As of August 1st, 2008, the Edutech web site will no longer be updated. Edutech was funded by the Swiss Virtual Campus programme, which ended on July 31st, 2008. Some activities will be taken over by the e-Learning Services group at the SWITCH foundation.

Toolbox

BB FlashBack

BlueBerry
Ver:1.4.2
Cost: single user license $199.-
Updated: 2005-06-06

Screen Recorder

Features

  • Easy to use screen recorder
  • Export formats: Flash, WMV or AVI movie, PowerPoint, Windows executable .exe
  • Recordings can be edited (post processed), static text boxes, interactive click zones and audio can be added later.
  • Supported operating systems (for the recorder): Win only

Comments

BB flash back does not have the features of comparable products like Camtasia. However is it easier to use and more affordable.

CamStudio

Rendersoft Software
Ver:2.0
Cost: Freeware - costs nothing
Updated: 2003-07-14

Desktop Recorder & Demo Generator

Features

  • Record screen activity to create video (.avi) or Flash (.swf) format demo files
  • Avi movie player also included for distribution with avi files
  • User can define the frame rate of video capture
  • Audio can be recorded or added from an audio file
  • Text annotations can be added during recording
  • Supported operating systems: Windows only (to create demos)

Comments

Records video of screen activity only - user activated screen shots are not possible.

Problems were experienced with stability and speed.

Available in French, German, Italian, English and several other language versions.

Video files can not be edited with CamStudio, but with a third party video editor.

Camtasia Studio

Updated: 2004-08-04

Features

  • Several tools for recording and editing videos of screen activity
  • Creates video (.avi) files of screen activity and can convert them to Flash (.swf) files
  • Sound and sound editing
  • Text notes and callouts can be added
  • Camtasia Player can be distributed with videos for lossless playback
  • Relatively easy to learn, short time to production
  • User's guide and tutorials available on website
  • Supported operating systems: Windows

Comments

Camtasia Studio 1.0 offers more features than its predecessor Camtasia 3.0, including export in Flash format, among others. Camtasia Studio is only available for Windows, 2000 or XP is recommended. Smooth recordings of mouse movement and animations are possible, recording videos that are playing on screen is not always reliable.

Captivate (previously RoboDemo)

Macromedia
Ver:5
Cost: From € 389
Updated: 2004-10-18

Features

  • Produces Flash format films from screen activity
  • Based on screen shots that are timed automatically or manually
  • Possible to add text notes, audio, user input text fields, track user scores, plus other interactive elements
  • Available in several language versions (French, German, Italian)
  • Import and export of various file types
  • Relatively easy to learn, users able to produce demos quickly
  • Elearning Edition: SCORM support, quizzing, branching

Comments

Editing is flexible, but can be time-consuming. RoboDemo is available only for Windows operating systems. June 2003 RoboDemo announced the RoboDemo FLA Module, which allows you to import a RoboDemo file into Flash MX for direct editing with Flash.

Director 8 Shockwave Studio

Updated: 2004-03-02

Features

  • targets professional developers
  • editors for text, graphics and audio
  • scripting language Lingo
  • predefined multimedia and scripting library
  • production can be saved a Java applet

Comments

Pros:
  • very complete functions
  • all Director productions can be distributed over the web and viewed using the Shockwave plugin without limitations
  • available for Win and Mac platforms
  • market leader
Cons:
  • requires programming skills

Screen Movie Recorder

AlphaOmega Software
Ver:1.11
Cost: Free Trial, 15 Euros purchase
Updated: 2005-04-25

Screen Recorder

Features

  • Creates Quicktime movies from screen activity
  • Available in English, French, German and Italian
  • Easy to use, no set up time necessary
  • Supported operating systems: Macintosh only

Comments

Simple tool, good price

TurboDemo

Bernard D&G
Ver:4.0 (Standard and Professional)
Cost: Standard: 540-890 Euros/license Pro: 890-1390 Euros/license
Updated: 2003-07-14

Desktop Recorder & Demo Generator

Features

  • Creates a demo file from user-defined screen captures
  • Text input fields, hot spots, mouse overs, feedback text and other effects
  • Sound can be recorded or added from sound files
  • Demos are created and edited relatively quickly
  • Images can be imported for use in demo
  • Supported operating systems: Windows only (for creating demos)

Comments

Easy to use and quick to learn.

Prices above don't reflect discounts for educational institutions.

Standard edition creates only Flash swf format, professional edition creates swf, avi, exe, or java applets.

User can choose to produce demo that has German, French, Italian, English or Dutch interface (loading message, etc.). The authoring environment is available in several separate language versions.

ViewletBuilder

Qarbon
Ver:3 Pro
Cost: $299-$499 depending on number of licenses (discount for academic institutions on request)
Updated: 2004-08-04

Desktop Recorder & Demo Generator

Features

  • Creates demos from screen shots and produces a Flash format movie
  • Mouse movement is tracked automatically, timing can be adjusted
  • Creating and editing a demo movie is relatively quick and simple to learn
  • Demos can be easily edited, text notes or balloons added, as well as text fields for user input and mouse "hot spots"
  • Sound files can also be integrated into a demonstration.
  • Multilingual interface integrated into one product
    (not necessary to purchase separate products to have more than one language version)

Comments

Videos playing on screen can not be reproduced

ViewletBuilder3 Lite

Qarbon
Ver:3 Lite (education)
Cost: $ 79.-
Updated: 2003-07-17

Desktop Recorder & Demo Generator

Education version of ViewletBuilder3 Pro lacks some features. In particular, the mouse click screen capture option is not available.

  • See URL for comparison with Pro version
  • Currently supported operating systems: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP
  • Supported operating systems in the future: Mac OSX, Linux, Solaris 8/9

Comments

The education version offers a good tool at a very reasonable price, but the lacking option to use mouse clicks for screen capture (as in the Pro version) could be a significant drawback.

Wink

Cost: freeware
Updated: 2004-07-06

Freeware: Distributed as freeware for business or personal use. However if you want to redistribute, you need to get permission from the author.

Input formats: Capture screenshots from your PC, or use images in BMP/JPG/PNG/TIFF/TGA/PCX formats.

Output formats: Export your presentations as Macromedia Flash, Standalone EXE, PDF, HTML or any of the above image formats. Use Flash/html for the web, EXE for distributing to PC users and PDF for printable manuals.

Performance/Quality: Creates highly compressed Flash presentations (few kbs to few hundreds of kbs, much smaller than competing commercial products) ideal for using on the web.

Tools:

Navigation buttons to move to next/previous/random frames in the presentation, you can use custom bitmaps for these buttons (full transparency/alpha channel support).

Callouts and balloons for displaying text explanations. The inbuilt Callout Editor is used to create custom shaped callouts as you want.

Intuitive drag-n-drop editing of the frame, callout, cursor, navigation buttons and the title elements.

Advanced features like templates, cursor editing, palettes, background images etc.

Completely PC and Web ready with exports to PDF, HTML, SWF and EXE formats.

Ingenious and innovative compression techniques applied to reduce filesize of output Flash file. Generated flash file plays in Flash players from version 3 and above, giving you widest array of target audience.

The following institutions contribute to the contents: Edutech (Fribourg), eQuality (Zürich), ZHW (Winterthur), FNL (Bern), E-Learning Center (Zürich), Centre NTE (Fribourg)

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