Dr Andy Chiang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, Faculty of Science. He teaches applied statistics modules from 2nd year undergraduate level through to Master level.
An avid statistician who is keen to share his knowledge, Asst Prof Chiang has been duly recognized for his teaching efforts. The Faculty of Science awarded him the Teaching Excellence Award for consecutive academic years, 2000/2001 and 2001/2002. He attributes these plaudits to NUS best educators, whose experiences and methods he tried to emulate, after learning from them at a Professional Development Programme early in his NUS career.
His research interest lies in the industrial statistics application field, particularly in the areas of experiment design, statistical process control and other quality assurance/improvement methods.
Students living at NUS Prince George's Park Residence will find him a familiar figure as he is a Resident Advisor there.
Camtasia, the software featured in this Faculty Voice article, enables users to produce videos of their screens, complete with audio annotation. These videos are especially useful for demonstrating the use of complex software.
Q. How did you get to know about Camtasia?
I signed up for a CIT workshop in early 2002. The description of Camtasia was fascinating - software that produces video recordings of your computer monitor output sounded very exciting to me.
Q. What prompted you to use Camtasia? Why did you start using it?
In first semester 2002/2003, I had to teach Applied Regression Methods for a part-time Master programme. The classes were held from 6pm to 9pm every Wednesday. My students had to learn textbook statistical methods. They also needed to operate statistical software either Minitab or SPSS to enable them to work on tutorial exercises and projects.
The challenge for me was that I only saw my students for three hours each week, as they are working adults. During the three hours, I had to deliver my lecture, conduct the tutorial and teach the software. The students were off-campus during office hours and could not visit me for help when they encountered problem with the statistical software.
From past experience, I knew that it would be very clumsy and time inefficient for me to use email to instruct students about the statistical software. The interfaces of those software are sometimes quite complex when we perform advanced regression modeling, involving several option and sub-option menus. I required a tool that allowed me to instruct students on software usage outside of the limited classroom hours. Camtasia was the perfect answer as it was very easy to operate and nearly instantaneous in delivering the video. Besides videos on statistical software usage, I also made videos that discussed selected tutorial exercises.
Q. What can you do with Camtasia? What functions/tools do you use?
Camtasia is basically a computer screen capture program. All you need to do is to start the Camtasia Recorder and speak into the PC microphone while you demonstrate the software, which may be PowerPoint, Minitab or other software you are teaching. Camtasia records your oral explanation and the corresponding screen image as you use your PC software application.
At the end of the recording session, Camtasia will compile the voice recording and screen capture into a computer video file. Apples QuickTime and Windows WMV are among the numerous supported video file formats. Post-recording editing functions such as video format conversion, annotation addition, voice narration modification and others are also available in Camtasia Studio. However, I do not spend too much time on editing as it can be quite time consuming. I do not need professional video quality.
Q. How easy was it to learn to use Camtasia? How long did you take to master it?
Camtasia is a very user-friendly programme. The one-hour workshop at CIT was all that I needed to start using Camtasia version 1. Camtasia is at version 2.2 now. The current user interface is even more user-friendly than before, and there are several instructional videos that will help users to get started.
Q. How useful is Camtasia?
I would rate it 10/10 for usefulness in teaching applied statistics modules. Just last semester, I taught Introductory Biostatistics to Life Sciences students, and we had to introduce them to a new statistical software called JMP IN. My colleague and I did not have to spend precious lecture time on software demonstration. The software instruction was delivered through five videos that I made using Camtasia. Students downloaded the video files from our IVLE workbin and reviewed them at their own pace.
Q. Has Camtasia changed your teaching style? If so, how?
I would say that Camtasia complemented my teaching rather than changed it. It freed up limited classroom time for more discussion of statistical concepts, time that used to be spent on software demonstration. Also, I have to put in extra effort in producing the videos before the semester begins.
Q. What were the benefits of using Camtasia? Were there any unexpected ones?
The students can review the instructional videos over and over again in the comfort of their homes. So, they are able to learn the statistical software at their own pace. Before using Camtasia videos for software demonstrations, students almost inevitably emailed me questions such as: Why couldnt I get that same regression output from Minitab as you had demonstrated in class? With Camtasia videos, my students have stopped emailing me about software usage. From project report submissions and feedback, I have found my students were comfortable learning and using the statistical software on their own.
Q. How can Camtasia be improved? What features do you want to see in future versions?
Camtasia has been revised a couple of times in the last two years. I think the current version is excellent.
Q. What is your students response to your Camtasia-developed media files?
The students gave positive feedback about the videos. They appreciate being able to review the videos at their leisure after class.
Q. Do you have any other comments?
I would like to thank CIT for introducing me to Camtasia 2 years ago. I would also like to thank CIT Director Mr Ravi Chandran for providing an upgrade for my office copy of Camtasia to Camtasia Studio 2.0 this October.
