This is a work in real progress . . . please edit and revise at will.

Software needed: 

On Windows -- Audacity for recording (easy to edit and clean up); LAME encoder to convert to mp3; [PowerPoint] for slides; Windows Movie Maker to compile; Jodix to convert to enhanced mp4.  All these programs are free or included in Windows.  On Macintosh -- [GarageBand] does it all, free on Macs.

Equipment needed:

Microphone for recording.  Don't spend more than $20-25.  I use a headset mike.

Where to record:

Any quiet space.  If you use Audacity, you can edit out the dog barking, the children laughing, and the phone ringing.  The library has a heavily-soundproofed room.  Contact Ron Marschall for availability.  The FCC (HT2-125) has both a Mac and a Windows computer available for faculty and staff use.

Where to publish:

GAZAA (contact Mike Aragon) or iTunesU (http://itunes.gccaz.edu)  Log in to iTunes with your eGCC username and password.  For development space, contact Jim Hamilton.

Text: (delete as covered above)

At the moment, your office workstations are not running the eGCC image.  If they were, and if Camtasia were sequenced for them, you could request access.  At this point, you would have to request to have this software installed on your office machine, and if we have enough licenses, the techs could do this install after a request to the helpdesk.  If we have to purchase an additional license, I think it is about $100 or so.  Sue Murry handles these requests.

The library has a highly-soundproofed room for doing recordings.  I don't know what kind of equipment they have in there, but you could probably use a laptop.  There is air noise in the FCC room, but I don't think it is really a significant problem, and I believe Camtasia is installed on those computers, so you could use that room.  If you use a headset microphone (I have a couple that are inexpensive -- under $20), I think the quality is fine.  Ron Marschall might disagree, but then he is a purist.  I suggest you try low end and then decide if that's acceptable for you.  Ron taught us some tricks about setting the position of the microphone to minimize funny noises.  Frankly, I record from my study at home, and I find that sufficiently quiet qas long as the telephone doesn't ring (but I can prevent that).  

If you use Audacity and [PowerPoint]and Windows Movie Maker, you can record the audio in Audacity and edit out any interruptions -- sneezes, coughs, dogs barking -- then merge the audio track with your [PowerPoint]slides and save it as a "movie."  Jim Hamilton can walk you through this process.  It's pretty easy and produces a really professional looking product.  Hey, Jim, maybe we need to produce a "how to" movie using the tools??

GCC has a streaming media server (GAZAA -- accounts available from Mike Aragon) or you could upload your final presentation as an enhanced mp4 file to our new iTunesU server at Apple.  (http://itunes.gccaz.edu)  Log in with your GCC username and password to see what is available to authenticated users, or log in as Guest to see what is available to the world.  The limit on files uploaded to the iTunesU server is 500 mb, which Jim Hamilton says is about 100 minutes, I think.  There is no authentication on GAZAA, but there is finely-grained authentication on iTunesU.

So you have lots of options, and what you choose mostly depends on who your audience is for these materials and how "protected" you want them to be, which probably also includes some copyright questions.  If you are using all materials you have created, you have more options than if you have included copyrighted images and other materials.

I suppose we should begin creating a wiki page with all this information. . . .  I suspect that others will have the same questions, and we can pool our knowledge.

Soft Chalk Alternative

I use Audacity to record and then insert the mp3 file into a Soft Chalk lesson.  This may be of interest if you are interested in preparing a reusable learning object that has the capapbility to do quiz and text poppers. A new version of Soft Chalk (to be released next month) will even have the capapbility to be created in Spanish or English. Once the lesson is finished, it can be hosted on the eGCC web space that we have been given or it can also be hosted through Blackboard.  (mjo)