Last week I mentioned how much we appreciated responses to the recent release resources survey that many of you filled out for us. One of the sections of that survey was related to New Feature Screencasts and Blogs.
The biggest thing we learned about each?
Blogs: “It adds a human face/voice to the technology and documentation...also provides another place for discussions to occur between Instructure and users.”
New Feature Screencasts: Well...to summarize, they’re supplemental. From the survey...
"In my view, recent changes hadn't warranted use of a video in our faculty communications. A few screen captures worked fine."
"I read faster than I can watch videos, so I prefer to just read the release notes unless a video is needed to clarify the feature functionality for me."
"They supplement our support information for faculty, so we do not have to make a video if more explanation is needed than just release notes."
Survey results also told us…
- The importance of professional video quality is not significant
- Timely videos are extremely important
- Retaining individual feature videos is extremely important
- If the New Feature Screencast was to be discontinued, 75% of respondents said they could live without it, and they’d rely on images in the release notes
What’s Changed
We love the direction that the blogs are going, and you do, too. So, we’ve taken the same human element that is in the blogs and applied them to our New Feature Screencasts, with one major adjustment: incorporate the product team from start to finish.
The Purpose
New Feature Screencast videos are meant to introduce new or updated feature functionality, and you’ll also get to learn more about feature development from our product managers’ point of view. Why was this feature built? What is its use case? What problems is this feature trying to solve?
The People
Screencast videos are now truly supplemental and provide more insights than what are in the release notes. If you are looking for such things. You’ll also get more of the human element that you love from the blog entries, directly from our product managers. Currently only the Canvas product managers are creating new feature screencasts.
The Process
Our product managers are creating their screencast videos based on the latest functionality of the feature. Our intention is to provide you with a video before the release date and as quickly as possible.
With each release, we’ll create a new feature screencast page that includes all the available features. Additionally, you’ll get links to the individual videos that will be posted. You can subscribe to the individual video articles and be notified when a specific video is posted.
Multiple Videos
If a release includes more than one video, the screencast page for each release includes a compilation of all new feature screencast videos (as they are created). For example, the 2021-08-21 Canvas release included four videos that could be viewed together in an embedded format.
If you’re interested in getting the embed code to post somewhere for your organization, the embed code is posted in the screencast page, too. The embed code will automatically display all individual videos as they are added.
- For an example of a release with multiple videos, check out the Canvas New Feature Screencasts (2021-08-21).
- For an example of a release with only one video, check out the Canvas New Feature Screencasts (2021-09-18).
The Feedback
We still want new feature screencasts to be interactive! Each individual feature video includes a link to the feature’s Q&A page where you can ask questions and converse with other Canvas users.
Please help us keep iterating on these improvements and let us know your thoughts!
The content in this blog is over six months old, and the comments are closed. For the most recent product updates and discussions, you're encouraged to explore newer posts from Instructure's Product Managers.