SCREENCASTS AS A LEARNING RESOURCE TO ENHANCE A QUANTITATIVE BUSINESS METHODS COURSE

The challenge of teaching the required Quantitative Business Methods course is the diversity of Excel and quantitative skill levels of the students. Some students are able to keep up with the course assignments while others become frustrated and fall behind. Screencasting is a technology that is used to capture each action a user is performing on their computer screen accompanied by audio narration describing what the user is doing on the screen. The screencasts were used to demonstrate Excel lessons and example problems for the class. Screencasts were recorded outside of class and posted to the course management site. Student survey results indicated that the majority of the students who viewed more than 25% of the screencasts found them to be helpful for completing the homework assignments, staying up to date in the course, studying for the tests, and completing the course project. Technical difficulties were encountered downloading and viewing the screencasts by the students. Further study of the effectiveness of the screencasts is suggested. To overcome the technical difficulties that were encountered by using the course management system to post the screencasts, students could be provided with a CD-ROM of the screencasts at the beginning of the course.