I've produced many management training courses and manuals and I've even been commissioned to write real management books, but what I don't have is a way to create e-learning materials. Is there a product that: > doesn't cost a lot of money (yes, I know that what the Training Team of the Hewlett Packard thinks is "dirt cheap" I probably think of as heart-attack-inducing), >is sufficiently user friendly to be learned by the average human in a few days (at least to a reasonably productive level) without 350 hours on the phone to the tech support number >will be able to work on most users computers >produces a relatively professional looking end result; ie can carry music, voiceover and or video, can also manage quizzes and tests. Does anyone have a recommendation? Even if it is a "version3-and-they-are-now-up-to-version7-so-the-old-one-is-quite-cheap" (can you buy them second hand??) Rus www.coach-and-courses.com
11 Responses
Articulate Studio Pro – And Others
Hi Rus!
To add to the suggestion I made a couple of weeks ago to another question about authoring tools:
https://www.trainingzone.co.uk/anyanswers/e-learning-package-which-one-buy
…the tool (or rather suite of tools I’ve used for over four years now) is Articulate Studio Professional 2009:
http://www.articulate.com/products/studio.php
Tim
Choices
Hi Rus,
There are loads out there ! I am trying to do the same as you at the mo and work out which one is best and for what cost!
Have been in touch with Adobe as there package Connect looks great but not sure is going to be the cheapest – they are already providing online web demonstration meetings and I haven’t bought anything yet.
I checked out TurboDemo – http://www.turbodemo.com/ and they seem pretty good and cost is about £400 per user ( building the e-learning ) – we use an internal intranet and not sure if it will support Turbodemo but know it will support Adobe.
Also check out the file sizes that are produced by the e-learning. Some of them produce fantastic looking documents but you might need extra data storage as the files apparently get massive.
Hope this helps – will let you know which one I go for.
H
Free stuff
Hi Rus
Moodle is a tool for developing elearning that is open source, but I’m not sure what level of ‘tecchiness’ you need for it.
I also spoke the other day to a guy who does an elearning tool that sort of bolts together all your existing stuff – I’ll find his details and send them to you.
Carolyn
Open source
Hi Rus,
I think you could probably get everything you want done with a couple of open source tools – they don’t come much cheaper than that.
The only drawback tends to be learning how to use them (rather ironic isn’t it….). The 3 I’m going to suggest below however are pretty intuitive, well documented, and with lots of community support available.
For creating the materials I second Articulate, and also Moodle for the hosting and tracking. I’d also maybe consider Dokeos as well, at least for the videoconferencing facility, and as a replacement for Moodle, though not for the content creation.
Hosting your LMS (Moodle or Dokeos) is straightforward and can probably be added on easily to the package you currently have for your business website.
Hope that helps,
Alex Taylor
not all solutions fit…
Hi Rus
I’m not going to give you an answer but some more questions you need to have the answers to, in order to select the right product:
1) is the resulting product going to be hosted on your site for people to us
2) Will it reside on someones intranet
3) Will it sit on an individuals desktop/ laptop or iphone?
The answer to this question will start to tell you the platform.
for example if it is to sit on an intranet, it will need to be compatible with the clients bandwidth and file format capabilities (not as straight froward as it sounds) – it will also need to have full SCORM, AICC wrappers etc to fit their LMS (much harder than it should be!)
If you produce the wrong format (and not all authoring tools can meet all needs) then I fear your work will be in vein
hope this helps your decision making
E learning software
Hi Russ
I recently purchased Adobe Captivate4 which I would recommend for designing elearning materials. As well as an infinite opportunites for being creative in the way you show the information, quizzes and questions can also be included. It does take a little while to master but I feel like I have a new skill!
I would be really interested to hear from other people’s experiences with Captivate.
thanks to one and all
Thanks all for your answers, I now have a cunning plan!
Rus
E learning software
Are you going to share it?!
Just A Tool
Hi Rus,
I’m in a fortunate position at the moment of working in an environment where eLearning is receiving quite a push. This has allowed me to sample a range of tools. I’m particularly liking Adobe Captivate (especially for IT stuff. About £400) and Lectora (think about £700-£800) for most other things. Don’t forget some of your other tools as well such as a decent image manipulation tool, video editing package (I use Premiere Elements 7) and something like Audacity(free!) for sountracks.
Sounds like alot of techie toys doesn’t it? To a certain extent yes but two points I’ve had to learn rather quickly:-
1)Interactivity is what you’re after. Nothing worse than page turning eLearning. Hence my use of video etc.
2)Don’t forget the learning. At the end of the day you are still creating a learning intervention so don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater in your dive for this bright new future. You’re a great trainer, just using a different tool to get the job done.
Good luck!!
ps Please take note of Mike’s comments above about AICC and SCORM – techbabble but vital.
if I told you I’d have to kill you!
I’m having to keep my cunning plan under wraps under the Oafish Alsecret Sacked, in due time it may be placed in the public domain when it is deemed that no one will be harmed by its disclosure.
Suffice it to say that it is entirely legal and decent and honest.
Rus
Articulate
Hi
I’m probably going to purchase Ariculate after reading these and other reviews of it. What I would be interested to find out is how people purchased it – ie did you purchase straight from their website or did you go through one of the sales people/partners?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the methods of purchase, costs etc
Also – training. Did you purchase training on how to use Articulate and if so how did you go about that, who did you choose etc?
Many thanks in anticipation for replies
Susan