Different Methods of Recording a Narrated PowerPoint

~ Max ~ Leave a comment

Here at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, our faculty have been busy making what we are calling “micro-lectures,” or short, salient videos to help describe concepts to our students. I did not want to give our faculty too many options with which to make these videos, so we narrowed it down to the following:

  • OfficeMix
    • Only available for PC at the moment; it creates an additional tab in PowerPoint and is easy to use.
  • Explain Everything
    • Works on tablets (Android and iOS) and is also fairly easy to use. Just read on their site it also works with Windows!
  • Echo Personal Capture
    • This is a tool we have access to here at UIC. We use Echo360 to record our lectures, and there is a standalone tool that faculty can use to record themselves or their screen. For the PC, there is an additional program that can create a tab in PowerPoint, like OfficeMix.
  • Camtasia
    • I recommend this product over others because as a more ‘souped up’ program, our faculty find it easier to use than Adobe Captivate.

What tools would you recommend and why?

All Work and No Play Makes Max a Dull Boy

~ Max ~ Leave a comment

On Monday, October 2, 2017, I was out in DeKalb, IL at Northern Illinois University to attend the last face-to-face doctoral class with the group of people with whom I started this PhD journey. We have additional coursework, but this is the last time we will all be together.
Photo of PhD GroupFrom left to right in this photo: Ade, Catherine (front), Danielle, Karen, Rabab, Flora, (me in the back), Dr. Psu, Brigitte (who joined us this term after taking a year off), Kristin, Ahmad, and Rakez. In a strange twist of the universe, Kristin and I were in the same class during our masters in library science program at FSU many (many) years ago. Cool how the universe brings people back to you. I’m learning a lot from these people!

At the same time, I’m a teaching assistant for an undergraduate class at NIU. This is my second term doing this – and so far it’s run quite a bit smoother than the last term. Perhaps part of it is experience – I know a bit more what to expect from these students, like what questions and issues they run into during the semester.

Not to keep myself overly bored, I’m also working full-time in my “day job” as an instructional designer at the University of Illinois College of Medicine – Chicago Campus. We are going through a pretty significant curriculum change, so it’s been a very stressful year as we have been preparing for it, and now implementing it.

Let’s see what I can do to take care of myself during this period, so I keep myself sane and healthy!