How to Create Free Video Tutorials
This past week, I’ve been in a tech workshop for faculty at the University of Cincinnati. (Yes, even I need to broaden and sharpen my skills!) So I’ll be sharing…
This past week, I've been in a tech workshop for faculty at the University of Cincinnati.
(Yes, even I need to broaden and sharpen my skills!)
So I'll be sharing some of the more interesting tools and tricks I learned here at
NO RULES.
The first tool that I love is Jing. Jing
takes a picture or a video of what you see on your screen, e.g.:
- Basic screen grabs—plus you can edit, annotate and mark up screen grabs
- Record what you're doing on your screen (while narrating!)
If you're an instructor, speaker, or expert of any kind, you'll probably find Jing
invaluable for its teaching and demo applications.
Here's a quick example of a VERY basic tutorial I did for my writing students on signing
up for a Wordpress blog. (You can
also watch this on Jing by clicking here.)
What are a few possibilities for this tool?
- Tutorials or demos
- Narrate a series of images or photos (book trailer, anyone?)
- Critiques
Whenever it's more effective to SHOW, rather than tell through words, consider Jing.
Or, sometimes it's easier to talk through a process (or a critique) rather than writing
it out.
Since Jing is free for basic funtionality, you have nothing to lose by experimenting!
(Below is a screen capture from the Nyan
Cat video that I've annotated.)

Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer’s Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane’s newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).