Enhanced podcasting is a method for producing course content that is engaging and reusable. There are numerous ways to produce an enhanced podcast but the simplest, perhaps, is to use screen capture software and narrate a PowerPoint presentation. All that is required is a copy of PowerPoint, a laptop and your creativity.
While you can record audio directly in PowerPoint, this process is not necessarily intuitive. Instead, I recommend checking out the likes of Camtasia, Adobe Captivate or ScreenFlow. These products capture not only the desktop but also any actions you take, such as interacting with the screen, opening and manipulating applications and authoring documents .
Jing is a free screen capture tool from TechSmith, the maker’s of Camtasia and SnagIt. Jing produces .swf (Flash) files that can be posted to Moodle or a website.
To learn more about Jing visit: http://www.techsmith.com/jing-features.html. Jing recordings are limited to five minutes. However, you can record multiple Jing podcasts to cover a topic. Jing also features an embed code generator making it easy to drop in to Moodle, a Google Site or your own web presence.
Using the on-board laptop microphone in a quiet room, narrate a few PowerPoint slides to get a feel for the transition between slides and topics. In no time, you can create interesting material that can supplement lectures or free up valuable classroom time for detailed discussions.
Enhanced podcasting is not limited to PowerPoint. Other documents and applications can be narrated and annotated. Anything that you see on the screen can be recorded. For higher quality, consider a USB headset microphone.
A simple option for Mac users with Snow Leopard or Lion is QuickTime X. QT X features a screen recording capability that produces iPod ready files. The simplicity and quality is unmatched. Open QuickTime X and choose ‘File’ >> ‘New Screen Recording’.
Windows users can capture enhanced podcasts on-line at screenr.com. While it is purported to work with a Mac, our tests have been much more successful on the PC. Screenr captures the screen and creates an embeddable video file. Below is a quick example. Visit screenr.com for more.