Using Echo360 to create screencasts
Echo360 is the University's lecture capture and video management system. It enables staff to capture, edit and share video content with students. This guidance is concerned with using Universal Capture (Personal) to record screencasts. If you would like to know about using the Lecture Capture part of the software to record live lectures in teaching rooms, please see this link instead:
https://warwick.ac.uk/services/its/servicessupport/av/lecture_capture/Link opens in a new window
There is a process that you need to go through before you can access Universal Capture (Personal). Please see this link for the details:
Creating a recording
Login to Echo360 using your Warwick email address and the password you have created on this website:
https://echo360.org.uk/homeLink opens in a new window
You will then be presented with your library. It will look something like this:
Click on the Create button at the top of the screen and then choose New Capture from the drop down menu. You will be asked if you want to open an application window. Click on the Open Echo360 Capture button.
The recording interface will then open.
Give your recording a title by clicking Untitled --> Library at the top left of the screen. Complete the fields and then click on the Save button. On the image above you can see one input on the left hand side of the interface but you can actually choose two inputs (and it doesn't matter if they are on the left or the right of the screen). If you click on the down arrow next to Display 1 with System Audio you can choose what you want to display on the left hand side of the screen. The options are shown below.
If you click on the down arrow next to No input you can choose what you want to display on the right hand side of the screen. The options are No Input or HP HD Camera (this title may vary depending on what camera and device type you have). Choose your camera if you want to include a talking head alongside content such as a presentation which can be displayed on the left hand side of the screen.
Down the middle of the screen is the audio, if the coloured bars are fluctuating as you make a noise then the audio is being picked up. If they are not fluctuating then check your audio input by clicking on the down arrow next to the microphone icon. You can also mute your audio from here if you do not want to record any sound.
When you are ready to record, click the red Start Capture button at the bottom of the screen. There will be a short countdown before the Echo360 window minimises and the capture begins. You can Pause (and Resume) or Stop the recording using the menu on the Echo360 window or the following shortcut keys:
| Apple devices | Microsoft devices | |
| Pause & Resume (toggle) | Command 6 | Control 6 |
| Finish / Stop the Recording | Command 8 | Control 8 |
| Extend the Recording | Command 1 | Control 1 |
| Open Universal Capture | Command 4 | Control 4 |
Once you have stopped the recording it will should be automatically uploaded to your Echo360 library where you can process it as below.
Uploading pre-recorded media
Login to Echo360 using your Warwick email address and the password you have created on this website:
https://echo360.org.uk/homeLink opens in a new window
Click on the Create button at the top of the screen and then choose Upload Media from the drop down menu. You can upload video, audio and presentation files to Echo360 in the following formats:
| Video |
Audio | Presentation |
|
|
|
You can load media from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, OneDrive Business and Box using the menu on the left hand side of the dialogue box. Alternatively you can select your media from your device by clicking the Select Files to Upload button.
Once you have selected your files, click on the Upload button that appears at the bottom of the box and allow your files to upload. If they are large video files this can take a while. A bar under the file title will show you the upload progress.
You can upload a 20GB file directly from your device into Echo360. If you are uploading files from any other source (e.g. Dropbox) the upload limit is only 220MB - so much smaller! If your file is larger than 220MB, download it to your device first, then upload it into Echo360 directly.
Once the upload is complete a pop-up box will display a message saying that the file is now available in your library. It will take some time to process the upload before it is available to watch, edit or share though.
Editing recordings
To edit a recording once it has processed, click on the blue button with the three white dots on it on the relevant thumbnail in your library. Click on Edit Media from the drop down menu.
You will then be presented with a warning message saying that 'Any edits made will affect all published versions of the content. Are you sure you want to continue?' Click on the OK button. You will then enter the Echo360 editing interface.
To top and tail the recording simply click and drag the playhead markers (the pink sliders) at either end of the timeline to the relevant point(s). Choose to either Save your cropped recording (this will overwrite the original) or Save As to save a copy of it (this will leave the original intact).
You can also cut out sections of the recording by dragging the left hand pink slider to the start of the segment you want to cut and clicking the make cut button (the blue scissors). Then drag the right hand pink slider to the end of the segment you want to cut and again click the blue scissors button. Click into the section of recording between the two sliders and click on the Delete button above the timeline. This will remove the section between the pink sliders. If you make a mistake you can undo this using the Undo button which will become active on the toolbar above the timeline.
If you are unfamiliar with editing recordings, always use the Save As button as this will keep an unedited master copy that you can go back to if you need to.
Be aware that processing of any edits happens in real time and can actually take longer to complete than uploading the original file did.
Sharing recordings
To share a recording once it has processed, click on the blue button with the three white dots on it on the relevant thumbnail in your library. Click on Share from the drop down menu.
In the Share Settings dialogue box, click on the Links tab and then the Add Link button.
A public link and an embed code will then be generated. Depending on your needs you can then Copy the link and send it to your students or add it to a Moodle space. Alternatively you can Embed the recording within a web page (or Moodle book or page).
Once you have finished click on the Done button.
Editing recording transcripts
Please see this link for further information about using transcripts in Echo360.