Assignment: Create 3 text-based tutorials with screen captures for computer-related tasks.
[Visit my original blog post to see feedback from my colleagues.]
I used a free program called TinyTake to take and mark the screen captures (or screenshots). It was quick and easy to download, install, learn, and use. I would highly recommend it to anyone. My one complaint about it is related to revising previously taken, edited, and saved screenshots. You can open them up in TinyTake again but you can’t move or remove markings made previously. This is due to the capture being save as an image rather than a dynamic file. I assume that this is true for most or all other programs of its type. As a result, I had to re-take some shots and edit others in Paint (the standard Windows program) when I went to assemble the captures into the tutorial.
For assembling the tutorial, I used Word and saved each as a .pdf to make for a smaller file. This degraded the quality of my images somewhat but it is a fair trade for the file size and avoiding a program that not all students have (Word).
I chose to make my tutorials for online resources that we frequently refer students to at my workplace. They can be used as part of our clerks’ self-guided training and be passed out to our guests who are interested in the resources. More generally, these types of tutorials can be used to walk online students through tasks to ensure they spend their time at the end of the process instead of struggling to get to a resource they must access.
When we discontinued our print subscription to The Economist, the only students who appeared to be impacted were those in a class in which they were required to work with articles in the current edition of the print version. Though many articles are available on The Economist website, access to all of them require a subscription. I created this tutorial to guide students through accessing the entire print version online through the Consortium Library’s website.
The tutoring programs make up the bulk of the Learning Resources Center where I work. We have tutoring for writing and math and provide space for nursing program and languages tutoring. However, are services are not enough for everyone because of our hours, the subjects offered, and other reasons. Live Homework Help is a great supplement to the work we do. This tutorial guides a student from our LRC homepage through to initiating a meeting with a tutor. Though I could have started the tutorial at step 4 from sled.alaska.edu/homework, I wanted to use the tutorial as an opportunity to get students to our tutoring resources page.
Since we house the language tutoring for UAA and work with ESL students frequently, we often have the opportunity to share Mango Languages with students. While I could have started the tutorial at sled.alaska.edu, I chose to have them start at the Consortium Library website in an attempt to familiarize themselves with this essential site.
