Learn VokoscreenNG

Introduction

Basic information

ICT Competency	VokoscreenNG is a Free and Open Source screen casting desktop application. screen casting: digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.
Educational application and relevance	Creating video and image resources, combining audio, text, image, video, and dubbing audio of any video. This can be used in digital storytelling activities
Version	VokoscreenNG 3.3.0
Other similar applications	Kazam, RecordMyDesktop, Simple screen recorder
The application on mobiles and tablets	There are many similar applications are available on android mobile phones. For example, AZ screen recorder
Development and community help	Vokoscreen Page

Overview of features

Installation

For Windows

Click here to select and download the VokoscreenNG installation (.exe) file(take the first linked file from the list).
Locate the downloaded .exe file on your system (usually it will be in your Downloads folder) and double-click on that file to start the installation.
You will be prompted to install the software. Follow the instructions given on the window to install the software.
Once the software will be installed. You can now open the VokoscreenNG application by double-clicking on the VokoscreenNG icon on the desktop screen or go to the applications list, search using the search box feature, and click on the application icon to open.

Installation of VokoscreenNG- English tutorial

Installation of VokoscreenNG- Kannada tutorial

For Linux (Ubuntu)

To install VokoscreenNG through the terminal, follow the below steps :
1. Open terminal by clicking Applications->System Tools->Terminal or through keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T
2. In the terminal window, type below command and press enter key
3. sudo snap install vokoscreen-ng
4. Now type your ubuntu password(it will not display on your screen),press Enter

Working with application

Vokoscreen is an Free and Open Source Software desktop application, which will allow you to record the computer screen along with your audio input, live recordings of the browser and video conferences. VokoscreenNG also captures your face using your computer webcam at the same time.

Getting familiar with application

You can access Vokoscreen from the Ubuntu applications menu.

And in Windows Operating system, double-clicking on the VokoscreenNG icon on the desktop screen or go to the applications list, search vokoscreen using the search tab ,and click on the application icon to open.

Steps to open Vokoscreen-NG

The Vokoscreen User Interface

The Vokoscreen home screen has a user interface with setting tabs such are screen, Audio, Video, General settings, and Webcam settings.

Home page of VokoscreenNG

There is some standard button that will always appear on the bottom of the Vokoscreen window.

Start: Starts the recording process

Stop: Stops the recording

Pause: Pauses the screen casting, which can be resumed using the "start button"

Play: Plays the screen casted videos

Send: Shares your screen casted videos directly from the application (to use this you need to prior configure your email client).

Other than these the buttons, slider Magnification zoom the screen size and Countdown indicates the time it is about to begin the recording in terms of seconds after the user clicks on Start button.

Audio Settings

The second tab on the screen view you can make your input audio device settings such as:

The microphone symbol-allows you to do audio setting to improve audio quality.

You can choose the options by check boxes provided monitor of Built in audio analog stereo or Built_in Audio analog Stereo to start recording audio. If you are using external headphone/earphone you need to select "Built-in Audio analog Stereo"option.

Audio settings of VokoscreenNG

Recording settings

Once you've configured your settings, you're ready to finally record your screen. To start recording your video, press Start at the bottom of the window.

Click on Start for recording in VokoscreenNG

As soon as you press Start, Vokoscreen will begin recording. Everything you do from here out will be part of your video (If you want to temporarily stop recording, press Pause. When you press Start again, Vokoscreen will pick back up where it left off) When you're done recording, maximize the Vokoscreen window again, and press Stop. Also, you can use the shortcut keys to start, pause and stop recording.

Start recording: <CTRL + SHIFT + F10>
Pause recording: <CTRL + SHIFT + F12>
Stop recording: <CTRL + SHIFT + F11>

When you're done recording, maximize the Vokoscreen window again, and press Stop.

Screen Capturing Settings

The following “Screen” view will open when you launch the tool for the first time:

Screen Capture Settings of VokoscreenNG

You can see that you have three options for screen recording

Full Screen.
A specific Window.
An Area on the screen.

Select Full screen by clicking on radio button beside full screen. As you press Start, Vokoscreen will begin full screen recording. Everything you do from here out will be part of your video (If you want to temporarily stop recording, press Pause. When you press Start again, Vokoscreen will pick back up where it left off).
Alternatively If you want only a particular window to be recorded then choose the option Window.

Select Area to record

In case if you do not want to record your entire monitor screen, you can use Area option to select your required area to be recorded in the video. To do this, go to “Screen” option tab and select “Area” and then adjust the green colored square box on the selected window and click on start to record.

NOTE: Before recording make sure you have set your frames in between 20 to 30 since that is the standard size. You can consider a frame as a snapshot. These values specify number of snapshots per seconds. In this sense, the larger the frame size the clearer the video. Clarity of video is more if you keep the frames more but also keep note that the size of the video also increases if you keep the frame size larger.

Locating the Recorded File

Once you stop your recording, you can safely close the Vokoscreen window, and your recording will be located in the folder that you configured under the Settings tab (In Ubuntu by default recording will be saved under the "Videos" folder).

Saved path of file in VokoscreenNG

NOTE: When you want to watch the recorded file go to the Videopath mentioned in the above path in your system and open the video with VLC Media player or any other that you have installed on your system. Even though there is a Play button and it plays in the inbuilt player avoid using it.

The webcam Settings

The webcam view that appears as follows, you need to check camera option to use your computer webcam and if you are using external USB webcams, then you may need to select your webcam from the dropdown. Also you can choose your camera best resolution from the same screen. Make sure you will observe the Screen resolution slider. Screen resolution is basically the number of pixels in each dimensions. As number of pixel size increases, the recording clarity also gets increased.

WebCam Settings in VokoscreenNG

Using Magnifier

You can turn the Magnification option on, and also select Dialog options for magnification. This will help you in turning focus on an area of a screen by making it appear prominent.

Using Magnifier in VokoscreenNG

Ideas for resource creation

By recording the screen activity you can demonstrate any action, event, session to give a hands-on experience to the viewer.
With Visual demonstration of an activity you can make your presentations more attractive and useful.
By using webcam you can build familiarity with your viewers.
Explanation for a PDF, Video, Image or graphics can be done easily.

References

GitHub Page
Vokoscreen page