Documentation:Screencasting/DIYMedia/Script

Finish planning. Every minute you spend planning your project is worth two or three minutes of designing, recording, and editing. Before you do anything else, download and fill out this worksheet. Try to be as detailed as possible: it'll make life easier later on.

Chunk content. One of the most important features in the planning worksheet is the 'Generate Concepts' section. This will help you break your content down into easily digestible sections, a technique also known as chunking content, which involves breaking large themes down into manageable chunks or concepts. If you intend to cover 4 concepts in a 20 minute screencast, breaking it into four five-minute chunks makes it likelier that the material will be watched and effectively absorbed. Recent research indicates that the optimal length for student engagement is 6 minutes or less. (Guo, 2013).

Review principles. UBC's Design Principles for Multimedia provides an overview and basic framework for considering evidence based principles when designing multimedia for learning.

For more depth, have a look at Carnegie-Mellon's principles for learning, Merrill's first principles of instruction, Gagne's 9 events of instruction and Mayer's principles for multimedia development: they're all useful resources for helping you think about how to approach your screencast as a learning resource.

Storyboarding. After you've selected one chunk to start with, you can fill out this storyboarding worksheet. You can fill this out however you want to: for more traditional video projects, storyboards usually include sketches of each scene with notes attached, but you can feel free to use text, draft your script, draw each slide, sketch diagrams you might use, or some combination of those and other techniques.

Storyboard template (from UBC Studios) along with their full guide to the technical aspects of DIY media production: Production Basics: UBC Media Makers.
Storyboarding tips and examples: an excellent resource from Penn State.
For 'explainer' videos (like the ones produced by Common Craft) check out explainer tips for creating simple storyboards by Common Craft.

Create a script. Writing a script will save you time in the longs run. Include what you want to say and when you want to say it, with respect to what will be on your screen at the time. Once your script is complete, you'll get a sense of the flow of your project and can make decisions about editing more easily.

Make sure to rehearse your script(s), to avoid unnecessary pauses or verbal stumbles when you're recording.
Note what will be on the screen when you're speaking. Some people find it useful to include sketches of their screen in the script.
Time your script to ensure it fits within the 3-6 minute window you should be aiming for.
Try to write naturally: not only will people learn better (Mayer's 10^th principle) but it'll be easier to read from: encountering the words it is when you'd usually say 'it's is distracting, and can throw you off.
Review your screencast for extraneous material, and remove it: the occasional anecdote or tangentially related point is fine, but the shorter your video is, the likelier it'll be watched to completion, and staying focused on your topic is important. (Mayer's 1^st principle.)
For scripting pointers look at scripting for explainer videos by Lee Lefever at Common Craft.

Intro and ending. If you do some preview and review at the beginning and end of your screencast, people watching it will retain what they've learned much better. Include a title and/or overview slide. Use the time your title card is on the screen to provide some general information about the screencast, and preview what will be covered. (Mayer's 7^th principle). Do something similar at the end.