Personal, Practical Support - Show & Tell with #Screencastify

I received a support email asking for help on a certain task in LearnUCS.  I was advised that I could reply via email rather than trying over the phone.

One email was sent back to confirm the required support.  Then rather than try and type a response explaining the options or the steps, I decided to make a simple video showing showing the steps to complete the task.

We have spoken about Screencastify as an extension to Google Chrome before but it is such a brilliant, easy tool to use that there was no choice, I would simply open a tab and record it.

The support request was for the different ways you could upload files into LearnUCS, I was aware there was more than one file, so I quickly made a video showing the different ways of uploading and sharing those files.

As this is such a quick and simple tool I could make the video personal to the academic requiring help, in the future I can simply remove/delete the video if necessary.

I wasn't too concerned about making a video too perfect, that could then be shared or used elsewhere, covering just generic information.  Screencastify is so simple, it makes these videos almost disposable.

As an example, the video is below:

Screencastify Update

A few weeks back we blogged about an excellent extension to the Chrome browser which allowed you to capture what was happening in your browser tab or on your desktop. You can read that blog post here -> http://ucselevate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/screencastify-google-chrome-screen.html

However there have been some important developments we would like to share since our last post.

Firstly, we felt after a bit of use that the storage options were a bit limiting, you could only upload to YouTube for instance. So we decided to head over to the developers support page and we requested that an option to upload to Google Drive would be handy, as we all use Google Drive as our main tool for storage. Low and behold a week later we received an email saying this had been implemented!

Secondly, there has been a new feature that has recently cropped up, one that we were eager to see implemented. Picture in picture webcam mode. This basically, if selected, will record your webcam and put it in the bottom right hand corner of what you are recording.

This is an amazing addition to Screencastify, this will help us promote it's use as a 'voice over presentation' capturing tool.

And thirdly, but more importantly. Screencastify works on the UCS networked machines! You will need to find one with Google Chrome installed then install the extension from the web store
--> Screencastify on Chrome Web Store

Screencastify - A Google Chrome Screen Capture Extension.

For those of us who use Google Chrome and make use of the plethora of extensions that are available I'd like to raise your awareness of one that we have come across which you might find useful.

Screencastify is an extension to the Google Chrome browser that lets you very quickly and simply record what's going on in either a single 'Tab' or your complete desktop, including audio.

The extension itself is very easy to use and there aren't a lot of options to configure. Once installed you simply click the extension icon and click record. Once you have finished you can click stop.

Once you have recorded your video it stores the video locally within the extension, here you can choose to download it for further editing or, and this is a major bonus, upload directly into your YouTube.

We have tested a few screencasts with this and are happy with the results. You can even present from Google Slides or PowerPoint and as long as your record the 'Desktop' you will record the presentation and of course any audio voice over that accompanies it. This has the potential to replace the use of Debut here at UCS as the primary method of recording the screen, we will be in discussions with IT Services here to investigate the options.

If you use Google Chrome and would like to use Screencastify you can install the extension from Chrome's Web Store - Screencastify on Google Web Store