Production guidelines for live sessions and lessons
High
General Task
30 weeks 15 hours ago
We need to tighten up our guidelines for using Dimdim and other methods to host a live lesson or session. We want to include info on best-practices for client-side screencapture tools, presentation preparation, editing, planning, etc. There is an issue and additional reference material here -
http://drupal.org/node/414722
#1
Krk
We want to start producing these programs soon -
http://intranet.openlearninglabs.org/drupalopenlearning/node/161
The format for each will essentially be the capture of a live workshop or roundtable discussion. We'll use dimdim if it suits our needs. Let's discuss specific issues and create some production guidelines.
#2
The combination of Dimdim and Aegir (for Drupal sandboxes) should get us close to what Lullabot and Acquia provide in their workshops. As we're set to commence live sessions, we need to solidify ASAP.
#3
Right now we're using Dimdim, but there may be some issues w/ the way it automatically captures and saves the sessions as flv - examples of what it outputs are here - http://groups.drupal.org/node/32762#comment-102730
Obviously we want to be able to edit these, add our own branding, and allow advertisements (per our guidelines). Also need to make sure the quality is high. If there are issues we can resolve, possibly we can work with Dimdim and see if they can provide another format. Very important we work this out.
#4
Attached is the beginning of a list of available screen capture software. The ideal candidate to endorse would be one that is free or low cost, cross-platform and captures audio/video in formats friendly to both Mac and Windows. Of the ones I've looked at so far, Jing is an interesting possibility. The basic version captures to SWF format and the Pro version ($14.95/yr) captures MPEG-4/H.264 video.
#5
This issue has some overlap with (http://drupalkata.com/drupaldojo/node/166) - in this particular case we're trying to figure out if Dimdim will meet our needs for capturing and editing the live webinars we're set to produce. Assuming .flv and .sfw are not the ideal formats. What do you think?
#6
FLV and SWF are fairly hostile to most non-linear digital video editors. Something that can capture AVI, MPEG, DV Stream, Quicktime, etc. is what we would want. The Dimdim footage could be captured very easily into one of these formats, but not from within dimdim itself. 3rd party capture software would be required.
#7
Agreed - we should do a local recording of the live session (using dimdim or whatever) as well. We need to work this into our guidelines.