Record Your Screen (Screencast)

Among many other useful tools in MyVRSpot is the Recorder—a feature that allows users to produce a live recording of their screen while also capturing their voice. The result is a nicely packaged instructional screencast video that you can share with students. Common scenarios for creating a screencast include recording a slide presentation, modeling an exemplary piece of student work while discussing its merits, and instructing students on how to utilize a digital tool or app. Whatever the purpose, screencasts possess great instructional potential. Follow the instructions below and watch the tutorial video to learn how to create one for yourself!

Recording Your Screen

  • Log in to MyVRSpot from the LPS Portal.
  • Select Recorder from the menu toward the top of your home page.
  • Select Screen Recorder.
  • Choose Standard Definition (480p) or High Definition (720p). (For a standard instructional video, the 480p option is perfectly suitable, but you may choose to increase the definition to 720p.)
  • Click Record Screen to begin recording.
    • Mac users may need to grant Google Chrome permission to capture your screen. In System Preferences, select Security & Privacy, then choose Screen Recording. Make sure Google Chrome is checked in the list.
  • A window will pop-up with options for sharing your screen: the entire screen, an application window, or a particular Chrome Tab. Select the view that best suits your purposes, then click Share.
  • Your screen recording will begin when you press the “record” button (red circle) at the bottom of the player window.
  • NOTE: The beginning and end can be cropped out in the next section when you edit the settings of your video. 
  • When finished, press the red circle to stop the recording. Press the Publish to My Account button to keep the recording or the red Delete and Rerecord button to redo the recording.

Editing the Settings of Your Video

  • Once you have finished recording your video, you will need to edit the media settings so that students can access it. To do this, click the Home button in the menu at the top of the page, and find your recent recording among the media tiles (by default MyVRSpot names your video “My Recording – [date/time]”). Click the Edit Attributes button (pencil icon) within the video tile.
  • Be sure to rename your video so that it more appropriately describes the content. You may also choose to add a description.
  • Under the Playback Options section you can control where the video will start playing (this section only appears once the video has finished processing).  This allows you to cut out the beginning and end of the video where you were clicking the record button. Simply play the video and pause it where you’d like the video to start/end and click Use Current Playhead Time. 
  • Then, toward the bottom of the page, under Media Permission, change the setting to Public (the default is set to Private).
  • Click Update.

Sharing Your Video

  • After updating your media attributes, MyVRSpot will automatically direct you to the landing page for your video.
    • You can access this same page by clicking Home and then selecting the video thumbnail.
  • Just below the preview of the video, you will see several options to “Share this video.” To share your video via Google Classroom, click the Google Classroom button.
    • If you are not logged into Classroom, you will be prompted by Google to sign in. In the ‘Email or phone’ box enter username@class.lps.org.
  • From the drop-down menu select the course where you would like to share the video and how you would like to share it (create an assignment, make an announcement, create material, etc.).
  • Click Go.
  • In a separate tab, go to your Google Classroom course page to ensure that the video has properly posted.

Alternative Solutions

  • WeVideo, Zoom, and Quicktime (Mac users) all offer the ability to record your computer screen.

This information is part of a larger series on creating & delivering multimedia based content with LPS tools. The entire list of resources can be found here.

Updated May 8, 2020