ELearning/Course building/Tools

From Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
Jump to: navigation, search

Course building tools are the tools of instructional design just as hammers, measuring tapes, saws and the like are tools of the construction trades. There are components you will need to include in your course and it is up to you to build or obtain them. Much depends on your inclination and aptitude to work with computer and/or cloud-based programs. Unless you choose to specialize in a particular tool, like Adobe Captivate or Articulate Storyline, it generally suffices to target an intermediate level of competence with each tool. In all things educational, it's more about sound design than about the particular tool.

Of special interest to many instructional designers is the authoring tool, a sort of all-in-one design tool for asynchronous elearning. For this reason, we include a separate section about these tools.

Component control document

The last task of course planning was to complete the first three columns of the component control document, converting the plan into a concrete list of building tasks. Keep this document open while you review the course building tools and complete the Tools section as you settle on the ones you will use.

Module Component # Component Description Tool(s)/Output
1.4 1.4.1 Bloom's Taxonomy: Presentation PowerPoint, Camtasia (mp4), embed in html
1.4.2 Bloom's Taxonomy: Handout Convert Word.doc to PDF, link in html
1. First four columns in the component control document

Tools of the trade

Rather than try and offer a complete list of brand-name tools you should conquer, we will list the type of tool and our subjective comments, then leave it to you to select the best tools for you. There are brand-name and open-sources tools for every purpose. Don't forget that many tools are moving to the cloud in the form of software-as-a service (SAAS) and this trend will likely continue. A rule of thumb: The easier the tool is to learn and use, the more restrictive are its features and options. Softchalk authoring tool, for example, is a favorite of school teachers and college professors because of its ease of use, but options for text, quizzes, and learning activities are very limited. On the other end of the spectrum is Adobe Photoshop image editor. You can do virtually anything with images, but Photoshop is notoriously difficult to master. It is a high-end professional tool for specialists. The tools (* indicates free) and comments:

Table 1. Common Instructional Design Tools
Tool Examples Comments
Text Editor
  • MS Word
  • OpenOffice*
  • LibreOffice*
  • Notepad/TextEdit
  • HTML editors
Your editor of choice will depend on your purpose. If you desire to create a particular look and then convert it to PDF or HTML, Word is probably the best choice. However, Word does not natively convert to PDF, as Open and LibreOffice does, so you will also need Adobe Acrobat or a web-based service. Word HTML is generally thought of as "dirty" because it includes an inordinate number of unnecessary tags (see Figure 1 below). If you plan to copy Word text to paste into an HTML editor, it's best to "cleanse" it by pasting the text into Notepad or TextEdit, then copy that text into the HTML editor. If you plan to use HTML, it's probably advantageous to compose within an HTML editor.
HTML Editor
  • Adobe Dreamweaver
  • iWeb
  • Kompzer*
  • Notepad/TextEdit
  • Notepad Plus*
Dreamweaver, iWeb, and KompoZerer are WYSIWYG editors useful for most of us. HTML is a language and can be composed in any basic text editor, but you have to know the language. The WYSIWYG editors work much the same as text editors although the placement of pictures and other objects may need special attention. The great thing about HTML is the ability to use style sheets (CSS). With CSS, your HTML pages will look and feel consistent as long as you use the CSS tags.
Image Editor
  • Adobe Photoshop and Fireworks
  • Corel PhotoPaint
  • GIMP*
  • Google Picassa*
Image editors are essential for a number of reasons: resize to the dimensions you need, crop to the size you need or to remove unwanted portions, adjust brightness and saturation, improve an image using automated tools, recoloring, combining images, breaking images apart, removing backgrounds, adding borders.
Vector Drawing Tool
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • CorelDraw
  • Inkscape*
  • OpenOffice/LibreOffice Draw*
While digital artists can create masterpieces with drawing tools, most of us will use them for creating crude illustrations, charts, process diagrams and the like using basic shapes. Clipart can also be broken apart and manipulated with little advanced skill. Most of the time, these illustrations are converted into bitmaps for display on web pages, etc. The more advanced tools can also convert to SVG, a web file type that can be enlarged and shrunk by the user without loss of fidelity; most often used with maps.
Audio Recording/Editing
  • Adobe Audition
  • GarageBand (Mac)
  • Audacity*
Audio recordings are useful for several purposes, including podcasts; audio lectures, reviews, and other communications; and for creating the audio track for illustrated and animated presentations. Unless your speaker is very smooth, clear, and error free you will want to edit the audio file – removing long pauses and gaffs; adding silence; moving sections around; increasing volume or speed; fading, etc. Once your audio is flawless, you can then time your slides and animations to the audio. This is a much easier approach than syncing the audio and visual while you're recording. You will also have a more polished product.
Video Editing
  • Adobe Premier and AfterEffects
  • Sony Movie Studio
  • Roxio Creator
  • Storyboard Pro*
  • Movica*
Once you've recorded your video, most often with audio, you will need to edit it into a final product. Things you can do include adding transitions and other effects; insert text; add picture in picture; zoom, crop, and resize; correct lighting; use slow and fast motion; stabilize the video; and change the aspect ratio. The software has become amazingly affordable and easy to use. Interactive video has become an important teaching tool in which the video pauses for learners to answer questions before proceeding. None of these products have this capability, but their output can be opened and questions inserted using Captivate and Camtasia. Additional products will surely follow.
Graphing and Charting Tools
  • Office spreadsheets
  • SmartDraw
  • Gliffy*
  • Chartgo*
Clark & Lyons (2004) recommend using visuals and/or two-dimensional charts for communicating qualitative and quantitative relationships, procedures, facts, concepts, processes and principles.
Screen Capture
  • Snagit
  • Screenhunter*
  • KSnapshot*
Primarily for capturing still images on your computer screen, often with basic image editing features. Images can also be saved and edited in image editors.
Screen Recording
  • Camtasia (Techsmith)
  • Captivate (Adobe)
  • EZvid*
  • CamStudio*
Screen recorders make a video record of anything displayed on your screen, or a designated space within. Along with the screen action, you can record your voice as you explain what is happening on your screen. For example, you can narrate your PowerPoint slides, help students navigate a website, or walk them through the steps for formatting their research paper. Camtasia and Captivate can also import video files and add interactive questions.
Animation Software
  • Adobe Flash(SWF output)
  • Adobe Edge (HTML5 output)
  • Vectorian Giotto* (SWF output)
  • Synfig (MPEG, Theora output)
  • Animatron (online, HTML5 output)
Strictly speaking animation creates the illusion of motion by sequencing a series of still drawings or images. Serious animation is just a wish for most of us, but there are uses for the rest of us. The biggest problem, however, is that the Flash format is headed toward oblivion, and animation using JavaScript and HTML5 are in their infancy. Edge constitutes Adobe's movement toward this approach and Flash includes some complicated ways of integrating with HTML5. Two main features of animation software are drawing tools - the same as vector drawing programs - and tools to blend, morph, and tween objects. One thing you can still do with Flash-based animations is record them to a video format using a screen recording tool. Significantly increased file size is an issue, but you do get the effects you're after.
Animated video production
  • GoAnimate
  • Powtoon*
  • Moovly* (or subscription)
  • Virtual Human Toolkit* (for research only)
Video production with live actors can be expensive and time consuming, and may not be adequate for all purposes. Animated video production costs less, can be accomplished by an individual, and offers some features not available for video production, including a wider diversity of characters, bending the laws of nature, creating context and perspectives, visualizing the abstract, and creating a wider range of emotional tones. If you are interested in the future of human animation, we suggest keeping tabs on the Virtual Human Toolkit at the University of Southern California.
Social Media
  • Del.icio.us (bookmarking)*
  • News (Reddit)*
  • Networking (Facebook)*
  • Twitter (microblogging)*
  • YouTube (video)*
  • Flickr (photos)*
  • WikiSites (wiki)
The defining nature of social media is interaction, a two-way street between originators and their audience (friends, followers, etc.). The idea is using the web as a collaborative, interactive and responsive social space. Use within formal education is still in its infancy with the exception of walled-off wikis and blogs created within learning management systems, plus YouTube as a handy way to make instructional videos available. Many express concerns about privacy and cheating. These concerns may fade as innovative instructors find ways of incorporating other social media.
Authoring Tool (see also below)
  • Lectora Inspire
  • Softchalk Create
  • Articulate Storyline
  • Adobe Captivate
  • ZebraZapps
  • EasyGenerator*
  • Google CourseBuilder*
Authoring tools attempt to make course design easier by including a number of commonly used features like text editing, quiz generator, drag-and-drop and other learning activities, plus multiple import options for videos, graphics, PowerPoint slides, etc. There are three categories of authoring tools:
  • Installed PowerPoint add-ins, which appear in PowerPoint as new tabs and ribbons.
  • Cloud-based tools which usually don't require installation
  • Installed stand alone tools which don't require PowerPoint or other tools

Most do not require programming skill, and will output to multiple formats such as Flash, HTML5, and iOS. Most will also link quiz scores to the LMS via SCORM or Experience API (TinCan). Prices vary widely and there isn't necessarily a relationship between cost and features.

Learning Management System
  • Blackboard Learn (and CourseSites*)
  • Instructure Canvas
  • Moodle*
  • Sakai*
  • WordPress plugins
The LMS is the application for administering, documenting, tracking, reporting, and delivering online courses. Used primarily for instructor-led courses behind a login, they can also be used as an authoring tool for building courses with text/HTML editors, discussion boards, wikis, blogs, assignment and assessment tools, grading, importing and linking to multimedia. Needless to say, they're complicated and need dedicated administration. They're also very robust, handling thousands of courses at a time. Multiple vendors sell WordPress plugins to create a quasi-LMS. These efforts are basic right now but deserve monitoring. All told, the entire LMS space bears watching - things are moving quickly.


As you decide which tools you will learn, keep in mind that it's more about sound design than about the particular tool. Your accomplished output from a basic tool is likely better than that from a poorly understood advance tool.

1. HTML created in MS Word (top) is "dirty". Note that both samples display the same text.
1. HTML created in MS Word (top) is "dirty". Note that both samples display the same text.

Authoring tools

The eLearning Guild conducts a number of surveys each year, including one for authoring tools, which they describe as "tools expressly created to develop asynchronous eLearning" (Shank, 2013). Among the findings:

Types of learning created with authoring tools

  • General elearning converted from PowerPoint slides (64%)
  • Software applications training (59%)
  • Performance support tools (54%)
  • Soft skills training (43%)
  • New employee orientation (42%)
  • Business skills training (40%)
  • Management and leadership training (31%)
  • Sales and product training (30%)


Popular tools and 2015 cost

The percentages in parentheses represents the relative number of survey respondents using the specific tool. Costs are estimates and not quotes.

  • Adobe Captivate (64%) $1,099 or $29.99 monthly subscription
  • TechSmith Camtasia Studio (42%) $299
  • Articulate Storyline (33%) $1398
  • Articulate Studio (32%) $1398
  • Trivantis Lectora (26%) $1595
  • Adobe Presenter (16%) $249
  • Trivantis Lectora Snap! (10%) $99


Go to the Diane Elkins blog for a side-by-side comparison. Among her conclusions, Lectora is the overall most powerful and Studio is the easiest to use. Captvate has the steepest learning curve. She cautions, however, that things change very rapidly in this market.

Common features

Both Shank and Elkins advise potential buyers to first create a list of required and desired features before deciding on an authoring tool. Each product includes its own unique combination of features.

  • User interactivity
  • User support
  • Integrating audio and video (recording, editing, embedding, and triggering events)
  • Graphics and animation (creating, editing, triggering events)
  • Assessment (types of questions, tracking, randomizing, adding media)
  • ADA compliance (screen readers, closed captioning
  • Mobile capabilities
  • Simulations (especially computer simulations, games)
  • Templates, themes, and skins (availability, ability to customize)
  • Branching and navigation
  • Scripting and variables (personalization, using system variables, creating scripts)
  • Integration with social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
  • Progress tracking (SCORM, Experience API [TinCan])
  • Publishing options (mobile/HTML5, Flash, video, PDF)


The latest authoring tools include "design once, publish to multiple formats" that simplifies the process of designing for multiple devices.

Conclusion

While it may be tempting to go for the "all-in-one" authoring tools, keep in mind that these programs present a rather limited view of course design and building. Remember that a whole variety of learning activities, especially authentic activities, do not require authoring tools.

Recent research by the ROI Institute (Phillips & Phillips, 2014) demonstrates the poor return on investment for stand-alone tutorials. While these sorts of instruction do save money when training large numbers, they fail to transfer learning to actual application and business results.


#top

Up to Course building

⇑ ⇑ Up to Course development

⇑ ⇑ ⇑ Up to Home