[SpeedGrader] Screen Capture with Audio as a Comment Option

[915085611]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas LMS

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I grade a lot of essays, but I believe this feature might be valuable for other disciplines as well.

Canvas currently has the ability to post comments in video (webcam) or audio form--though, the flash programs for these seem to be hit or miss for me.

For essay feedback, I want to be able to communicate what I'm seeing in a student's essay, but I don't necessarily need them to see my face. Far more valuable to me is to be able to point to aspects of the essay or assignment while I'm talking and to have the student see those specific aspects while they are hearing my comments.

I do this now using Camtasia. I open speedgrader and begin recording a screen capture with audio. I then have to save the file and upload it to Canvas using the media comment video upload option.

This works, but it is a bit clunky. My speed at grading would be greatly increased if I could press a button and simply begin recording the screen.

Again, I know the benefit of this with essays, but my guess is that it could be of benefit to almost any discipline. If an instructor is taking the time to record a comment of any sort, it is probably a comment that has something to do with the digital object that is right on the screen. The added benefit would be that if the recorder is capturing the screen and not just the current window, an instructor could use the video as a digital whiteboard. I can imagine a math instructor giving a just in time KhanAcademy style explanation for a problem on which a particular student seems to be having difficulties.

Since I have an android tablet with a stylus, if this could be incorporated into the android speedgrader app, that would be some wicked awesome future s%&t!!!

[rozhussin]

Agreed. I vote YES!

[grouamba2]

This will be a great tool. I am voting yes.

[blee]

This concept is genius.

[renniscantwell]

This would be an amazing feature that I could see myself using pretty much daily.

[sean_flaherty]

Very cool.  There is a currently a small movement to get more courses labeled at Writing Certified at my college and the district as a whole - I'm looking into having my Physics courses get that certification.  One major drawback is the increased volume of grading as it is expected that students will have the opportunity to submit a writing assignment for feedback, make adjustments based on that feedback, and then resubmit.  This grading feature would make it far more convenient for me to provide feedback as a read through the submission while indicating the specific locations via mouse movement, highlighting, etc.  I think this is a feature I'd take advantage of if it was developed.

[scottdennis]

> 100 votes!  \0/

[Jeff_F]

Scott - if you need additional yea votes I'll sound the bugle. 

ps. have you ever visited the community without a log in?  This approach enables you to see the domain of the email addresses of voters. There are some interesting patterns in some of the ideas with certain ideas generating dozens of votes from just one or two institutions.   Surely this is grass roots politicking, but it has me pondering how this voting mechanism can be a representation of the fuller client base when a single organization's members can cast +50 votes on an idea?  It seems to me that those that take the time to stir up interest will tend to reap in the rewards. Isn't that a nice way to say the squeaky wheel gets the grease?

[scottdennis]

Hey  @Jeff_F ​,

Yep, it is also true that you can see what institution a give voter is coming from by hovering their name in the vote count if you are curious.  We can pivot this data with other sources to learn more about who voters are and what the frequency distribution is of votes coming in. 

Different scenarios:

• One admin or opinion leaders sends out a plea locally for people to go vote up an idea.  Each individual must choose to login, go to the idea, and (hopefully) make an informed decision about how they want to vote - Exactly what we hope happens... Power to the people!  We know what resonates
• At a back to school night or other gathering and administrator directs all teachers to login and go vote for an idea or a teacher has their students do the same.  We can see that all the votes came in within a short time period and mostly from voters who had never logged in before - We'll note this fact and probably do a little ribbing in the comments.  The gravity of this vote count will be weighed accordingly.
• Someone writes a bot to automatically add robo votes - seriously not cool. We'll probably be talking with that institution's representatives

[kedgecomb]

This is an excellent idea!  It would be great for instructors to combine the SpeedGrader with a screen-recording piece.  I believe more would use it, if it was integrated into Canvas. 

[bgibson]

Could there be an Snagit LTI that adds the screencapture.audio narration functionality into SpeedGrader?