Report from the APLIC 2009 conference, submitted by Margie Shiels

A panel of APLIC members described some of the tools they had been using for Web tutorials – or just in time teaching. I think we all walked away excited about the potential applications of these tools which ranged from free to low cost.

Morgan Grimes, Population Action International

Jing is a free tool though there is also a “pro” version where you can get additional features for a minimal charge ($15 a year). The free download allows you to create videos of 5 minutes or less. It doesn’t allow any editing, so you have to start over if you make a mistake, but for simple videos that record your computer actions, it’s a good way to go. It seems simple to use, too, so it’s not an intimidating tool to try.

Lori Delaney, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Captivate is an adobe product that allows you to create more advance tutorials with quizes and audio as well as video. While the list price is $795, you can get educational discounts from the company.

CPC used Captivate to create a Popline tutorial.

From the group

Tara Murray (Penn State) has Camtasia though she hasn’t had much change to use it yet.

Corrine Farrell (IntraHealth) has used Articulate for orientations and Camtasia to do a Sharepoint tutorial for field office staff.

Lee Ridley (Univeristy of Michigan) has simply been using Photoshop and PowerPoint, but prefers the seamlessness of the e-learning tools presented.

Julia Cleaver (Ipas) has seen a tutorial developed for orientations for new hires, but it was outsourced, so no telling what was used and no way to edit it as things change at her organization. For her library orientations, Julia would ideally like a system that used online tutorials for some parts, but still allowed the element of human interaction.

There are also a couple of additional tools that have allowed folks to record audio with PowerPoint presentations. The ones above will also do this. Lori has used Audacity – free at CPC. At Ipas they have used Elluminate. They get a special low price for being a member of LINGOs.