Presented at COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES 99
March 10, 1999

by Terese M. Terry
terryt@wharton.upenn.edu
 

"Information retained in a student's mind 24 hours after a classroom course is no more than 25 per cent at best and normally around 15 percent.," the Financial Times reported January 13th this year, citing a Sybase Software Company study.

In an attempt to help MBA candidates retain more of the content and less of the inevitable technical intrusions of live internet demonstrations, I used an internet appliance.

ScreenCam97is not a new product, but seems to be the only one of its type. It captures the action you perform online, resulting in a movie. It can be used in classroom instruction to demonstrate "live" online searching without all the familiar freezing, crashing, typo back-tracking , connection failures and other distracting "surprises." The instructor can pause, fast forward or go back at any point in the presentation. Segments of the presentation can be played alone. Sound recording is possible also. A logo can be inserted to appear throughout. I used neither sound nor logos. 

A caption making function is included . This makes it possible to convert the existing presentation into a stand-alone tutorial on a Web site. The viewer can pause, playback and fast forward the presentation.

The live action capture is done in short segments of around a minute or two. Each segment is a file. Later the files are joined to create a presentation, such as the one I did — Basic Business Research. Segments can be deleted or replaced with others easily. Once filmed, a segment cannot be edited.
 
 

Some tips for using ScreenCam for class instruction:

1. Plan. Have the content and search strategy set. (The attached example differs somewhat from the ScreenCam presentation)

2. Prepare. Divide the content into short segments.

3. Write a script for each segment in outline format, detailing every minute action. Pre-select the points to emphasize with the mouse pointer. In a long document, script the precise pages, tables or citations to show. Include in the script, page or screen size adjustments and necessary enlargements. (Example attached)

4. Test each script by using it to film the segment. Edit the script accordingly.

5. Practice. Avoid unnecessary or confusing mouse action or dizzying scrolling. Rehearse pausing and resuming filming where there are excessive time lags.

6. Open your beginning site (Setup) of each segment before starting to film action.

7. Use the recommended 16-Bit Color Setting. Lower color settings produce garish screens.

8. Select " Hide the Stop Bar" in Preferences. The Stop Bar looks bad on the screen. Instead, use the escape key to stop filming.

9. Review and revise the presentation regularly. Online sources change constantly. Make sure every segment can be replicated exactly as shown.

10. Precede ScreenCam presentation with a brief PowerPoint presentation overview of the material, for an integrated instructional session. (Example attached)

11. Emphasize to students that online sources alone are rarely sufficient for an in-depth analysis of a company, and its place in the industry or the economy. Describe the more inclusive Business Research Guide, as well as research guides for special subjects available in the library and via the Library Home Page.

Problems

1. No Macintosh version.

2. Some screens reject being filmed. For example, a census statistical table showed as a grid only, no data. Solution: Bookmark the page before filming. Retrieve it in the Setup. Then film it as a separate segment.

3. Some browsers download PDF files offline. Thus, they will not appear on the film. Solution: Download and open the document before filming. Film as a separate segment.

4. ScreenCam documentation is poor. There is no trouble-shooting support. It assumes that the user knows how to exploit the innards of the Windows operating system to compensate for unexplained disruptions in operation.

5. Screencam is a byte hog. My 21 minute presentation took up 27 mgs.
 

Conclusion
ScreenCam is a presentation software program for PCs by Lotus, Inc. It comes bundled with Lotus Notes or can be purchased separately, as I did, for about $32 (the academic price) Otherwise it costs about $80. Like many software programs, the concept of ScreenCam 97 is simple, but creating a useful teaching tool with it requires hours of work. Is it worth it? I am not sure. It is certainly an improvement over demonstrating with live internet searching. However, I am confident that there will be other presentation products on the horizon that will give ScreenCam a run for the money.
 
 

PART 2

The following is an example of a script, written using Powerpoint, for one segment of the Screencam presentation.
 

Industry-A1 Script. [indus-a.ppt] for [indus-a.scm]
Setup
Delete Netscape History File to prevent type-ahead.
Netscape to Lippincott HomePage.
Start ScreenCam.
Clear URL box
Type: WWW.CENSUS.GOV <enter>/
Click ECONOMIC SURVEYS/
Click LOOKUP TOOLS/
Click NATIONAL STATISTICS/
CLICK Box 40-49/
Scroll to to Box 48
Click Box 48/
Block Column headings to highlight.
Click away to unhighlight.
Click CENSUS HOME Icon --( bottom left of page)/
Click NEW ON SITE/
Click ANNUAL SURVEY OF COMMUNICATIONS, 1997/
Scroll to CABLE AND OTHER PAY TELEVISION SERVICES (SIC 4841)
Highlight Table 16 (Link)
Stop ScreenCam. <Esc Key>

Industry-A2 Script [indus-a2.ppt] for [indus-a2.scm]
Setup
Open Table 16 in Netscape
Bookmark Table 16.
Enlarge Table 16.
Start ScreenCam.
Stop ScreenCam. <Esc Key>
The END