This article reprinted from:
Nickle, T. C. and R. Hodson. 2008. Wink is free software which allows easy creation of
animated computer tutorials. Pages , in Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching,
Volume 29 (K.L. Clase, Editor). Proceedings of the 29th Workshop/Conference of the
Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 433 pages.
Compilation copyright © 2008 by the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE)
ISBN 1-890444-11-1
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copyright notice of the individual chapter in this volume. Proper credit to this publication must be
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Although the laboratory exercises in this proceedings volume have been tested and due consideration has
been given to safety, individuals performing these exercises must assume all responsibilities for risk. The
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WINK IS FREE SOFTWARE WHICH ALLOWS EASY
CREATION OF ANIMATED
COMPUTER TUTORIALS
1
Nickle, Todd C. , and Hodson, Robert
2
Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Sciences,
Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T3E 6K6
2
Biological Sciences, University of Delaware,
225 Mckinly Lab, Newark, DE, USA, 19716
1
In today’s classes, students are more and more often being called upon to use specialized
software packages. As all of us probably recall experiencing, getting familiar with new software is
often a frustrating experience. It’s difficult to follow keystrokes and data entry when new utilities
are being demonstrated, and the shorthand conventions we try to create in order to document the
process being demonstrated becomes unwieldy. Trying to reproduce login sequences or data
manipulation from our own notes reinforces the clumsiness of trying to capture, in a notebook, some
of the routine keystrokes and other navigation standards for new software.
Expensive programs such as Macromedia’s Captivate can produce animations which are patient
and persistent to assist people in becoming familiar with new applications. The skills required to use
these programs are not very demanding. Well-designed timelines and easily-recognizable icons
allow for rapid production of new instructional materials. Even better, the software to play back these
tutorials has been standardized to Flash, a now-ubiquitous player that is supported by most common
operating systems.
A new, free (!) piece of software from DeBugMode called Wink allows for rapid and easy
construction of Flash tutorials demonstrating how to use pretty much any computer application.
There is a Windows version and one for Linux (untried by these authors). The output can be tweaked
to render in Flash, portable document (pdf), or as a self-executing (exe) file. The captured keystrokes
can be annotated with “speech bubbles” (callouts) and frames can have audio files added to them.
Tracking of the animated mouse is easily modified as well. Although the source files are quite large
(for example, 19 Mb), they compress to a much smaller format after creating the finished files (2.2
Mb).
Wink is available free from http://www.debugmode.com
WINK IS FREE SOFTWARE
WHICH ALLOWS EASY
CREATION OF ANIMATED
COMPUTER TUTORIALS
Nickle, Todd C1, and Hodson, Robert2
1Chemical,
Biological, and Environmental Sciences,
Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T3E 6K6
2Biological Sciences, University of Delaware,
225 Mckinly Lab, Newark, DE, USA, 19716
INTRODUCTION
In today’s classes, students are more and more often
being called upon to use specialized software packages.
As all of us probably recall experiencing, getting
familiar with new software is often a frustrating
experience. It’s difficult to follow keystrokes and data
entry when new utilities are being demonstrated, and
the shorthand conventions we try to create in order to
document the process being demonstrated becomes
unwieldy. Trying to reproduce login sequences or data
manipulation from our own notes reinforces the
clumsiness of trying to capture, in a notebook, some of
the routine keystrokes and other navigation standards
for new software.
INTRODUCTION (2)
Expensive programs such as Macromedia’s
Captivate can produce animations which are
patient and persistent to assist people in
becoming familiar with new applications. The
skills required to use these programs are not
very demanding. Well-designed timelines and
easily-recognizable icons allow for rapid
production of new instructional materials. Even
better, the software to play back these tutorials
has been standardized to FlashTM, a nowubiquitous player that is supported by most
common operating systems.
„
INTRODUCTION (3)
A new, free (!) piece of software from DeBugMode
called Wink allows for rapid and easy construction of
Flash tutorials demonstrating how to use pretty much any
computer application. There is a Windows version and
one for Linux (untried by these authors). The output can
be tweaked to render in Flash, portable document (pdf),
or as a self-executing (exe) file. The captured keystrokes
can be annotated with “speech bubbles” (callouts) and
frames can have audio files added to them. Tracking of
the animated mouse is easily modified as well. Although
the source files are quite large (for example, 19 Mb), they
compress to a much smaller format after creating the
finished files (2.2 Mb).
INSTALLATION
Go to the web site http://www.debugmode.com
and choose your platform. Wink runs on most
Windows systems and some Linux platforms.
Although some computers, such as those in student
labs, have heightened security levels, a normal user
without Administrator rights can often install Wink
onto a local system without IT assistance.
Audio input can be added with any microphoneequipped device. No extra software is required.
Wink takes up about 12 Mb of disk space when
installed, including rendered tutorials about “How to
Use Wink”.
Our Uses
„
„
„
Wink allows quick-and-easy creation of any application
we’ve set out to demonstrate. Most likely, videointensive software (such as Flash or Quicken) would
not fare well with Wink, but we haven’t tested this.
Preliminary testing on the Windows Vista operating
system caused dropped snapshots when using
Internet Explorer, but using Mozilla Firefox 2.0
restored full functionality.
The authors have not explored the self-executable
output as yet; because the Flash player comes
standard on most computers, the need for creating an
executable was not pressing.
Examples of Our Uses
„
EXCEL
„
„
„
„
„
Basic statistics (e.g. standard
deviation)
Presentation of histograms
Presentation of line graphs
(scatter)
Calculation of standard deviation „
WORD
„
„
„
„
„
Embedding figures in a
document
Formatting tables
Adding legends to diagrams
Spell-checking
INTERNET BROWSERS
„
„
„
Uploading files
Pasting data into plagiarismdetection software systems
Using BlackBoard features (Web
CT)
SPECIALTY SOFTWARE
„
„
„
„
QBit data acquisition software
Wink “how to” demonstrations
eInstruction “clicker” interfaces
FTP file transfer
Links
„
„
„
Portable Document File of original poster
Portable Document File of original handout
Some sample files
Wink tutorial 1 (from the makers of Wink)
„ Wink tutorial 2 (from the makers of Wink)
„ Logging into BlackBoard (file from Todd Nickle)
„