Item: Camtasia
Rating: 7
Author: Paul Weber

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Camtasia is currently being used at our institution as a mid-range capture and editing platform for faculty, students, and staff. They are typically guided to use Camtasia over our simpler solutions if they need to add media into their production after recording - including photos, video, text, or music. Camtasia is a benefit to those users who need a slightly more robust solution (beyond simply capture and delivery), and allows them to learn only one piece of software for both creation, manipulation, and exporting a compressed file ready for delivery. We only retain a limited number of licenses because many users are satisfied with our simpler platform and only need capture and basic trimming features.

Pros and Cons

Provides an all-in-one software for capture and editing
Guides users through the process of using the software for the first time
Allows voiceover and editing in one system without the need to export/transfer and re-time or re-edit to align the VO with the visuals

There are very frequent updates recently, and with little to no improvement - but consistently bothering the user to upgrade whenever the software is opened.
Deploying site-wide can be frustrating unless you buy a certain number of licenses and qualify for centralized license management
It offers too many features in some cases - lots of things like animation and greenscreen are never touched by our users, and it would be nice to have an alternative UI or cheaper version that is even more watered down.

Return on Investment

Single licenses allow for us to deploy a limited mid-range solution for editing and capture

Alternatives Considered

ilos, Adobe Premiere Pro and iMovie

Camtasia is more robust than ilos or other capture only or capture and delivery only systems. It has more features to add in content after you record (annotations, text, media) and to update your recording at a later date. It is less featured than full NLEs like Premiere in the amount of control you get and the flexibility it offers.

Other Software Used

OneDrive, Todoist, Wunderlist

Likelihood to Recommend

Camtasia is great for new users who have never edited before but need more capability than something like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker. Camtasia is not as well suited for true beginners who only need to record and deliver because the interface quickly feels overwhelming. It is also not a full-featured NLE for professionals, as the media options, effects, and exporting leaves much to be desired.

Usability

The look is slick but it doesn't favor the most frequently used tools (fades, mute audio, add text callout) over other less frequently used/unnecessary features (animations, greenscreen, etc.)

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Consistent Quick to learn Feel confident using Familiar	Requires technical support

Easy Tasks

Trimming videos (from the end or removing a section in the middle)
recording/replacing voiceover

Difficult Tasks

Exporting - it defaults to an export option that includes HTML, java and other files that are completely unnecessary unless you are hosting your own website. Not intuitive at all for the average video creator
Adjusting and finding audio controls has gotten more difficult over the past years
splitting audio and video to adjust each independently of the other

Mid-level editing suited for new users with a real interest in editing and capture

Overall Satisfaction with Camtasia