| “We have found that streaming
video is a great medium for helping new and occasional
users become as adapt at boundary scan test development
and deployment as long-time users,” said Arden
Bjerkeli, director of customer application support for
ASSET. “I call it the Turbo Tax approach. If Turbo
Tax can simplify something as complex and complicated
as federal income taxes, then using the same sort of
approach for uninitiated users of boundary scan can
only help them get started with the  technology.
So that’s what we’re doing with ScanWorks
Assistant and streaming videos.”
The first place one might encounter
a ScanWorks video would probably be through ScanWorks
Assistant. With ScanWorks Version 3.4, the Assistant
launches along with ScanWorks and helps with installation
and license authentication. Users can read through dialog
boxes to help with these tasks or view several videos
that literally demonstrate the installation and authentication
process.
Following installation, ScanWorks Assistant
offers guidance for test development. Again, users can
read through the Assistant’s dialog boxes or they
can access a short context-sensitive video clip that
will explain where the user is in the development or
deployment process. Even experienced users can gain
valuable insight by periodically reviewing one or more
of the videos to brush up on shortcuts or simply learn
about the most effective ways of developing tests.
“The feedback we’ve received
so far is that engineers find the videos very useful
because they answer questions or explain a process as
the engineer is dealing with it,” Bjerkeli said.
“Most  teachers
will tell you that that kind of immediate interaction
is the best way to quickly learn something.”
In addition to accessing the videos
through ScanWorks Assistant, they can also be found
on the ScanWorks’ help menu under “Maintenance
Benefits.” Here the video library is simply called
“Training Videos.” Training videos are longer
than those associated with ScanWorks Assistant because
they are intended as instruction over broader topics
and not simply an answer to a very specific question.
Both types of videos can be found in the video library.
“We believe that the instructional
videos are just a great way to train new and occasional
users,” Bjerkeli said. “Each user can learn
about specific topics they need to know about at that
very moment. And if they want to go deeper, they can
access the training videos or use the extensive ScanWorks
Help files available with each installation. And then
if they still want the traditional classroom instruction,
we provide that too. But here again, the videos are
a good refresher course for engineers who may not use
boundary scan every day.”
The video library also contains clips
on each new version of ScanWorks. These are entitled
“What’s new in ScanWorks Version X.x.”
Each of these videos gives an overview of the new features
and capabilities in a certain version of ScanWorks so
that users can determine when they should upgrade to
a new version.
Other types of videos also are planned
for the future. Questions that are continually posed
to ASSET’s technical support personnel will be
addressed in short and specific videos. And video demonstrations
of ScanWorks’ features or capabilities also will
be produced for pre-sales activities such as trade shows
and online demonstrations.
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