STCC Library Staff use the following no/low cost tools (except the microphone) to create our How To videos. In some cases, the software and hardware was supported by the campus, or staff were familiar with the programs. Be sure to check with your campus's IT department or instructional designers to see if they recommend and support any hardware or software. We did purchase the digital voice recorder for about $180 to enhance the audio quality of our recordings.
Audio
Audacity (a free, open-source, multi-track sound editor)
Files saved in .mp3 format at highest resolution (320 kbps)
Microphone
Video - Screencast-o-matic with files saved in .mp4 format
Templates are very useful to standardize and streamline your workflow. You may find the following templates useful and are welcome to use or modify them as needed.
Scripts
We use a Google Doc template for all of our scripts, which includes the title, draft reading time, and alternating text of the narrator's words and actions occurring on the screen.
Branding
We use a Google Slides template for the opening title slide and closing slide with contact information. Both use STCC’s school color and the opening slide also an STCC logo. The title slides are used on our YouTube channel as thumbnails to give a consistent and STCC-branded style to all our video content.
Workflow Documentation
You are also welcome to utilize a Google Sheets template we initially created for workflow documentation. This spreadsheet has functioned well as a place to collect video topic ideas, keep track of all steps in the video creation process, and make sure we are periodically checking videos for updates.
While we continue to use the spreadsheet to track our monthly video checks, we have more recently begun to utilize Trello for our project tracking activity. Trello allows us to organize and track our work in more detail with due dates, checklists and the ability to share documents and files more easily.