Desktop video conferencing for remote presentations and file collaboration.
When it comes to teaching, there is little substitute for face-to-face contact. The trouble is, it’s not always possible to travel to every office and train each person individually. Fortunatley, collaborative software gives you the chance to conduct teaching and training remotely. Below, we’ll discuss some of the main features you can use, and recommend products. Take Control One of the most popular e-learning situations is showing people how to use software. Conducting training in an ‘over-the-shoulder’ way can really help your trainees to learn. Some possible uses - Record and Replay Most software we review on this site has the ability to record meetings, and that content can also be replayed by your trainees or yourself. Some collaborative software (notably Live Meeting) has the option for you to store those recordings on the server, which means anyone you grant access to can download the recording at a later date. You might also consider more complex scenarios where a training event consists purely of recordings, which can be accessed one by one. Remote Classroom Although it stretches slightly into the realm of full-blown video conferencing, there’s also the opportunity to broadcast video in a classroom, or record classroom-based teaching which can then be broadcast online. Some software is better suited to it than others, but this is fast becoming a popular way to use video conferencing software. What are your options? Most of the software we’ve reviewed on this site has the capability for basic e-learning situations, and as we stated before the most common e-learning useis for IT training where they all do a great job. Microsoft Live Meeting Live Meeting professional is in our opinion the most feature-rich solution for e-learning. If you’re doing anything more than simple IT training, then you’ll appreciate the ability to create public event pages, and also set up your own tests which you can then login to see results. A well-thought out package. Read Overview – Microsoft Live Meeting Read Review – Microsoft Live Meeting Citrix Goto Meeting Dubbed as one of the simplest to use, GoToMeeting is very easy to get up and running and it’s possible to run very quick e-learning sessions with this application. Your participants do need to download a small client, so it’s not entirely web based. Again though, it’s easy to set up. Overall, although it doesn’t have all the features of Live Meeting, it’s simple and fast to use. Read Overview – Citrix GotoMeeting Read Review – Citrix Goto Meeting DimDim Alternatively if you want something that doesnt’ require any software at all and can be conducted on any computer with any browser, then definitely consider DimDim. It’s very fast and has a lot of features considering it’s browser-based. Recording training is also a possibility with DimDim. The price is also a standout feature of this – typically costing far less than many of the other similar applications, and aimed at small businesses and professionals. Read Overview – DimDim Read Review – DimDim Beam Your Screen Sometimes all you really need to do is show someone your screen and phone them up to talk through it. Simples! Beam Your Screen doesn’t have some of the advanced capabilities of Live Meeting, but it will let you conduct very basic IT training sessions. It’s pretty fast to get up and running and is browser based, but there’s no video link. A telephone conference bridge is provided. Read Overview – Beam Your Screen Read Review – Beam Your Screen Webex Market leader Cisco in fact has many different products suited to different environments. Their standard product Webex copes with e-learning quite well, and lets you set up training events and show your video. There’s also free-phone audio conference bridging if that’s required – otherwise you can use your webcam and microphone. Read Overview – Cisco Webex Read Review - Cisco Webex
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