Web Publishing Community session – September 2014
This months’ Web Publishing Community saw our latest update on the Drupal project (EdWeb), an update on Google Analytics events tracking, and a presentation from Andy Todd about his experiences of creating training videos for the IS Skills team.
Google Analytics events
Rachel has posted about her Google Analytics events presentation, detailing case studies for effective use of these reports, recently on our blog.
Drupal update
Bruce presented on the latest developments in the project, including an overview of the ‘Beta’ version being used to build the UWP website; and an update on migration communications around allocation of migration phases, time slots and migration roles.
“Screencasting”
After the break, Andy Todd joined us to give a presentation on how the IS Skills Development team have used screencast software to create self-paced training videos. The type of issues he had addressed struck a chord with me, following my own attempts to create training videos earlier this year.
It was gratifying to know that the types of issues I had experienced were common to all! Andy made clear points on the need to have agreed requirements before creating videos, the time and cost saving benefits of preparing scripts and materials fully in advance, and considering the procedure you’ll undertake before filming.
Andy had obviously spent considerable time working out the costs/benefits of a variety of video capture and hosting solutions before opting for the combination that worked for him: the requirements of the video in terms of duration and quality, along with the existing skills and knowledge of his team.
It’s heartening that Andy has created materials to help other members of the web community who are considering promotional and educational videos of their own.
It’ll be interesting to see if other members of the community take this forward, and whether we can get together to review our video provision, and see how best it can work for the University’s site as a whole.
