the brain, and the reason that multimedia learning is successful has to do with the brain's efficiency at receiving information from both these pathways at once. But there can be bottlenecks, as the modality principle demonstrates. By presenting animation, and then adding written narration (as opposed to audio) on top of that, you're overloading one of the pathways, while the other one goes completely unused. When crafting your videos, it behooves you to balance the load. People learn better when animation and narration are synchronized than when they're asynchronous (temporal contiguity principle).
When the Camtasia Training video and audio are synchronized, the learner tends to more strongly build connections between the words and the picture, thereby improving their ability to form an accurate mental representation of the content you're trying to get across.
The design of Camtasia Training Video presentations can have different effects on people based on their prior knowledge, visual literacy, and spacial aptitude (individual differences principle). This is a fancy way of saying that everybody's different, particularly in terms of how they experience (and have experienced) the world.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" Camtasia Training video experience that will appeal to eyeryone. But by following some of the principles above, your chances of truly getting the content across to your audience are actually quite good.
Tip November 13, 2009:Recording Techniques your Camtasia Training Videos
Here are a few handy tips for recording your training video once you've moved past preparation and into recording. While these techniques clearly do not fall under the category "prep-work," their use specifically for training merits a spot in this chapter.
Recording Techniques for your Camtasia Training Videos
Camtasia Training Videos should guide the user through the use of the software with little effort required on their part as possible. Particularly if your Camtasia Trainingvideo has a lot of mouse movements, or click activity, don't depend on attention-gettings such as mouse highlights, visual clicks, text callouts, and zoom and pan techniques. The key to creating clear Camtasia training videos is to keep them short, chuck steps into well organized communication sets (even in the same training video), and create a rhythm that will help to clarify your training information.
Your Camtasia Training Videos Should be short and well paced
The pacing of your Camtasia Training videos can vary widely depending on its purpose Unlike marketing video communication, which are fairly fast paced to keep the viewers attention while conveying the core benefits of the product in the 30 seconds to two minute long video clips. Camtasia Training Videos need a much more relaxed pace, which would allow your training participants to comprehend your training information When running your audience through the procedural steps of executing a task on the computer, it's remarkably easy to Camtasia Training video will be. This is particularly important if you're likely to have non native speakers of your language viewing your training videos. If so you'll want to be especially careful with the pacing and remember to slow down the the pace of your narration as well.
Don't Get Mired in the Details
Avoid the temptation to merrily skip from field to field in the program you're recording, explaining every little thing along the way.
Provided you've done a thorough assessment of your target audience, you probably have a decent sense of their general level of technical savvy as well as their pre-existing knowledge (if any) of the application(s) featured in your video. You can use this information to help you decide how granular you want to be in explaining the different aspects of the software. Rarely will you need to explain every field in every tab of every dialog box, or how to perform basic functions within Windows. For example, even novice computer users know how to close windows, open files, and select icons. If you make a point of tell ing them, "you'll need to double-click the program's icon in order to open it," then you're wasting valuable time, and you risk boring most of your users into exiting the video.
Set Specific Goals for your Camtasia Training Video
It is my recommendation, regardless of video type, that you have certain predefined goals outlined before recording or even scripting begins. These goals need to be as specific as possible.
Bad example:
To take users through the new features of the software.
Good examples:
To show users how they can draw attention to certain words by utilizing the italic,bold, and underline commands.
To Help users to move projects from their desktop to their laptop computers by first exporting a project on one machine, and then importing it on another.
Tip October 5, 2009:
Developing a Camtasia Training Video for the first time
One of the benefits of Camtasia Studio in that you can easily record everything on your screen without much preparation. This method is good if you're interested in simply recording information for research purposes or for basic content development. In order to develop professional-quality Camtasia Training Videos, you do need to Plan your content development, by creating a script, which outlines your exactly would information you want to display during your training video. You should also outline the size or resolution of of your training video, and try to recording you video at that size as well. This way you not need to resize your video content, which may result in poor quality video. You can learn more about planning your Camtasia Projects here.
Here is some basic recording tips for new Camtasia users
Audio Recording - It's helpful and just all around easier if you use a USB microphone when doing voice narration of your Camtasia screen recordings.The USB microphone uses less computer resources, and records far better audio than an analog mic connected to your computer's audio card. Please see the Planning Section for more information on recording audio.
Control the Frame-rate during recording - Also set your your Frame-rate before you start recording screen actions for your Camtasia Training videos. By default, Camtasia records at Automatic, which means that it will capture at a frame-rate suitable for your computer. This may be good for your computer, but will cause the file size for your training video to be very large, and the bandwidth require when delivering content to be intensive.
Control your Screen Resolution - This is probably one of the most important requirements when creating your Camtasia content. Never record in full-screen mode unless it for your own consumption. Ensure that the resolution that you select will fit within your user's browser, as well as on their monitor, without the need to scroll for side to side or up and down. It could be very distracting and non-professional.
Choose the Proper Cursor - The cursor is the actor on stage. Choose a cursor that is larger than the default, Typically this is "arrow_l.cur" in your Windows cursor folder.
Make your recordings no longer that 2 or 3 minutes long. Typically we recommend keeping it at one minute, but most viewers on average can tolerate two minute training videos.
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helping you develop online training videos
