Guide to creating your own videos MOOC’s: Khan Tablet Capture style

By November 17, 2016 News No Comments
Khan Tablet Capture style

Considering that video is the main method of content delivery in MOOCs, we are going to provide you an overview of one of the most frequently requested type of videos: Khan-Style Tablet Capture.

Khan Tablet Capture styleThis article forms integral part of the on line MOOC course Videos for teaching, learning and communication, created by The University of Manchester. It will end the 4th of December.

Salman Amin “Sal” Khan is an American educator who founded the Khan Academy, a free on-line education platform and an organization with which he has produced over 6,500 video lessons teaching a wide spectrum of academic subjects, mainly focusing on mathematics and sciences.

Khan was motivated even at a young age to help other people learn.In late 2003, Khan began tutoring his cousin, Nadia, in mathematics over the internet using Yahoo!’s Doodle notepad. When other relatives and friends sought his tutoring, he moved his tutorials to YouTube where he created an account on November 16, 2006.

The popularity of his educational videos on the video-sharing website prompted Khan to quit his job as a financial analyst in late 2009.

He moved his focus to developing his YouTube channel, Khan Academy, full-time with the aid of close friend Josh Gefner.
Khan consequently received sponsorship from Ann Doerr, the wife of John Doerr.
His videos received worldwide interest from both students and non-students, with more than 458 million views in the first number of years.

Khan outlined his mission as to “accelerate learning for students of all ages. With this in mind, we want to share our content with whoever may find it useful”.  Khan plans to extend the “free school” to cover topics such as English. Khan’s videos are also used to educate rural areas of Africa and Asia.

Khan published a book about Khan Academy and education goals titled The One World Schoolhouse: Education Re imagined.

Khan Academy, initially a tool for students, added the Coach feature in 2012, promoting the connection of teachers with students through videos and monitor tools.

As an educator, this handy guide to creating your own lectures in Khan Academy style will hep you:

  • First, an overview of what is needed:
  • A program to record your screen, and make a video out of it.
  • A program to “draw” on.
  • Any drawing program could be used for this. Even PowerPoint if you don’t care for the handwritten look. This is the actual content being recorded.
  • A tablet. This is optional. If you want the “handwritten” look of Sal’s videos you will need to buy a pressure-sensitive tablet. This allows for very natural looking handwriting.
  • A microphone. Assuming you want to use your voice in the video, you will need a microphone of some sort.

If you use a Mac, you can use the following programs:

  • If you have Photoshop, use that.
  • If you have Microsoft Office, PowerPoint and Word have drawing functions.
  • Otherwise: search for a free drawing program.
  • Mac has screen recording software built in with QuickTime.
  • Just run QuickTime, and then go file -> new screen recording.

How can you improve your handwriting?

  • Make sure that the tablet is set straight in front of you, on a table. Having it slanted will produce slanted writing.
  • Write slowly.
  • Write small. It seems necessary to write really big, but if you write as if you were using college-rule paper, it will look better.

If you want to work with layers, and / or  import pictures, you could check some video tutorial.

  • If you don’t have sound.
  • If you are using FrontCam, go to Options -> Video,
  • Then click the audio tab, and check “Record Sound”.
  • Otherwise, make sure your microphone is plugged in and that your speakers are up.

We can’t wait to see what you filmed after completed “Videos for teaching, learning, and communication”. You can still enrol! – Team UoMan.

Note: Article idea and some texts are taken from: