In our university program for educational leadership, we employ both face-to-face and distance education courses, and are constantly updating our simulation exercises for students and interns at all levels.

These simulation exercises are cases and scenarios likely faced in education administration and are at the moment in a static electronic document format only.

With a growing number of students and delivery methods, I have been thinking about implementing an electronic version of these simulations that could be interactive and Web-enabled (I am beginning this transition now with a course on data analysis). As a newbie, I have been exploring some low-cost applications that could be employed that would allow a variety of users to be able to develop and maintain rich and engaging multimedia simulations that provide real-time feedback and summative data for the department.

Is that asking too much? I hope not. I have seen 2 applications so far that we are exploring, Camtasia Studios and Adobe Captivate. Both offer educational discounts and would address most or some of the requirements. I am leaning towards using Captivate since it offers online quizzes and integrates well with Microsoft PowerPoint. Are there others I have missed as I began this process? Any guidance on the process, these applications or other applications? Suggestions are appreciated.

Lane B. Mills, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Educational Leadership program at East Carolina University. A former Assistant Superintendent for Accountability and Technology for a North Carolina school system, Dr. Mills was a 2004 Technology and Learning Ed Tech Leader of the Year finalist.

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