suggestions needed for a windows based screen recording program i can use in the intro to music production course i am taking
Introduction to Music Production | Coursera
the assignments prefer a screen recording posted to youtube of you teaching one of the topics presented each week 


thanks

camtasia

Fraps? for capturing video and audio from games and or videos. For still images, simply hit the print screen button, open MS paint and paste

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/    Simple and cheap.

dlion16


camtasia

+1. Great product.

Jing
http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html

Also made by the company who makes camtasia but this is the free version. Very basic and easy to use. It is very limited compared to camtasia. But I'm sure your instructors don't expect you to spend a couple hundred dollars on software for one class. 

Nevermind, at first impression, I thought you were looking for screen capturing software for capturing incoming audio/video streams.

Microsoft Expression Encoder http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18974
fully integrated with windows and no 3rd party software hassles to worry about.  lots of options and file conversion is very fast.

if you run sonar in wasapi mode you can record the output from your speakers into your input source without sonar taking exclusive control of an asio interface, so you can mix and render in no time. 

Or Snagit. I forget what the differences are. 
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html