FLO Student Support

The Kaltura Desktop Recorder is a free tool available through FLO that you can use to make simple videos for your assignments, but only in the case where your assignment will be submitted via My Media. 

You can use it to capture screen recordings, webcam and audio. When making screen recordings, you can also add annotations like drawing and highlighting to the slides, webpages or applications on screen as you record. It also has a whiteboard mode where you can record yourself drawing basic diagrams & graphics.     

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How to get the Desktop Recorder

Student computers on campus should have the Desktop Recorder installed. Be aware, not all student computers have webcam and microphones, so you may not be able to use the full functionality on every computer on campus. 

You can also download the Desktop Recorder onto your personal laptop or computer as shown below. You need user admin rights on the computer to install it. 

Please be aware that Chromebook devices currently cannot support the installation of the Desktop Recorder.

A new updated version of the kaltura Desktop Recorder was launched on May 28 2019.  If you previously used the older version of the Desktop Recorder, and have saved recordings that have not yet been uploaded to MyMedia, follow these instructions to make sure you don't lose them before switching to the new version.

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Create a video with Desktop Recorder

1. Open the Kaltura CaptureSpace Desktop Recorder, either:
• from the icon on your desktop(PC) or from Applications (Mac) 
   
  
• or, from within FLO. Open the drop-down menu next to your name and profile picture, click My Media > Add New > Desktop Recorder 
   
  
  
2. The Recorder opens. Select the recording inputs for the type of video you'd like to create. You can click an icon to toggle the input on/off. See the table below for which inputs to use for different kinds of video.  
    
   
   

   Video type	Recorder inputs to select
   Screen recording (no audio)	Screen only. Click Camera and Audio to turn them off.   If you have multiple monitors, you can use the drop-down menu to select which one to record. Choose whether you want Full Screen recording, or to select a specific area on your screen.
   Screen recording (with audio) Record presentation slides with narration  Record yourself using a website or database, software application, etc Show an image, diagram etc and talk about it Optional: use the annotation tools to overlay a markup over the content on screen.	Screen and Audio. Click Camera to turn it off.   If you have multiple monitors, you can use the drop-down menu to select which one to record. Choose whether you want Full Screen recording, or to select a specific area on your screen.
   Talking head, presenting directly to camera	Camera and Audio. Click Screen to turn it off.
   Multi-stream recording (screen recording plus webcam talking head) The Desktop Recorder will create two video streams - one for the screen recording, and one for the webcam. When your TC or tutor  watches the video, they'll be able to choose how the two streams are displayed, and change it as they watch (it's interactive).  They can view it as:  picture in picture view, with one stream displayed in the bottom corner and the other filling the screen.  side-by side: splits the screen in half and plays both streams side by side.  You don't need to do any additional editing to make this interactive viewing experience possible. When you create a multi-stream recording, the video player in FLO just provides the functionality.	All three inputs - Screen, Camera and Audio.  If you have multiple monitors, you can use the drop-down menu to select which one to record. Choose whether you want Full Screen recording, or to select a specific area on your screen.
   Audio only	Audio only. Click Screen and Camera to turn them off.

   
   
3. Click the red Record button. You'll see a 3-2-1 countdown, then the recording begins.  
      
   
   
4. The recording toolbar will reduce in size and display in the bottom right of screen. You may need to move it or minimize it to make sure it isn't included in your video. As you record, you can pause and resume at any time. If you make a mistake and want to discard what you've recorded, click the cross icon to cancel the whole recording. 
   Note: if you make a mistake while recording, don't worry! You can always cut it out after uploading your video to FLO, with the the editing tools available in My Media.   
    
   
   
5. When you're done, click the Stop button then Yes, Stop it to confirm.  
    
   
   
6. A preview of your video opens in a pop-up window. Enter a name and description (both mandatory fields that are required to submit your video to the assignment later). 
    
   
   
7. Click Save and Upload. This saves the recording and uploads it directly into your My Media repository in FLO. 
   Note: the Save option saves the video into your Desktop Recorder library, but won't upload to FLO. You can always access the video in the Recorder library at a later stage and upload it.  
    
   
   
8. You'll see the upload progress percentage displayed; it may take a few minutes to complete.  
    
   
   
9. When the upload is complete, you can click the URL displayed under the video to access it in My Media. From there, you can preview the video and edit if necessary. 
    
   

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Annotating as you record 

The recorder has some basic inbuilt annotation tools you can use to add drawing, highlights etc to the content on screen as you record. You can use these tools over the top of any content displayed on your screen, including slides, images, and websites. 

You can use the annotation tools once you've started a screen recording. You can pause the recording while you add the annotation, if that works better for your style of video, but you don't have to. 

1. On the recording toolbar, click the pencil icon to open the annotations menu.  
    
   
   
2. Click the annotation tool you want to use: 
• the pencil icon allows free-form drawing. Select the ink colour and pen width, then draw.  
   
  
  
• the arrow icon lets you click and drag to draw arrow shapes. e.g to point at something on screen. Select the ink colour and line width, then click and drag to draw the arrow.  
   
  
  
• the T icon allows you to add a text box and type into it. Select the text colour and size, click and draw a textbox, then type into it.  
   
  
  
3. Add your annotation. It'll stay on screen as an overlay, so if you scroll up or down or otherwise move or change the content underneath, the annotation won't move with the content. 
   You can use the Select icon to select and move/resize the annotation if need be.  
    >   
   
   
4. To stop annotating and use your mouse cursor again, click the cursor icon.  
    
   
   
5.  To clear the annotations, click the bin icon. This will delete all of the annotations on screen.  
    
   

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The whiteboard tool

This is a blank white 'canvas' that you can draw on electronically to create basic graphics and diagrams. Using this works best if you have a tablet and stylus to work with; drawing with a mouse is a bit clunky. This option can be useful for 'explainer' segments in an assignment video, where you'd like to illustrate a concept you're covering in your assignment as you discuss it. These 'drawing style' annotations are a good option if the graphic element doesn't need to be precise or perfect. 

Start a screen recording, then access the whiteboard as follows:

1. On the recording toolbar, click the pencil icon to open the annotations menu, then click the whiteboard icon.  
    
   
   
2. A whiteboard pop-up window appears over the the top of what's on your screen. Note: You can't adjust the size. Use the annotation menu to select the drawing pencil, arrow, or text tool, and add annotations to the whiteboard. 
    
   
   
3. Before you stop the recording, decide whether you want to keep a copy of it as an image. 
• If you don't want to save it, just stop your recording. 
• If you want to save it, pause your recording, the click the download icon to save a copy. The system will launch a save window where you can name the file (it'll be a .jpg image file) and specify the save location.  
   
  
  
4.  When you finish the recording, save and upload your video as per the usual process (explained above).