Life @ Otis : Faculty Life : Faculty Development

Dave Schultze

2005-2008 Faculty Technology Grant

Brief description of your funded project including activities performed: Online video software training, with a full audio soundtrack for verbal explanation. The software covered was Rhino and Studio MAX, which are 3D modeling, prototyping, and animation applications that are used by both the OTIS Toy Design and Product Design programs. What were some of the insights, accomplishments, and/or benefits you derived from the project? New insights included an appreciation for the amount of work it takes to write, perform, edit, and publish professional content! A ten minute lecture took 5-10 hours. No kidding. I also had to learn the Camtasia software, which allows you to record the computer screen at 15 frames per second, along with a ‘voice over’ narration during software demos. It doesn’t work at all without a tight outline (or script) and several practice runs. I got the best results when I only tried to talk for 1- 2 minutes maximum, and then edited the best takes together. Accomplishments included a total re-design of my training website, such that the video lectures would be properly presented. I also enlisted the help of students to research related web-links, which are also posted on the site. See section at http://www.schultzeworks.com/links.html As I got further along, I then realized I had more material than my web interface allowed, so I bought and learned yet another piece of software for generating fly-out menus. Finally, I bought a set of cool orange icons to use on each page as a visual guide to the content therein. View the full report here [PDF]. The LEARN site has since been moved to www.Professor3D.com.