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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Video Conferencing used to be the preserve of senior executives and politicians. The internet has changed that – now, video conferencing can be conducted via any computer with a broadband internet connection. Live Meeting is video conferencing software from Microsoft that lets you hold virtual meetings with colleagues, clients and suppliers. Better than just a phone call, Live Meeting lets you add streaming video to your conversation, and share/collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. Core Features: Share your screen, presentation or document. Have you ever tried to work on a document with one of your colleagues who was in another office? Usually, it’s a constant stream of back-and-forth emailing, which gets very confusing very quickly. Live Meeting at its heart is a collaboration tool. It lets you share files and programs with others so that you can edit simultaneously. It’ll even save your work in a central site called the Conference Centre. Even better; you can quickly open the relevant virtual meeting room which has the file still open ready for you to work on again. Add Video and Sound Communicate more easily with a webcam and microphone – Live Meeting lets the other party see and hear you in real time. Automatically switch between speakers. If there’s more than two people in the meeting, Live Meeting will automatically show the person who’s presenting or speaking. We can provide a webcam for you! Try Live Meeting Pro for one month for £9.99 and we’ll throw in a free webcam. Think Big : Interact with up to 1250 participants Host a web-based video conference with Live Meeting and you can invite up to 1250 participants. Host product demonstrations, question and answer sessions or a weekly sales meeting with your field sales reps. The sky’s the limit with webinars! There’s lots more you can do with a webinar, please see this post for more information. Record and Store If you’ve invited people to your meeting who couldn’t make it, why not make the meeting available for them to download and watch later? Live Meeting makes this very easy: with Live Meeting pro you can save the recording to the online conference centre automatically – no need to host the recording yourself. The recording will be saved along with any accompanying files such as shared notes, powerpoint slides or whiteboard drawings. Choose how much information should be recorded – opt not to include the webcam for a smaller file. You can also record in ‘interactive mode’ which gives anyone viewing the recording extra features. Tie-in Live Meeting to your real-life conferencing event If you’re running a conference and you’d like to open the debating hall up to a wider public, or give access to colleagues who couldn’t make it, you can use Live Meeting to show your conference online. On a smaller scale, combine Live Meeting with your office meeting, and allow homeworkers to collaborate with you. For more about the benefits for home-workers, please see this post.
