Teaching people how to use new tools on the internet is hard. Learning through experience is the most effective method, but it's slow. More and more of us are finding ourselves teaching other people how to use new web apps and services - sometimes professionally.
Though you, elite readers, might consider getting excited about apps that are a year or two old to be painfully behind the times, the fact is that there is huge demand for training in use and application of web apps old and new.
Below we offer our list of some of the best apps you can use in this kind of training activity and generally as a consultant or trainer. These are very "training" oriented applications, we'd also love to hear about your favorite applications for other purposes if you're a web consultant.
You can show people how to go through multi-step processes by sharing your desktop in a tab of their browser with Yuuguu. It's free, no downloads required, get sharing in seconds. Old versions of the software can be a bit buggy but the newest version has worked great for me.
There's absolutely nothing like getting to watch someone else work on their own desktop - it's a magical learning experience for people. I use it while talking to people on the phone, after IMing them the login and PIN to see my screen. I haven't tried recording the sessions yet, but that could be really useful too.
ViewMyPC will release a version of its screensharing app that lets viewers watch from inside their browsers as well, later this month.
Multi-platform IM services let you IM with anyone almost anywhere, without worrying what IM network they are on. Just sign up for an account on AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk, give your client the login info for each account and you'll be set for good. Mac users can check out Adium (pictured, but souped up), Windows users can try out Trillian or Digsby and anyone can use Meebo on the web.
If you're going to work with a wide variety of people online, you should be able to easily IM with them no matter what service they use.
IM during phone calls or even in person is the fastest way to share URLs, it's a great way to take shared notes and, as consultant to international Communities of Practice consultant John Smith says, it's a great way to clarify communication between people who don't speak the same languages natively.
Jing is the fastest, easiest way to record a short screencast demonstrating how to do something online. It's not particularly robust but for a quick tutorial to send to a client, you'll probably like it a lot.
The ability to watch again and again makes screencasting a particularly useful tool for consultants to offer their clients. If you're teaching any tangible skills, as opposed to just marketing fluff (or even genuinely useful marketing strategy!) then making screencasts all day long could prove very useful.
ScreenSteps was the app we used to make this post in a jiffy, Skitch is another app we're totally in love with. Both are for Mac only - can anyone recommend a good PC equivalent? Update - we were wrong ScreenSteps has a Windows version after all!
The idea is that both make it really easy to grab screenshots, annotate them and then upload them to the web. For many clients, a screenshare or a screencast will still move too fast and it's really nice to be able to read text explaining how to do things at any time.
We write about AideRSS here all the time. Consulting clients love it, though. Tell them you can give them a feed, or run a feed through email for them, that delivers just the most popular items from any news source and they will adore you. Plug in any feed and it will score items by number of comments, inbound links, saves in delicious.com etc.
You can do this with almost anything. In the above screenshot, we've performed a Google Blogsearch for posts that link to a company's website, then changed the RSS URL to output 50 items instead of 10 (the default in the URL), then run that feed through AideRSS and grabbed the "best" feed. The goal here was to identify bloggers who had written about the company and gotten a big reaction from their readers. This is a good way to try and find a blogger for a company to hire if it's looking for one, among other things.
Everyone's probably got a different list of "must-haves" but apps vary in terms of performance and functionality. If we're missing anything here, please let us know. What's more fun than learning about new ways to most effectively teach other people about all the exciting things going online these days?
Photo: Little Birdies, by Flickr user IanMatthewSoper
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For Windows, I use Techsmith's Snag-it for taking and annotating screenshots. v9 is awesome and makes it really easy to use. However if you're not a fan of the ribbon UI, you might want to stick with v8. Personally I love it.
For uploading to the web, XP users can use the desktop app that works with Scrnshots.com, or just upload to Scrnshots via the web interface. Apparently a Vista version is 'coming soon'.
Both work very smoothly.
Posted by: Shane | August 5, 2008 4:18 PM
Although it may not be as light weight as Screensteps or Jing, for Windows, I suggest Adobe Captivate, which allows you to capture screenshots, build interactivity, add narration (with closed captioning) and create branching scenarios. You can also add externally created animations and flash video, which is a big plus. It integrates with learning management systems and allows you to export standalone .EXEs and Word documents.
Posted by: Mark Chrisman | August 5, 2008 4:39 PM
just wanted to mention pidgin multi-protocol IM client. I'm happy with its features and it supports linux and windows, which I also like.
Posted by: josh | August 5, 2008 5:48 PM
Thanks for the comments, all. Yes Josh, people like Pidgin IM and Miranda too. There are certainly options.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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August 5, 2008 5:50 PM
adium ftw! :)
Also, it looks like ScreenSteps does indeed have a Windows version now.
Posted by: Matt | August 5, 2008 8:33 PM
Thanks for this round-up. After trialling Jing I came across Camstudio. It is not as polished as the other mentioned screen capture programs, but still a good alternative for people looking for an open source solution on Windows.
http://camstudio.org/blog/general/camstudio-25-beta-1-released
Posted by: kris | August 5, 2008 8:34 PM
I'm using TeamViewer - light, fast and simple program. No need for install. Solves all problems in seconds.
www.teamviewer.com
It's not quite learning tool, but it can sure act as one...
Posted by: Ante Vekic
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August 6, 2008 12:55 AM
Yuuguu is a great app. Since we started using it 3 weeks ago it has become one of my key apps and a extremely valuable one for remote demos with clients and team members.
Finally, ScreenSteps also has a windows version and it works fine.
Posted by: David Blanco | August 6, 2008 1:04 AM
Thanks for letting us know about the Windows version of ScreenSteps, David! Just updated the post.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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August 6, 2008 1:33 AM
Check out http://www.WizIQ.com for an online teaching and presentation platform. You can upload content for use in a scheduled presentation or make it public for non-scheduled viewing, and presentations/training sessions can be recorded for later viewing.
Posted by: Just Another Blogger | August 6, 2008 7:00 AM
we use web based HyperOffice . it doubles up as an intranet solution and training software. in addition to being the solution of which weve set up our intranet, we simply set up a new extranet for every new client for asynchronus information exchange. and we use their integrated web conferencing tool for live training sessions.
Posted by: Sharepoint Consulting | August 6, 2008 7:07 AM
If you are using firefox, FireShot (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648) allows you to quickly make annotated screen shoots, and share them online.
Posted by: obh.myopenid.com
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August 6, 2008 3:36 PM
For asynchronous web training, I recommend haiku LMS. It's a classroom style tool that plays well with many of the other apps listed above.
Posted by: Anthony Showalter | August 6, 2008 4:38 PM
desktop sharing via Leopard is really easy if both are on the mac platform
Posted by: yosi | August 7, 2008 5:53 AM
I wonder if there's a Linux solution in replacement for Skitch.
Posted by: Herr Voß | August 7, 2008 6:04 AM
Screenflow is far and away the best screencasting tool out there. For $100 it produces gold with amazing screen transitions and the ability to record two tracks simultaneously - ie: webcam and screen, then remix them.
Amazing results.
Also couldn't live without AudioHijack Pro / Skype combo for recording conversations and editing them into a podcast.
Posted by: todd lucier | August 7, 2008 8:12 AM
I've used Wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink) to create tutorials and screen captures.
Posted by: Armando | August 8, 2008 1:19 PM
Flowgram seems to be another really strong contender in this space. It's still in private beat, i got an invite from Mashable Invites and I can send out some invites if you are interested. Let me know.
It seems really powerful. It allows you to stitch together screenshots, videos, audio along with notes and narrations like a linear playlist with chapters.
So far it seems like it has promise.
The list above is great. Thanks for putting it together.
Posted by: Sav Khetan | August 10, 2008 1:14 AM
I also use TeamViewer as it covers plenty of tools in one application. You can for example present your screen to a partner (or multiple partners at the same time).
If you need to access the remote desktop you just switch to the remote support opton and you can work as if you would sit in front of the remote desktop.
And now the killer feature:) You can use the remote support mode for working together with your partner on the same computer. Meanwhile session recording is running so you save your little workshop as movie and present it later on to the class.
Usage is free for private persons. Here you can download it:http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewer_Setup.exe
Posted by: Carlos | August 12, 2008 11:19 AM
I use Trillian from http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ to talk to all the different IM variants -- including IRC. Sometimes it will hickup when you're sending a file, it seems, but mostly it works like a champ. Gives you one place to control "presence", for example.
However, I like the Skype chat more than any other and find that more and more of my colleagues and clients use it -- among other things it's great for meetings where a bunch of people are chatting simultaneously. (MSN really won't let you "listen" to a group conversation -- if you don't post something it drops you, which is a hassle.)
There are a lot of little details and differences between chat clients / systems that can be real gotchas!
Posted by: John Smith | August 14, 2008 10:59 AM