Screencasting – What is it

For your benefit, we are featuring today a very commonly heard term in the world of computer screen recorders, which is none other than, Screencasting.

What is a screencast?

According to our good friend, Wikipedia, the term screencast is defined as, “a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Normally, screencasts are generated with the purpose to serve as a video tutorial for teaching about a particular application or to promote a product by visual demonstration.

Most especially these days, where computer based training has been preferred by many of us simply because they’re cheaper compared to the traditional classroom training. Other obvious advantages are that it’s easier to share globally online. These screencasts are being published to today’s popular video sharing websites accessible for everyone, some are also put up for sale.

How do you create a screencast?

Several screencasting applications are out in the market today, each with varying capabilities, such as Camtasia Studio, ScreenCam, ScreenFlow and Camstudio, all of which are OS-based. As for web-based screencasting services, it includes Jing, Screentoaster, Screencast-O-Matic and ScreenCastle. Each application has it’s advantages and disadvantages. While I have tried many of these applications I am very partial to Camtasia because it’s easy to use, fast and the editing and production possibilities far outweights the web based options.

When to create a screencast?

Television is defininitely a big part of society today and collecting information and studying by watching a video is proven to give a more effective learning experience. When we use more than once sence we stimulate the brain to understand better. This is the main reason to why you should reach your audience with Screencasts.

Popular reasons to why you should screencast:

• When You can’t find the right words to describe exactly what you mean.

• When words alone aren’t enough to express your thoughts and ideas.

• Because it’s more interesting to watch a demo video than read text.

• Our favorite: Because you want more of your personality to come across in your blog.

Start creating your own screencast now!

PS. MindBites is currently running a competition where you win cash prizes for your screencasts. Check out the Screencast 4 Cash Video Contest, and you might get the chance to bag the grand prize!

Until next time