We often labor away using the same tools and techniques we’ve always used. This is one way to get in a rut. It’s helpful to take a break and stop to see if there are better tools that will make our jobs easier, more fun, or provide inspiration.
Here are a few you may not know about. It was difficult to find categories for all of these tools, so they are listed in alphabetical order. Add your favorite little-known tools in the Comments section.
Adapt Learning
Adapt Learning was created for producing responsive eLearning content. It uses a JavaScript and HTML framework that provides cross-browser compatibility. Courses created in Adapt Learning should display correctly in all supported browsers and devices and they meet accessibility guidelines.
BranchTrack
This tool is specifically built to create simulated scenarios with branching. You can use their characters or upload your own images. After a scenario is created, you can add the finished dialogues into popular authoring tools, like Storyline, Captivate and Lectora or send out a link to learners. BranchTrack also has functionality for collaborating and gathering comments.
Bright Slide
This is a PowerPoint add-in that fills in the gaps for the things that never seem to work in PowerPoint. It will boost your productivity and make you more efficient with PowerPoint.
Process Street
Process Street is an application for creating checklists to share online with a team. Checklists as performance support tools can be more efficient and effective than a course. You can create a checklist, invite team members or assign it and track activities. In addition, you can add videos, documents and graphics to the checklist.
Review My eLearning
This app provides a collaborative way for reviewers of an eLearning course to give feedback on each slide or page, while viewing a course. Upload a course and as each slide displays, there is a comment box associated with it. The app collects all the relevant comments by slide and displays them in a table for the producer to see. The producer can converse with the reviewer through the app, such as asking for clarifications.
SCORM Cloud
Scorm Cloud allows you to test the SCORM functionality of an eLearning course. You can also deliver courses with SCORM Cloud as they host SCORM compliant courses too.
Storyboard That
An online storyboarding application that is drag-and-drop easy to use, working exactly as you think it should. Choose a layout and then add a background, characters and text. Storyboard That comes with an extensive library of hundreds of characters and backgrounds, as well as 45,000 images. Leave in the cloud or export in several ways.
Sutori
Collaborative tools you can use for presentations or classroom instruction. Popular with teachers and you can probably adapt it for workplace learning.
There’s another great eLearning review tool that you could include: zipBoard.co
It’s a great resource for instructional designer, project managers, SMEs – just everyone on the team – to collaborate and share feedback on courses. Do check it out!
Hi Connie,
This is a great list. Thought I would also share zipBoard (www.zipboard.co/eLearning). zipBoard is a visual review and collaboration tool for e-Learning content creation. It lets multiple stakeholders add comments and also assign tasks while developing SCORM/html courses. Do check it out, and let us know what you think.
Read more here :
http://elearningindustry.com/zipboard-simplify-elearning-content-development-visual-feedback
Thanks,
Bhavya
http://www.zipboard.co/elearning
Thanks for the additional links, Sven.
Connie
Thank you for finding and listing us (Adapt Learning), Connie! We’ve just has a major overhaul of our website and there are now a lot of responsive e-learning modules on our showcase (to show what responsive e-learning is and also what’s possible in Adapt). There also a great video on how to design engaging and effective digital learning at the bottom of this page: https://www.adaptlearning.org/index.php/kineo/ – hopefully this is useful!
Thanks for letting us know. I’m sure teachers will be particularly interested in this.
Connie
Thanks, Connie! I visited http://uinames.com/ names generator and was surprised by the amount of countries they provide, great idea and user-friendly interface. I’ll try to use the rest tools from your list later. For now, my favourite tool is https://unplag.com/ that I use for checking students’ essays on plagiarism. I bet this service is not a well-known yet.
Thanks for your list of authoring tools! I was blown away by Office Mix. My search for an elearning desktop authoring tool is over,
Thank you! I’ll try all.
Hype 3 has some good potential for creating dynamic content and short interactions
Thank you for these tools! They are terrific.