Toolkit: What’s the Best eLearning Tool? It Depends (Part 2)

Last month, I wrote about the various factors you shouldconsider before purchasing an authoring tool. If you haven’t read last month’s review, it would be a good idea to read it before continuing here.

This month, I will discuss the various tools, any of whichmight fit your specific needs based on your learner audience, the content theyneed to learn, and many of the other factors discussed last month.

The difference between an LMS and an authoring tool

Very often, I talk with folks who don’t understand thedifference between a learning management system (LMS) and an authoring tool.Here’s what I tell them:

1. A learningmanagement system is an administrative and registration tool. It issoftware that sits on an organization’s server or in the cloud, allows managers to enrollemployees in courses (or lets employees self-register), and presents thelearner with a menu of lessons from which to choose. Once a learner chooses anitem, it then launches that lesson. Thelesson is usually not created in the LMS.
2. An authoringtool, also called an eLearning development tool, is used to create thelessons themselves. Once you have created a lesson by combining the properamounts of media, interactivity, and other elements, you publish the lessoninto a set of files that allow a learner to see and interact with the lesson. Theset of files is normally zipped, and the zipped file is then uploaded to theLMS, where a menu entry is made to let the registered learners take the lesson.

Before a lesson is published, you will usually indicate inthe tool that you want the lesson to track the learner’s progress. To do so,you choose from a set of communication protocols. These are usually one offour: AICC, SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, or Experience API (Tin Can). It’s importantthat the protocol is supported by the LMS; after all, both the LMS and thepublished authoring tools have to speak the same language. In theory, andusually in practice, you can take a lesson that you created in SCORM 2004, forinstance, and use it with any LMS that supports SCORM 2004.

There is a third category besides those of the LMS and theauthoring tool: the learning content management system (LCMS). An LCMStypically is an LMS to which the LMS vendor has added an authoring tool. In myexperience thus far, the authoring tool included in an LCMS is very limited. Italso makes it difficult for you to be flexible. You’ll usually do better usinga stand-alone authoring tool. In addition, if you become dissatisfied with theLMS portion of the LCMS, you almost always have to throw away all of thelessons you created because they are part and parcel of the LCMS.

More recently, we also are seeing authoring tools, primarilythose that are cloud-based, adding LMS types of capabilities. Some of these maywarrant consideration, though I suspect most should be avoided for the samereasons you may not want to use an authoring tool that is built into an LMS.

I tend to focus on authoring tools and not on learningmanagement systems because my main passion has always been the creation ofgreat lesson material and not the administration of student populations, andboth the LMS market and the authoring tool market includes hundreds ofexamples. It’s a full-time job just focusing on authoring tools.

Wow, lots of authoring tools!

In fact, I decided recently to start making a list in Excelof the authoring tools of which I’m currently aware. I did not include learningmanagement systems, though I did include learning content management systems inmost cases. I have been taking notes for a long time and surprised myself whenmy list ended up with 201 entries … so far!

How I divide tools

There are three broad categories of tools:

1. PowerPointadd-on tools, of which there are only a handful
2. Tools youinstall on your computer, of which there are quite a few
3. Tools thatare in the cloud, which includes almost all new tools and is becoming thebiggest category by far

Over the last six or so years, I’ve evaluated many tools,but many remain and new ones seem to be popping up every week!

The big ones

Most have heard of the three tools that have the biggestmarket share. You install these on your computer, and in the case of Lectora,you also have a cloud-based version.

1. Adobe Captivate
2. Articulate Storyline
3. Trivantis Lectora

These are used by the majority of eLearning developers. Eachhas its strengths and weaknesses, price points, and similarities anddifferences. I’ve reviewed each a few times.

Right behind those are the top-three PowerPoint add-on eLearningtools. They don’t do as much but they have become quite feature-rich sincetheir earlier versions.

1. Articulate Studio
2. Adobe Presenter
3. iSpring Suite

I have also reviewed each of these, and again they both differand resemble each other in several ways.

The not-so-big ones

And then there are the 195 other tools I have in my list. Notable ones that I have reviewed inLearning Solutions Magazine include(in alphabetical order):

1. ApprenNet
2. BranchTrack
3. Composica
4. DominKnow Claro
5. easygenerator
6. Harbinger Raptivity
7. LearningStone
8. NexLearn SimWriter
9. Qarbon ViewletBuilder
10. Train by Cell

Finding the best tool: the right questions to ask

Using the criteria I presented in last month’s review and thosethat I’ve included this month, I hope that you’ll be able to find the best toolfor your use by asking vendors the right questions. Here are a few that youmust ask:

1. What are your tool’s greatest strengths?
2. What can I noteasily do with your tool?
3. What types of media does your tool support?
4. What types of freeform and wizard-basedinteractions can I create with your tool?
5. Tell me about your tech support options.
6. About how many developers are using your tool?
7. If I need help or training with your tool, arethere independent contractors I can hire or do I need to talk to you each time?
8. How often do you bring out new updates andfeatures?
9. What are the initial costs to license your tool?
10. What recurring costs should I expect?

Otherquestions may be important to you:

1. If I need to create a lesson in multiple languages,how do I do that with your tool?
2. How can I make sure my lessons look good onmobile devices?
3. How easy is it to extend your tool’scapabilities by using JavaScript or other means?
4. What capabilities does your tool include forcreating and editing images, audio, video, and animations?
5. How can I allow learners to collaborate usingyour tool?
6. How long have you been in business?
7. How many versions has your tool had thus far?
8. What reporting standards does your tool support(SCORM, AICC, etc.)?
9. Do my lessons need to be launched only from yoursite or can I place them on my own server or in my LMS?
10. Is your tool a PowerPoint add-on, an installedtool, or a cloud-based tool?

I’m sure you can think of other questions to ask. It alldepends on your organization’s particular needs. Remember that, just likefinding the right house or the right car for your needs, choosing the righteLearning tool can make all the difference in how good your eLearning will be.

Make the tool youchoose support your instructional design needs; do not limit your instructionaldesign needs to what any particular tool will allow!

Questions? Comments? Include them below.