Creating Asynchronous Online Student Contact Using Screencast-O-Matic 

By Bruce

My name is Bruce Haden, Professor in the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts (SHTCA).  I currently teach Introduction to Hospitality Accounting.  Learners in this course are in their second semester in one of the many programs in the SHTCA.  Although there has been a focus on learning and using technological tools to aid in teaching online courses that were traditionally taught in a classroom, I thought to myself, “What about student contact outside of the classroom?  How can we provide one on one or small group support to students that have a question about their work and used to drop by the office for help?” 

That’s when I thought of using Screencast-O-Matic to provide an ideological approach to pedagogy outside of the online classroom (i.e. online out-of-class support with students). I find that providing a personalized recorded answer to a student’s question (mentioning their name during the process), with or without a webcam on, personalize a meaningful student contact experience.  The result has been a satisfied and engaged student. 

Screencast-O–Matic: 

A Screen Recorder and Snapshot creator that captures any area of a computer screen with the option of adding narration and video from a webcam.  It is free to sign up to create Screencast videos up to 15 minutes. 

Example: 

When a student (in this case, Accounting) emails a question about homework, I ask them to provide information and a screenshot if the student is able to do so.

My Response: 

Hi Biraj,*
The Depreciation Expense for the first year is incorrect as there is 6 months the equipment is depreciating.  I created a Screencast to explain the question in detail:  Depreciation question – no residual value .  Please let me know if it helps.  If it doesn’t and you would like to meet via Zoom, do not hesitate to contact me. 

Although a matter of choice, I included the webcam recording of myself explaining the material in the Screencast to humanize the experience (a photo of the Screencast before playing is shown below). 

The result can be found in the following email communications: 

Thank you Bruce. I got it…* 
↓
Thanks Biraj,* Did you find the Screencast useful?… 
↓ 
Yes Bruce it was clear and was really helpful. Thank you* 

Conclusion: 

This is just one example of many successful interactions with students using Screencast-o-matic.  I have also used it in other courses.  Using Screencast-o-matic in this manner has helped me to develop a mindset of using this process as a way to provide online, out-of-class support for students with the added benefit of being asynchronous so that we are not constricted to meeting at common free times (something that is hard to do these days).  So far, I wouldn’t change a thing about this process. 

* Biraj Singh is a student at Centennial College.  He has given permission to use our unadulterated interaction outside of the course to share with other faculty in ‘The Studio’.