It is not uncommon for a new, distance education (DE) instructor to want to add audio to their PowerPoint slides to enhance their presentation. However, even though adding audio to a presentation is considered to be a “best practice” in DE, and, knowing it does, in fact, enhance the slides themselves, and makes them more accessible as well, the combine—presentation and added audio—creates one large file that can affect the performance of the learning management system (LMS), especially if an instructor uploads many “enhanced” presentations in preparation for a 16-week course.
PowerPoint & Audio: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/add-and-play-sounds-in-a-presentation-HA001230305.aspx?CTT=3
A good solution to this problem is to use a screen capturing tool to record, and chunk, the presentation for the intended audience. A URL is provided to the instructor once the presentation is captured, where the presentation is now hosted by an external server instead of being hosted by the server that carries the load of the LMS – less stress equals better LMS performance!
A couple of free, capturing options include, but are not limited to: Screenr and Jing.
Screenr: http://www.screenr.com/
Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/
Other paid options include, but are not limited to: Camtasia and Tegrity.
Camtasia: http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/
Tegrity: http://www.tegrity.com/
Both Screenr and Jing have limited capturing times—approximately five minutes—whereas one can make longer captures with Camtasia and Tegrity, if desired. The instructor should keep in mind that Screenr and Jing should be selected if one is new to capturing (for ease of use) and/or if the capture they make will only be used for a short period of time – in other words, the process is quicker with Screenr/Jing and not as permanent.
On the other hand, the instructor should use Camtasia or Tegrity if the capture is intended to be more permanent, meaning the captured presentation will be reused several times over in upcoming semesters. Last, the learning curve for Camtasia and Tegrity is much steeper than with Screenr and Jing, so choose your capturing tool wisely!
