Teaching Software from a Distance

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Screen Capture Software

Jing

Captivate

Camtasia

Others

Preparation

Run Through

1. Do the steps to isolate each action
2. Don't ignore the things you do automatically because you are an expert
3. Break it down to discrete parts
4. Plan to have pauses or even start a new screen capture for different parts

Plan What to Say

1. Have a quick and dirty outline on hand
2. Include special information, tricks, or ways that the interface communicates information
3. Don't describe concepts or structure in the demo. Do that in a separate file.

Record

1. Slow down. Spoken speech is very fast. For training and recorded information, keep it slow and even.
2. Pause at the period. Don't worry about silence. If the software takes a minute, don't stress or feel you HAVE to fill the time with words. Just let it run on screen until you can proceed.
3. Hold the mic a little away from your mouth so you don't capture your breathing between sentences

Accessibility

• Use your recorded movie to transcribe what you said OR
• Create a pdf paper-like version of the demonstration OR
• Create your script ahead of time and use it to read from

Using Jing

• Free to Download
• Free to use

Advantages:

• Easy
• Fast
• Effective
• MAC and PC
• Outputs Flash automatically
• Great for still shots and marking up

Drawbacks

• No captioning
• You'll have to provide text version for accessibility compliance
• Not interactive (you can't add clickable areas to the free version)

Steps

1. Download
2. Install
3. Capture an image
4. Annotate an image
5. Save an image
6. Insert an image in a module
7. Capture a screen movie
8. Save a screen movie
9. Upload a screen movie
10. Include a screen movie in a module