Katie found an interesting product we're considering using during our counseling. Jing is a free application that allows you to make a short video of what you see on your computer screen, then share a link to the video over email. So instead of typing your commentary about a student's essay or application, you can pull it up on your screen, say what you want to say about it (while placing your cursor on the areas you're referencing), then send that video to a student.
We don't have a connection to this company and haven't done too much with the product. But Katie used it this week to explain some of the finer points of the University of Washington's application to me, and it worked perfectly. The only downside is that the videos can only be five minutes long. But Katie just made multiple five minute videos to share the info.
If we end up using this successfully in any interesting ways, I'll share our experiences here. And here is Jing's website.