Academic Video Production

The first question to ask yourself is: what quality level are you looking for?  Is it more important to get content produced quickly at an acceptable quality level, or more important to have a polished media product which may take more time to produce?

For the best quality recording, you will need some specialized recording equipment and video production skills, not just a software package.

The ATSU Academic Technologies department currently produces a lot of academic content in a studio setting.  We have a video production studio with an audio-booth on the Missouri campus, and we have a space we can schedule for video production in Building 5845 on the Arizona campus.  We also regularly shoot on-location in labs, hospitals and clinics to produce clinical educational content for ATSU.

For self-produced content, the fastest and easiest method is a Zoom cloud recording.  Zoom has really improved their playback interface to now include automatic closed captioning.  The video and caption files can be downloaded, edited if needed, and uploaded to another location (Google Drive, YouTube, Echo360).  There is no additional cost for using Zoom to record your content.

Echo360 has improved their Personal Capture recording application.  It does a screen recording with a camera (if desired).  Personal Capture saves the recording locally on your computer to allow for some basic editing. Then the recording can be directly uploaded into a current Echo360 course, which the students already access for their classroom recordings. There is no additional cost for Echo360 Personal Capture

Camtasia is an powerful recording and editing software that is fairly easy to learn.  You have more editing options for things like screen zooming/panning, adding text call-outs, or adding arrows. Camtasia is about $180 per license (one-time). You can also use one Camtasia licensed workstation for multiple instructors for recording and editing content.

Several ATSU faculty use Articulate.  It can produce some nice HTML5 based screen capture and video content.  It has several pre-built templates. Articulate has an annual cost for individuals or teams https://articulate.com/pricing/education  

There are lots of other screen-casting packages out there used by ATSU faculty.  ATSU has not standardized on one package for enterprise licensing because every professor has their own personal opinion on what the best tool would be for their use.

If you want a mini-studio for self-producing content for your group, Academic Technologies can suggest some AV equipment.  If you would like Academic Technologies to record and edit your content, we can schedule times with you to get the ball rolling.

Let us know if you would like more information on any of these options for recording your academic content.