Create Screencasts using QuickTime
The screencasting feature in Quicktime provides a free, easy, and quick way to create Screencasts (videos) of your computer screen.
Screencasts can be of great use in the classroom to augment lessons, provide feedback to students, and reduce the need to repeat the same simple lessons time and time again with every new class (e.g. showing students how to use particular software or websites). Screencasts also provide a way for students to learn new topics at their own pace or at home. Some good education resources on the use of Screencasts can be found at the links below.
http://www.schrockguide.net/screencasting.html
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2014/01/01/screencasting/
iPad Screencasting - http://andrewdouch.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/finally-record-the-screen-of-your-ipad-in-any-app-with-narration/
Open Quicktime
To create a screencast in QuickTime on the Mac, first go to the Launcher (or Applications folder) and open QuickTime Player.
Create New Screen Recording
Next, once QuickTime Player opens, go the QuickTime menu and select ‘File’ and click ‘New Screen Recording’ (see below).
Recording window
The black Screen Recording window below will open.
Changing Recording Settings
To change the recording settings, click the small arrow on the right-hand side of the Screen Recording window to select the microphone to use (in most cases, the internal microphone will be used). If you’d prefer to record a silent video with no sound, select ‘None’.
You can also choose between ‘High’ and ‘Medium’ quality video recording. If you’re recording a long piece, selecting "Medium" will reduce the size of the video file. In most cases; though, using the default "High" video quality is the best option as this will produce a higher-quality video.
Check the Microphone
If you’re going to be recording your voice, speak and you’ll see the volume level meter rise and fall. It’s best to keep the volume slider fully to the left unless you want to be distracted by audio feedback as you record.
Start Recording
To start recording, click the red record button.
The Screen Recording window will now disappear and you can start recording your screencast. Everything you do on the computer will be recorded, including mouse pointer movements.
Stop Recording
To stop recording, click the stop "button" that displays in the menu bar at the top of the screen on the Mac (see below).
Once you stop recording, your screencast will open up in new window, allowing you to review the video.
Assuming that you’re happy with the screencast you have recorded, you can save it in .mov (QuickTime Movie) format ready to be uploaded to Moodle, Google Classroom, Google Drive, YouTube, or to be edited in iMovie for later publication - whatever you choose.
Tips and Tricks
While sceencasting is quick and easy with QuickTime, it doesn’t offer any advanced features such as highlight effects and multiple recording formats which more advanced solutions like ScreenFlow can do.
However, one thing that is easy to do in QuickTime is to zoom into an area of your screen to highlight particular elements thanks to an accessibility feature built right into OS X.
To use this feature, just zoom in to your screen by pressing ‘Ctrl’ on your keyboard while dragging two fingers over your trackpad or Magic Mouse, or by scrolling up and down with the scroll wheel on a mouse. If that doesn’t work, make sure ‘Zoom’ is activated by selecting ‘System Preferences > Accessibility’ and selecting ‘Accessibility' (or 'Universal Access' in older versions of OS X).
