Most of my Adult Education students have never taken online classes and many do not have much computer experience at all.  So I created a brief introduction to accessing my Canvas class that I can share with the students when they first enroll.

This was my first time using Camtasia and I really liked it.  I found it to be very intuitive and user-friendly.  My only complaint is the overly-obtrusive watermark for the free trial version.

My process was as follows:

• I created a separate self-recording, screencast, and narration file, then melded the three together along with several screenshots.  It made for a very busy timeline and I am not sure this was the most efficient way to approach this project, but hey, live and learn.

Some of the effects I used included:

• Incorporating a vector image and "lower third" animation into my opening narration

• Incorporating a stock motion background so that viewers did not have to look at my talking head for quite as long

• Utilizing transitions between screens

• Utilizing several annotations, including arrows, blurring, & highlighting