Trainers Talk Tech

In fairness to some other good vendors, and because I covered some big tools a couple days ago, I wanted to point out a few other good eLearning development tools that people are buzzing about. Again, I prefer to build everything from scratch using the Adobe tools, but I am aware that there are people who don't want to dive that deep into the development red tape. I completely respect that and, considering I talked about Lectora, Captivate and Articulate, I thought I would throw two more onto your radar.

Follow up:

Recently, I had a client contact me about converting some eLearning into the RapidIntake tools, specifically Unison. Unison is a web based tool that allows you to build Flash based eLearning using your browser. Yes, it sounds like the interface would be weak and the end product limited, but I have to admit that the Unison tool is pretty cool. It looks like it was built in Flex, and runs perfectly in your browser. If you want to easily develop eLearning, it is truly simple. As expected, it has lots of import tools and can bring many different files types in, but by relying on browser based development means anyone, anywhere can work on projects.

Everything in the Unison tool exports to Flash, and there are also some robust SCORM and AICC export functions as well. Click a few buttons and the .zip file is created and then downloaded to your computer for insertion into your LMS.

While I am not the grand expert on Unison, I am impressed with it as a development tool. There are some limitations around layout, however the page template choices should cover most of your needs. Of course, building the custom templates, images, audio and video files to upload into the system takes additional software tools and time (Flash and Photoshop). If you have someone who can build you those items, dropping them in using the Rapid Intake tools is easy.

UPDATE: 3/2/09: I wish I could support the Unison tool, but there are way too many issues with the online version. The more I used it, the more little things I discovered. It feels very, very buggy with little or no documentation or support around the online Unison product. Simple things like making your .mov file appear BELOW your text, linking to PDF documents and previewing your quizzes all don't work or are buggy. I wish this tool worked better...right now, I cannot endorse it.

Something else I completely like about this product is that it runs on my Mac in Firefox. I don't need a Windows emulator or anything else to run it. I can build on my Mac the same way Windows folks build.

Rapid Intake also has a tool called ProForm. This appears to be identical to the web based tool, but runs on your desktop. Unfortunately, ProForm only works on Windows Machines.

The other tool I am playing with is from Atlantic Link. This international firm has hit the ground running in the US. I met a couple of them at the ASTD TK show and they have a great looking set of products: Content Point, Capture Point and Knowledge Point. These three tools combine to give you a very "Lectora" type of development environment. However, there is one large difference - the course development is hosted.

It can be hosted by them or hosted by you, but the fact that there is a dedicated server out there holding onto your eLearning allows for an impressive amount of collaboration. Entire teams can build projects, keeping an eye on edits and work flow with a set of pre-installed tools. If you have a large team of designers and developers, this one capability makes Atlantic Link deserve a look.

Something else that Atlantic Link does that I haven't seen anywhere else is the ability to embed PowerPoint slides, and then retain the ability to edit the content. Yes, you can take a series of PPT slides, drop them into Atlantic Link and then EDIT the content on those slides: change text, position, graphics, everything. The other tools I've seen flatten the PPT slide into a single image, not allowing you to tweak position or content. I am not a big fan of PPT based eLearning, but I know lots of folks have their content in PowerPoint. Atlantic Link could be a way for those folks to move to a more formal eLearning development environment.

I like what I see with both of these applications, but again, I have to go back to my old argument that after 12-18 months of development, you will want to be able to tweak your learning more than any of these software choices will allow you to do. However, if you've been a reader of these pages, you know that I've predicted that people will be required to do more with less, and an investment into the Rapid Intake tools or the Atlantic Link tools may be the ticket people need to get through the next 12-18 months.

On a side note: Is there anyone out there that wants to give me $1,000,000 so I can design and build an eLearning development tool that runs exclusively on the Mac? What Photoshop did for graphic designers (running exclusively on the Mac), needs to be created for Mac based eLearning developers. I'll write the business plan and let's get these Mac shops building eLearning using a superior tool! Who's with me!!??? (That's Thomas Toth...T O T H...mail the check to...)