IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS AND TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS CASE STUDY

Introduction
Since the very first computer applications were developed, educators, scientists, developers, business people and others have been trying to tell others how those applications work and what they do. That task increased in complexity when applications became more visually oriented - and audiences grew larger and more distant. ScreenWatch is an innovative solution to the problem of capturing activity on computer displays. Unlike any other product created to meet this need, ScreenWatch can stream its recordings over the web using industry-standard systems from Real Networks and Microsoft.

About ScreenWatch
One of the ongoing challenges of talking to other people about what happens on our computers is the difficulty of visually sharing the displays and activities we see on the devices. At least three factors work against sharing these images with others:

• Transitory Existence - we take actions and issue commands, programs process and present their results - and then the images are gone.



• Individual Interaction - personal computers are, after all, meant for individuals using a single display - and there is no good way to share the display with others.



• Incompatible Interfaces - technical differences between operating environments further complicate efforts since display techniques for one system won't work on another.

These issues make a variety of activities - training, education, and other information-sharing tasks - inordinately more complicated and expensive. ScreenWatch, OPTX International's innovative product for computer screen recording, playback, live webcasting, and streaming, makes it easy to overcome these barriers. As a result, these routine communications tasks are now easy to perform -- and you'll find yourself accomplishing activities you've never conceived of in the past.

Working with ScreenWatch's easy-to-use Wizards and controls, individuals can capture any activity on a computer screen - or a defined portion of the display - and either stream it across the network to others live, or record it for later playback or streaming. Providing exceptionally high quality images over even relatively low-speed network links, ScreenWatch is designed to work with industry-standard streaming software from Real Networks and Microsoft. That means audience members don't need to retrieve unique, proprietary software to view ScreenWatch recordings, and those recordings can be easily incorporated with other forms of content to produce compelling multimedia presentations.

In an effort to share computer images with others, individuals have developed a variety of tools - ScreenWatch is quite different from these methods. Two of the most familiar technologies are screen capture tools and video recording.


Screen Image Capture
Most operating systems, and uncounted numbers of free or low-cost utilities, make it possible to capture a static image from a computer screen and save it in one of a number of graphic file formats. These tools are highly useful for both capturing information - such as a complex error message - which can't be conveniently saved in any other way, as well as for providing content for documentation, product literature, technical support and other purposes. Depending on the robustness of the solution, tools may support capture of specific portions of the computer screen and make it possible to save the image in different graphic formats. Unfortunately, the static nature of the image limits their usefulness in tasks where motion is an important part of the overall message to be communicated.


Video Recording
Principally found in Microsoft Windows environments, these products - with ScreenCam being one of the first, and most widely known, in the market - overcame the limitations of the screen capture programs by making it possible to record motion. Most products took advantage of a native Windows video format known as AVI that offered two key benefits. First, since it was a native format, it was possible for most individuals to view the files with little difficulty. Second, the overall quality of the recordings - accuracy of color reproduction, smoothness of movement, and resolution - was relatively high.

However, gaining those benefits exacted a toll - the size of the files needed to provide a professional quality image was rather substantial. Even a short - two to three minute - presentation could consume several megabytes of space. Applying compression techniques to reduce the size of the file caused degradation of the image - the greater the compression, the worse the image. But, at the time the products were initially introduced - over a decade ago - those shortcomings didn't pose insurmountable difficulties. The most common technique for distribution was CD-ROM, a medium offering ample room for short demonstrations along with promotional, or educational, information.

Once the World Wide Web became an important venue for communications and information sharing, the size of the files posed a barrier that couldn't be overcome - even now, when high speed Internet connections are much more common, downloading a multiple megabyte file still isn't possible for many individuals. Even when someone was willing to retrieve a huge file, they'd have to wait until the entire file had been copied before it could be viewed.

ScreenWatch takes a completely different approach to the capture and recording of computer screen activity, overcoming the limitations that have limited individual's ability to share computer screen activity over the Internet. ScreenWatch provides:

• Full motion capture of all computer screen activity, either an entire screen or a selected portion.



• High quality recordings that consume a fraction of the storage space needed for video-based product recordings.



• Streaming of images, either live or recorded, using industry standard technologies from Real Networks and Microsoft.



• Flexible recording options so producers can balance requirements for quality with constraints such as available bandwidth.



• Support for multiple operating environments, with the ability to stream and play content on multiple systems (including Windows, Linux, and Macintosh). Development efforts are now underway to expand recording capabilities to systems other than Windows.

ScreenWatch, and other screen capture tools, should not be confused with systems supporting the simulation of application activity, or with network-based collaboration systems. While the use of the products can be similar, the underlying technologies are quite different.

Collaboration tools are designed to share information - including presentations and other computer screen activity - among a number of individuals over a network. But where ScreenWatch and related tools focus on areas like the quality of the captured screen image, vendors of collaboration tools must also address a number of additional concerns. Specifically, these include facilities for maintaining - or delegating - control of the presentation. Those requirements cause vendors to focus engineering staff on a broader range of responsibilities, meaning image quality isn't comparable with specialized solutions. In addition, content capture using such a system is typically 'locked' in a proprietary format. So a recording made as part of one presentation can't be used in another without starting over again.

Simulation products are related more to development tools than presentation or multimedia products. They serve the very specialized needs of educators who must train individuals to operate applications where "hands-on" practice is a requirement, but impractical to provide by any other means. These might include specialized systems controlling manufacturing processes or applications that may affect the safety of others. Like a pilot learning to fly a plane, there are some computer applications where it's more prudent to simulate events than to simply hand over the controls. While simulations offer a number of benefits in such situations, they require a tremendous amount of effort and activity to not only accurately create the simulation, but maintain it over time as well. Costs for such a simulation can easily exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars.


How is ScreenWatch Used?
ScreenWatch lends itself to a number of applications in a broad range of industries. Computers are now used virtually everywhere supporting an uncountable range of applications - and people often find it useful to be able to discuss those applications and share computer screen activity with others. ScreenWatch provides these individuals with a unique solution that addresses a broad range of communications projects.


Corporate Training
Many responsibilities in the corporate environment are now performed using a computer application or the Internet. Training individuals to efficiently operate those systems is a huge task. By capturing and recording common operations and sequences of activities, trainers can use ScreenWatch to show people how to operate and use applications to perform their duties.

• OPTX International uses ScreenWatch for all product training. A new user can sit at a browser and within minutes be reviewing a multimedia presentation incorporating ScreenWatch recordings, audio instructions, text reinforcements and indexes.



• At Harvard University, graduate students use ScreenWatch to learn how to operate web-based career placement systems.



• Stanford University trainers employ ScreenWatch to familiarize the student body with the use of campus telephone and email systems.

Higher Education
Computers and the Internet are used to teach students about a range of topics, even those that don't have anything to do with technology. Capturing lectures and supporting materials - computer-based presentations, white board notes, and - for technology related classes - computer application activity, is now a simple task with ScreenWatch. For example:

• At Chico State University in California, ScreenWatch preserves lectures and the many computer applications used in computer science classes. Published on the web, the lectures are available to students who want to review the material.



• Montgomery County Community College and San Diego State University College stream classroom lectures to students.

Marketing
Companies of all kinds have embraced the web as a highly efficient means of sharing information about their products and services. Using a variety of multimedia tools, and brochures, technical documentation, white papers, and other re-purposed literature, these companies now provide a wealth of information to customers and prospects. But, especially for software vendors and others whose products used computers, it was almost impossible to share the actual operation of their applications. Before ScreenWatch, companies made do with either static screen shots or downloads of demonstration code. With ScreenWatch, companies can now provide prospective customers with an exact view of product capabilities and functions.

• Avaya uses ScreenWatch to communicate sales presentations to customers.



• A builder of products and solutions for electronic design activities demonstrates new product features through the use of ScreenWatch.

Presentations
Creating a presentation with PowerPoint, or one of the other similar tools available, is second hand to virtually everyone in the business world. But sharing the information in that presentation can sometimes be a barrier - the presenter or audience must gather in the same room, frequently traveling to do so. If someone can't make it, more often than not they're simply out of luck. Collaboration tools can simplify this task, but they require installation of specialized viewer and server systems and can bear a heavy price tag. With ScreenWatch, the task is simple - click a single button to start the presentation and begin recording both your audio narration and the presentation images. High-speed recording ensures that even complex animations are captured and faithfully reproduced. Presentations can be streamed live, or published to the web for review - in full detail - at a later time.

• In Taiwan, the Academica Sinica Institute streams live presentations with ScreenWatch.



• A major telecommunications company in the Northeast United States uses ScreenWatch to stream employee presentations. One of the largest consulting and professional services firms in the United States uses ScreenWatch to archive net meetings.



• Novell uses ScreenWatch to stream presentations and applications to remote attendees during meetings and training.

Sales
A picture, the adage holds, is worth a thousand words. That can be especially true when you're a sales representative trying to explain a feature of your application over the phone to a prospect. With ScreenWatch, anyone can set up a live streamed presentation - to a single prospect or many. With no need for special software, the prospect can simply set at their desk and watch the application while the sales person explains over the phone.

• MicroStrategy streams product demonstrations through the use of ScreenWatch.

Technical Support/Help Desk
It seems no matter how good a job that's performed in the training department, people will always have questions about tasks and activities that are especially complicated or performed infrequently. Those calls usually fall to the help desk or technical support department where staff tries to walk callers through an operation over the phone. The results can, at best, be inefficient. With ScreenWatch, help desk operators can either stream a demonstration to the user - or produce recordings published to the web that offer guidance and instruction for common problems


Summary
With ScreenWatch, organizations of all kinds have been able to achieve new levels of productivity and efficiency in such diverse areas as education, training, sales and marketing, corporate communications, and technical support. ScreenWatch's unique technical approach provides high quality images in an easy-to-use format - offering significant benefits over other technical approaches In addition, ScreenWatch is the only solution that supports a mix of technology platforms - including Windows, Linux, and Macintosh.

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