A technological tool I really appreciate is Brainshark. Brainshark offers a free online service that allows you to enrich PowerPoints, PDF files and many other documents with your voice to create more dynamic and enriched course content that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Once you create your Brainshark screencasts, you can share the link of what you create and track how many individuals view the content as well as the duration of their viewing time. The company’s website boasts that you can “build a Brainshark in 3 minutes.” In all honesty, it has taken me a few minutes more than that, but the website is very user-friendly which is why I love it most!
Brainshark’s cloud-based technology is actually designed for sales professionals and business people, but I believe its ease and simplicity of use makes it a perfect tool for higher education.
I have used Brainshark to create numerous screencasts of content for my online courses which I have also made available to my students in face-to-face courses. Students have repeatedly expressed their appreciation for this additional learning tool that I have made available to them.
Submitted by Diana Tempski, Finance
