Dr. Alaa Sadik's Blog: RealShow: Produce and Share Accessible Video Content for All

RealShow is a research-based project. It provides a free software and video sharing network to facilitate the process of producing and sharing quality and accessible video content for learners in developing regions, particularly in the Arab World. Although producing video tutorials for learners is not a new idea, few simple and efficient solutions have been applied to help educators prepare accessible video and flash content, particularly for those who are deaf or tend to be visual. The software provides a simple technique to integrate popular PowerPoint slides, freehand drawings, text typing, web pages, and direct teacher’s video view in one single window. It allows teachers create video and flash content using several translation techniques, including facial expressions, natural gestures, and sign language, which help convey messages. RealShow encourages teachers in developing nations to produce video content using a cost-effective solution and share their content via RealShow website and electronic or mobile media, which can be used to bridge many gaps. RealShow helps educators and presenters apply principles for the design of multimedia materials and human cognitive processing in delivering their PowerPoint slides. It takes advantage of the dual-channel structure of the human information processing system by means of text, pictures and audio. It promotes active cognitive processing by allowing the presenter to guide the processes of selecting, organizing, and integrating information. RealShow gives visual aids and fosters human contact between the presenter and the audience. The presenter can clearly identify the main points and communicate in a way that will have the desired impact on the audience through texts, illustrations, slides, and visual presence of the presenter.

Other Benefits

1. Produce video and flash content for e-learners.
2. Create supportive materials in blended learning and face-to-face environments.
3. Support physically disabled learners or those with medical conditions who cannot attend classes.
4. Share knowledge and record remote/virtual conference presentations.
5. Prepare per-recorded video presentations for job interviews.

Features
RealShow helps teachers and presenters to:

1. Focus on vision, as the hearing impaired student's primary means of receiving information.
2. Reduce background noise by presenting only one source of visual information at a time.
3. Open and display real PowerPoint slides within the same RealShow window.
4. Use their already made MS PowerPoint slides.
5. Extract slide note and display it in a small text box beside the slide for easy narration.
6. Navigate through slides the same as they move in PowerPoint full screen mode, or using the simple control panel (next, previous, first and last slide).
7. Display current slide number, title and total number of slides in the status bar.
8. Connect and display unlimited number of USB or integrated web cams.
9. Display presenter's video in a full screen mode or within/beside the slide.
10. Display presentation title and presenter's name beside the presenter's video.
11. Illustrate ideas using slides, text, freehand drawing, and the web.
12. Record presentations as a video file in standard and flash formats (AVI, WMV, FLV and SWF), with different recording settings.
13. Pause, resume or stop while recording.

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RealShow: Produce and Share Accessible Video Content for All