E-learning Uncovered

MAY 24, 2011

As we’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, there are a number of changes to the authoring tool landscape coming in the next few months. We thought we’d help you decide which tool might be right for you. We’ve created a quick grid to show what we feel are the key differences between the major authoring tools on the market: Articulate, Captivate, Lectora, Flash, and the about-to-launch ZebraZapps.

Comparison 66

Comparison Authoring Tools Lectora 66

E-learning Uncovered

NOVEMBER 11, 2011

This week I attended my first DevLearn, and as hyped as it was in the months prior to the event, it did not disappoint. DevLearn is one of the largest events in the learning industry; according to the conference website, 1,747 people registered for the event. Surprisingly, though, it didn’t feel impersonal to me. I knew many people there from #lrnchat and the communities that the eLearning Guild has helped to cultivate, and I met many others at the conference itself.

DevLearn 64

DevLearn iPad eLearning Guild Conference 64

E-learning Uncovered

DECEMBER 23, 2011

Some of the most talented people I’ve worked with in the e-learning industry were gently guided (and some violently “pushed”) into the field – because of a changing environment, new workplace goals, business reorganization, etc. They were great instructional designers and facilitators of classroom training and skillfully moved their skills to a different, online arena.

Classroom 63

Classroom Mentoring ASTD Specialist 63

E-learning Uncovered

SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

Two weeks ago, Trivantis released Lectora X.5, which has some very interesting new features. Here is a review of Lectora’s new functionality and new resources available now on E-Learning Uncovered. New Flash Games. Fans of Lectora’s Flash games get a treat in this release. Six new quiz games have been added to the Flash Media Library: Crazy Cans, Dunking Booth, Horse Race, Mountain Climb, Slot Machine, and Walk the Plank.

Lectora 63

Lectora Resources Trivantis Authoring Tools 63

E-learning Uncovered

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

I was thrilled to be accepted to speak and asked to serve on a panel at my first DevLearn experience! Both sessions ended up with a packed house, and I was glad to receive lots of great questions and feedback. Since it was certainly a theme this year to share the learning beyond the conference itself, here are the things I’d like to share from each session for people who weren’t able to attend.

Authoring Tools 61

Authoring Tools DevLearn Flash to HTML5 Conversion Authoring 61

E-learning Uncovered

OCTOBER 28, 2011

A couple of months ago I added some family members – my new husband and his two wonderful sons. My 17-year old step-son, Sean, is very good with learning new software, so I taught him how to edit and time audio in Captivate so he could work with me over the summer. It was an interesting first-hand study for me on how Millennials learn. Let’s look at what we know about the Millennial Generation for a minute.

Diversity Training 61

Diversity Training Cognitive Training Train 61

E-learning Uncovered

OCTOBER 10, 2011

There are lots of things happening at Artisan E-Learning that we wanted you to know about. Congratulations to Tanya Coomes! We are thrilled (for her) and sad (for us) to announce that our COO, Tanya Coomes, will be taking a job as the Director of Finance for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, FL. Tanya has been with us for almost three years (longer as a contractor) and has been an invaluable member of the team.

News 61

News Companies ASTD Adobe Captivate 61

E-learning Uncovered

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I recently used a text to speech program to create the audio for a course. As I’ve discuss the process with colleagues, I’ve gotten several questions. What is text to speech? Text to speech, or speech synthesis, is the artificial production of human speech. A text to speech program can use text from such things as word processing programs, Internet sites,pdf documents, and even scanned documents (depending on the program) and create an electronic audio file such as a.wav or.mp3 that you can use

Text-to-Speech 61

Text-to-Speech Scanning Audio Course 61

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 22, 2011

My favorite personal reading material, Discover Magazine , often divulges great and new research findings on how the mind works – frequently focusing on learning and memory retrieval. The information often makes me ask how we can best use this new information to develop the best courseware for our learners. In the July/August issue, an article on memory champion Joshua Foer caught my attention – and still has me thinking.

Create 61

Create Courseware Upgrade Policies 61

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 8, 2011

Last week, the E-Learning Guild released a free e-book called 75 Tips to Reduce E-learning Costs. It has some very useful tips about how to save both time and money. I participated in the survey used to gather the ideas back a few months ago. After seeing the finished ebook, I asked myself if we have any new insights on the subject, and I thought of some of the products and services that we use to help us save time and money in our e-learning development.

vendor 61

vendor Voiceover Lectora Voice 61

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 19, 2011

I recently worked with a client to help them with training for an IT system being custom-built for their organization. The training team had a tight deadline, an unstable system with no test data, a new license of Captivate, and an internal team who had never developed anything in the tool. After I trained them on Captivate and helped them put together a schedule, the lead developer looked at me and said, “Thanks for helping us.

Training 61

Training Train Captivate Project 61

E-learning Uncovered

OCTOBER 14, 2011

I’m wrapping up my to-dos from mLearning DevCon , a conference I attended last week that was from the organizers of eLearning DevCon , but (as you might have surmised) geared toward m-learning development. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect from this brand-new event, but I was quite pleasantly surprised. It drew some people who I knew were doing great work in our industry, but it was also easily small enough to make connections, start in-depth conversations, and ideate.

ADL 60

ADL Case Study iPad Lectora 60

E-learning Uncovered

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011

Launching a new e-learning course is exciting—and a little bit scary. Did we remember everything? Did we make all the last-minute changes? Did we catch all the typos? Do all the buttons work? When creating an e-learning course, we need to balance perfectionism with reality. We want every course to be perfect, but there are only so many times you can look at something without going over budget or over schedule.

SharePoint 60

SharePoint Storyboard Version Lectora 60

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 5, 2011

Are you using Google+ yet? It’s launching to the general public soon and after a few weeks of using Google+, Diane Elkins and Judy Unrein got together to share impressions. What were your initial opinions? DE: My initial thought was – “Just what I need – one more thing.” But after using it for just a few days, I must say that I like it – a lot!

Google 60

Google Social Networks Facebook LinkedIn 60

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 15, 2011

Anytime my daughter asks a question like, “What do starfish eat?” or, “Can you tie a tie like Daddy?” I turn to the oracle — the Internet. I use Google multiple times a day — looking for information on how to do this, or how to do that — for both my professional life and my personal life. A lot of the information I find is posted by ordinary folks — folks with a passion for a topic and willing to share their knowledge with others.

Social Media 60

Social Media Media Social KickApps 60

E-learning Uncovered

NOVEMBER 12, 2011

I was thrilled to be accepted to speak and asked to serve on a panel at my first DevLearn experience! Both sessions ended up with a packed house, and I was glad to receive lots of great questions and feedback. Since it was certainly a theme this year to share the learning beyond the conference itself, here are the things I’d like to share from each session for people who weren’t able to attend.

DevLearn 58

DevLearn Authoring Tools Flash to HTML5 Conversion Toolbook 58

E-learning Uncovered

JUNE 7, 2011

The financial crisis of 2008 did quite a bit to put the world of training and development on an extreme diet – corporate/government training departments are working with skeleton crews and even scarcer resources, budgets are tight, and only the mission critical projects are being funded. The exciting thing about this type of environment is that you find folks that take lemons and make lemonade.

Trivantis 58

Trivantis Skype Training Train 58

E-learning Uncovered

DECEMBER 16, 2011

One of the things I enjoyed most about DevLearn last month was getting to see other instructional designers’ work, and just judging by the size of audiences that turn out for DemoFest and the ID Challenge, I know I’m not alone. It’s a common complaint among e-learning designers that they don’t get to see each other’s work often enough, because their companies (or their clients) won’t allow their courses to be posted online or included in portfolios.

Examples 56

Examples Screencast Sample Case Study 56

E-learning Uncovered

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

E-Learning Uncovered: Captivate 5.5 Coming Soon! This eagerly-awaited addition to our popular E-Learning Uncovered book series is almost here! Look for an announcement in January for the release of the book and new free resources on the website. The book covers beginning, intermediate, and advanced capabilities of Adobe Captivate 5.5 for both PC and Mac.

News 56

News Adobe Captivate Companies TechKnowledge 56

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 17, 2011

Thanks to Tony Karrer for welcoming us to the eLearning Learning community, which is also home to some of our favorite blogs, including…. Cammy Bean’s Learning Visions. Karl Kapp’s Kapp Notes. Christy Tucker’s Experiencing E-Learning. Dan Pontefract’s trainingwreck. Sahana Chattopadhyay’s ID and Other Reflections. …and many others.

eLearning 56

eLearning Website Learning Community 56

E-learning Uncovered

MAY 22, 2011

For those of you who are looking to get the best mileage out of your ZebraZapps test-drive, here are a few quick tips: Know your wire views. It’s great to be able to create interactivity visually, but those wires can get pretty messy, pretty fast. Pressing W shows more wires and Shift+W shows fewer. You can cycle through showing all wires, showing all wires between the selected objects, showing message centers only for selected objects, and hiding all wires.

Tips 56

Tips Press Free Interactive 56

E-learning Uncovered

MAY 13, 2011

Today we’re excited to share impressions on another new authoring tool: Allen Interactions’ ZebraZapps, which launches at ASTD ICE in about a week. I’ve been experimenting with Zebra since it was opened up for public testing, and with each iteration, I’ve become more and more impressed with the depth of its capabilities. In an a recent article I wrote for Learning Solutions Magazine , I reflected on how the software you use can compromise your designs by guiding you into a certain paradigm based

Authoring Tools 56

Authoring Tools Flash to HTML5 Conversion SWF Flash 56

E-learning Uncovered

MAY 1, 2011

Well, I guess it depends upon how you want to answer the question. Amount of work or elapsed time? Bryan Chapman recently updated his survey on how long it takes to create learning, including e-learning. The average amount of work for an e-learning course with average interactivity is 184 hours for every finished hour of content. But what does that mean for elapsed time?

Course 55

Course Create Storyboard Diversity Training 55

E-learning Uncovered

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Any team that produces e-learning is probably looking for ways to reduce the time it takes to create a course. Well, one such way is right at your fingertips—literally! And that’s to increase your typing speed. Typing speed? Really? Isn’t that something you learn in 7 th grade? I did a little informal study on my own daily habits to come up with some statistics.

Wikipedia 53

Wikipedia Develop Statistics Google 53

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 12, 2011

I’ve just completed my fifth course for a company in the baking industry. Through this process I’ve discovered that creating custom e-learning is a lot like dating. When you first start dating, each interaction yields greater insight into your companion; after a couple of dates, you notice that your date always picks the tomatoes off the salad, or the jazz station is always on when you get into the car.

Custom 53

Custom Create Storyboard Agile 53

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 12, 2011

I’ve just completed my fifth course for a company in the baking industry. Through this process I’ve discovered that creating custom e-learning is a lot like dating. When you first start dating, each interaction yields greater insight into your companion; after a couple of dates, you notice that your date always picks the tomatoes off the salad, or the jazz station is always on when you get into the car.

Custom 53

Custom Create Learning Objects Storyboard 53

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 19, 2011

I recently worked with a client to help them with training for an IT system being custom-built for their organization. The training team had a tight deadline, an unstable system with no test data, a new license of Captivate, and an internal team who had never developed anything in the tool. After I trained them on Captivate and helped them put together a schedule, the lead developer looked at me and said, “Thanks for helping us.

Training 45

Training Train Captivate Project 45

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 17, 2011

Thanks to Tony Karrer for welcoming us to the eLearning Learning community! eLearning Learning is also home to some of our favorite blogs, including…. Cammy Bean’s Learning Visions. Karl Kapp’s Kapp Notes. Christy Tucker’s Experiencing E-Learning. Dan Pontefract’s trainingwreck. Sahana Chattopadhyay’s ID and Other Reflections. …and many others.

eLearning 40

eLearning Website Learning Community 40

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 22, 2011

My favorite personal reading material, Discover Magazine , often divulges great and new research findings on how the mind works – frequently focusing on learning and memory retrieval. The information often makes me ask how we can best use this new information to develop the best courseware for our learners. In the July/August issue, an article on memory champion Joshua Foer caught my attention – and still has me thinking.

Create 40

Create Courseware Upgrade Policies 40

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 15, 2011

Anytime my daughter asks a question like, “What do starfish eat?” or, “Can you tie a tie like Daddy?” I turn to the oracle — the Internet. I use Google multiple times a day — looking for information on how to do this, or how to do that — for both my professional life and my personal life. A lot of the information I find is posted by ordinary folks — folks with a passion for a topic and willing to share their knowledge with others.

Social Media 40

Social Media Media Social KickApps 40

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 8, 2011

Last week, the E-Learning Guild released a free e-book called 75 Tips to Reduce E-learning Costs. It has some very useful tips about how to save both time and money. I participated in the survey used to gather the ideas back a few months ago. After seeing the finished ebook, I asked myself if we have any new insights on the subject, and I thought of some of the products and services that we use to help us save time and money in our e-learning development.

vendor 40

vendor Voiceover Lectora Voice 40

E-learning Uncovered

MAY 30, 2011

Well, we knew we’d have to keep our authoring tool comparison grid updated as the market changes, but we didn’t think it would be outdated within a week! Last week, Adobe announced the release of Adobe Captivate 5.5. Changes that affect our comparison include the ability to publish to mobile friendly devices (including Apple iOS) and some new graphics features such as the ability to create gradients and rotate shapes.

Comparison 40

Comparison Authoring Tools Adobe Captivate 40

E-learning Uncovered

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

As custom e-learning developers we are also looking to produce the best possible e-learning course that exactly meets our client’s needs. Many times when we sit down to ask the client what they are looking for, they say, “We need our course to be interactive, not a boring page turner.&# So the question becomes, what is “interactivity?”. In a recent LinkedIn discussion, e-learning practitioners were debating what exactly constituted “interactivity.

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Interactive Exercise Photo Picture 100

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 28, 2011

DesignJot from Allen Communications is marketed as the first iPad app designed to help build better training. It is a project template based on their ANSWER model of analyzing training needs and designing training solutions, and it’s $4.99 on iTunes. How It Works. The concept is pretty simple. After you’ve created and named a new project, the app takes you to the Analysis section: a series of questions divided up into Audience, Needs, Strengths, Weaknesses, Expertise, and Results (ANSWER).

PDF 70

PDF Analysis iTunes e-learning vendor 70

E-learning Uncovered

AUGUST 1, 2011

About three months ago, Trivantis released Snap! by Lectora – a PowerPoint authoring tool à la Articulate. Today they announced their 1.1 update. Normally I only comment on major releases, but this one has some important features. I’d put about half of them in the keeping-up-with-the-Joneses category, meaning the addition of basic features that Articulate already has.

Authoring Tools 70

Authoring Tools Trivantis FLV ActionScript 70

E-learning Uncovered

JUNE 22, 2011

We are working with a client on a Lectora course that needs to be viewable on an iPad. We did some quick testing to see which Lectora features work properly on an iPad and which ones are best avoided. We thought we’d share the results in case it helps you with your design and testing. Feature. Safari. GoodReader. Questions. Matching. Y. Y. Multiple-choice displayed as a drop-down list.

iPad 76

iPad Lectora Content Trivantis 76

E-learning Uncovered

JULY 28, 2011

DesignJot from Allen Communications is marketed as the first iPad app designed to help build better training. It is a project template based on their ANSWER model of analyzing training needs and designing training solutions, and it’s $4.99 on iTunes. How It Works. The concept is pretty simple. After you’ve created and named a new project, the app takes you to the Analysis section: a series of questions divided up into Audience, Needs, Strengths, Weaknesses, Expertise, and Results (ANSWER).

PDF 45

PDF Analysis iTunes e-learning vendor 45