NOBLE uses the online service GoToMeetingto do conferencing and consulting with libraries, and we plan to use this extensively as we’re training on Evergreen. GoToMeeting can be very useful for demonstrations, hands-on training for one person or a small group, and for troubleshooting. For Evergreen training, we would schedule a session with you and send you an invitation by e-mail that gives you the information you need to connect. There’s a small piece of client software that gets installed when you attend your first meeting. You can listen and speak either using your computer’s microphone and speaker, or the telephone.
There are three different ways to use GoToMeeting:
- The presenter shares his/her screen — This is the usual starting point. You’re looking at your screen and seeing what I am doing on my screen. This is similar to sitting in the meeting room watching us do a demo using the projector.
- The presenter gives control to an attendee — You just watched me demonstrate how to do some task, and now I want you to try it. I make you the presenter and give you temporary control over what’s on my screen. You use your mouse and keyboard to interact with my screen.
- The presenter makes someone else the presenter — Instead of having you use your mouse and keyboard to interact with my screen, I can make you the presenter so I can watch you interact with your own computer. This is a great way to do both hands-on training and troubleshooting, since it lets you use your own computer with the resolution, options, programs and settings that you’re used to using.
We might use GoToMeeting in a few different ways. One might be to do a short session for one individual who needs to learn how to do one particular task. We show you how to do it, you try it and do it a few times, and we’re done. Another possibility is that you have a small group of people in a meeting room, and they watch a GoToMeeting session that you’re projecting. We demonstrate a task, perhaps hand over control and let them try it, then we end the session and you provide practice exercises for the trainees to do.
GoToMeeting is pretty simple to use, but it does take a little practice to understand how it works and get comfortable using it. We’ve been using it in NOBLE for a few years, but mostly for consulting and troubleshooting in particular areas so not everyone (or even every library) has had a chance to try it. We’ll be looking for opportunities to practice using GoToMeeting with trainers as soon as possible to help you see how it works so you can think about how it might be useful to your library as we move toward Evergreen.
GoToMeeting — This is the GoToMeeting site with more information, but your library does not need to buy anything or subscribe to this service. NOBLE has an account and we’d be inviting you to sessions. You’d only need your own account if you wanted to host sessions.