Staff at the University of Stirling can install and make use of the peer-to-peer communication tool Microsoft Lync. Lync allows communication by audio, video and instant messaging, as well as the recording of sessions and distribution and sharing of content such as PowerPoint presentations. Users familiar with Skype or Blackboard Collaborate may wish to try out Lync to test how it compares for meetings and teaching and learning purposes. Lync is also fully integrated with Outlook, allowing meetings to be scheduled and placed in your work calendar, with invitations sent out by email.

A couple of guides to using this software have recently been created and are housed on a new Microsoft Lync page on the Information Services (IS) web site:

http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/it/software/microsoftlync/

The guides are:

• Using Microsoft Lync – An Introductory Guide
  This guide is aimed at staff wishing to run basic Microsoft Lync sessions, dealing with installing and setting up the software and how to connect to other staff and communicate with them.
• Recording in Microsoft Lync
  This guide explains how to record sessions in Microsoft Lync, where the recordings are stored, how to change the location of stored recordings and how to process them through Camtasia Studio and Camtasia Relay in order to add them to a Listen Again page.

Further guides on using Lync are in the pipeline, including a guide on how to make use of the presentation features within the product. Watch this space.