Academic Personnel has a new way of rapidly training staff to use “Recruit,” UCI’s Web-based faculty hiring system. As the cornerstone for their e-learning solution, the Recruit support team, with the help of Camtasia Studio recording software, has produced a number of screencasts.

A screencast is a video that is produced by capturing motion visuals, text, and audio from a computer screen. Learners are instructed to watch the demonstration screencasts and then follow the exercises in an accompanying training workbook that they download from the site. Both the videos and the workbook reside within the Recruit system, and are reachable via the online Help after the user logs in. This self-paced training is a flexible and efficient way to help new users, or even seasoned users who have been away from the system for a while and are looking for a refresher course.

If you want to teach a computer process, consider screencasting. Your learners will be able to play, pause, and rewind whenever the need arises.