Here’s an issue that you may have faced before. You have a new employee that needs to learn a specific task, like filling out documentation. Or perhaps you have an employee who needs to start using a new piece of software or a different way of doing certain tasks.
A large corporation might put together a training presentation and deliver it via the Learning Management System (LMS) that they have in place. But small and medium-sized businesses often don’t have the resources to do that.
Fortunately, companies today can access free or low-cost screen capture apps that record activity displayed on your computer screen and deliver HD-quality MP4 videos.
Presentation Is Important
Capturing a video alone isn’t enough to make sure employees learn and more importantly retain that information. According to a 2015 report, learners tend to understand and retain information better when it’s part of a presentation — meaning, don’t just screen capture a video and toss it at employees.
In the report, Using Screen Capture for Teaching and Learning, the authors noted that, “The effect is actually enhanced when the verbal and visual information are presented concurrently rather than one after the other — this is known as the contiguity principle [9]. In addition, placing printed words next to the animation can reduce the split attention effect [7]. Based on this dual coding theory, video with adequate verbal support is suggested as more effective in assisting students’ cognition.”
In plain words, visuals and videos are extremely helpful for learners, but when you back those elements up with verbal instructions, they remember what was taught, they understand it, and they can perform the tasks you need them to do.
Putting It Into Action
Here’s an example. One of my clients shared that she had an employee that was gifted at coming up with effective solutions to design problems. But that person wasn’t documenting the solutions correctly and seemed reluctant to use the software that the company recommended for doing that documentation.
I said, “This employee sounds pretty dedicated to their job. Could they be having trouble using the software?”
The manager didn’t think it could be a problem, because the employee had done the software tutorial that was provided along with their copy of the program. I had her ask the employee if they were confident using the software — and their answer was: they weren’t! The tutorial was a generic “getting started” tutorial that didn’t address the specialized way that the company was using the software.
“I didn’t realize that the tutorial wasn’t enough to help that employee figure out how to do the documentation,” my client said.
And the solution was fast and effective. I recommended a low-cost video screen capture app — there are free ones, but a paid app provides more options for editing video and allows for live voiceovers while capturing your screen. The manager did a video capture of the entire documentation process, and with the microphone enabled, explained the key steps during the walk-through. The video was easy to edit — just some extra time at the beginning and end was trimmed away. The video capture program even made it easy to add a title slide.
The manager was able to produce the entire screen capture video, save it as an MP4 video file, and share it with the employee, in about one hour total. Best of all, the employee understood it immediately — and started filing documentation properly, and on time. They were no longer struggling with the software and trying to guess what they had to do just to get their reports filed.
The manager got back to me about two weeks later, and said, “You know what? He hasn’t been back in my office and all his reports have been on time. I’ve just been screen capturing anything I have to show him on the computer, and he’s good to go. What a simple solution! It’s a powerful, simple solution that I would never have thought of .”
Screen capture is a really powerful tool in team environments because it’s not just managers and trainers who can use this feature. Employees can help each other by screen capturing a new idea or a process they’re very familiar with and sharing it with others. I’ve often recommended that businesses create a training repository — a shared file folder with clearly named documents and videos that help everyone in the company understand key processes.
Think about where screen capture may fit for you. Where could that work within your company?
Related Video:
He’s a Brilliant Engineer, But He Can’t Document Anything On Time