Draft:Recording your screen and webcam with CaptureSpace Lite
About this article
This article includes an overview of the Screen & Webcam recording option in CaptureSpace Lite. It is intended for all WSU students and employees.
What's the Screen & Webcam recording option?
Selecting the Screen & Webcam recording option (Fig 1) in CaptureSpace Lite will allow you to record all of your computer screen activity, along with the webcam you selected in your recording settings as a picture-in-picture (PiP) feed. You can move this PiP around the screen during the live recording. While you are recording your screen, you can cancel, pause, and end the recording. You can also use drawing tools to annotate the screen. When you end the recording, CaptureSpace Lite allows you to trim the start and finish of the video, chop out segments, and add an opening title and closing credits. Finally, you can save the recording to the location on your computer that you specified in your recording settings and you can upload the video to your MediaSpace account. Watch the Screen and Webcam Recording video for an overview of this process.
Canceling, pausing, resuming, saving, and uploading a recording session
During a live recording session, selecting the CaptureSpace Lite icon on the system tray of your PC (Fig 2) or the dock of your Mac opens a small control panel (Fig 3) that includes the following buttons:
- Cancel: Selecting the Cancel button during a live recording session will bring up another window asking whether you really want to cancel the recording without saving it to your computer. Select OK to erase the recording and start over. Select Cancel to resume recording.
- Pause: Selecting the Pause button during a live recording session will stop the recording and change the button label to Resume . Select Resume to continue recording. You can also press Alt+P on your keyboard to pause and resume a recording.
- Done: Selecting the Done button during a live recording session saves the recording to the location on your computer that you specified in your recording settings. It assigns a default name to the file which you can change later. It then opens the saved video in the CaptureSpace Lite editor. In the editor, you can preview your recording, trim and chop the recording, and add opening and closing titles. You can then select Done or Cancel. Selecting Cancel returns you to the Record tab of the Kaltura CaptureSpace Desktop Recorder window. Selecting Done opens an Upload Options window (Fig 4) that lets you add a title, description, and tags to your recording. Select Preview to return to the editor. Select Save to save those changes to the copy of the recording stored on your computer. Select Upload to begin copying the recording to your MediaSpace account.
Using the drawing tools during a recording session
During a live recording session, you can use any method to draw on your screen and those annotations will be captured. CaptureSpace Lite includes its own annotation tool that you can use if you wish. Selecting Draw button on the control panel (Fig 3) or pressing Alt+D on your keyboard during a live recording session brings up the CaptureSpace Lite annotation pallet. From here, you can choose a pen color, width, and style and then use your mouse as a stylus to draw on your screen.
- Learn more about the CaptureSpace Lite drawing tools (coming soon)
Using the CaptureSpace Lite editor
- How to trim your recordings
- How to chop out segments of MediaSpace recordings (coming soon)
- How to add opening and closing titles to a recording (coming soon)
Selecting sharing permissions
When you upload media to your MediaSpace account, you will need to select one of three file sharing permission settings. This setting can be changed later, so pick the setting that best applies at the moment:
- Private: Only you will be able to access the file. If you are embedding the video into Desire2Learn, you can leave this setting as private.
- Unlisted: Only those with a link to the file that you provide will be able to access it. Select this option if you want to share your video using a direct link to the video that you might share via email.
- Published: File will be visible to individuals if it's published in channels where they have viewing rights.
Tips on effective screen recording
- If you are capturing your entire screen, make sure to close all applications that are unnecessary or that might distract the viewer.
- Move your mouse a bit slower across the screen than usual. Use your mouse cursor or the drawing tools to focus the viewer's attention on specific areas on the screen.
- Rather than capturing a lengthy screen recording, consider chunking it up into shorter segments.
