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E-learning Tools and Technologies X Course authoring tools X 285 14 Course authoring tools It is the speed and ease of this cycle that justifies using a course authoring tool rather than more generic tools. POPULAR COURSE AUTHORING TOOLS Here are some popular authoring tools that are representative of the different types of applications available. Authorware By Macromedia macromedia.com About $2700 USD Authorware is a prominent authoring tool for e-learning. Originally designed to create disk- based CBT (computer-based training), Authorware has been adapted to create modules Looking for Dreamweaver here? It’s in the chapter on Web site authoring tools. It is also mentioned later in this chapter as an alternative to course authoring tools in this chapter. Authorware is the COBOL of e-learning. Everybody predicts its demise, but it still delivers lots of paychecks. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 286 W Course authoring tools W E-learning Tools and Technologies that, with the help of a proprietary plug-in, can play in Web browsers. And, because of its rich scripting language, authors can use Authorware to create highly interactive, branching simulations. To reap the benefits offered by Authorware requires specialized training and practice. There is no built-in instructional design model with this tool; however, there are a number of pre-built objects for different parts of a course, such as a login screen, that can save authors a great deal of time when building lessons. DazzlerMax By MaxIt maxit.com About $500 USD With DazzlerMax, authors create courses with drag-and-drop operations. DazzlerMax does not use scripting or icon-flows for creating interactivity. Courses do not need a media-player or viewer. DazzlerMax provides templates, but does not restrict authors to these templates. Authors can modify templates and import any kind of Web content browsers can display. MaxIt also offers a template library for DazzlerMax that provides a wide variety of instructional sequences. DazzlerMax can create software simulations that monitor mouse movements and clicks. It can store results of activities and tests and use them to guide navigation and other actions. Wiley Publishing, Inc. E-learning Tools and Technologies X Course authoring tools X 287 14 Course authoring tools DazzlerMax prides itself in the degree to which it follows AICC and SCORM communications standards. Course authors can record test scores, for example, without having to write their own scripts. DazzlerMax can communicate with a variety of LMSs. Lectora Publisher By Trivantis lectora.com About $1600 USD Lectora Publisher helps creates courses as dynamic HTML. Lectora provides wizards for creating buttons, page backgrounds, and overall course structures. It can also import and incorporate other components, scripts, and media that can go on Web pages. Authors organize the course in outline view and can import lessons, pages, and media components from other courses. Lectora Publisher can generate a table of contents. A course outline can be saved as a template. Lectora Publisher includes sophisticated testing capabilities. Tests can mix true/false, multiple-choice, matching-lists, drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. Tests can appear on one page or be displayed one question per page. Tests can be automatically scored, with feedback on individual questions. Tests can be timed, and Wiley Publishing, Inc. 288 W Course authoring tools W E-learning Tools and Technologies questions can be selected from question banks. Results can be submitted by e-mail or AICC and SCORM communications standards. Variables can hold data used to control the path through the course. Objects can be shown and hidden and optional text displayed. Lectora Publisher can generate a reference list of works cited in the course and can print out a course, lesson, or individual page. Lectora also produces authoring tools for building courses for mobile devices, such as the Pocket PC and Palm Pilot. Quest By Mentergy mentergy.com Contact Mentergy Wiley Publishing, Inc. E-learning Tools and Technologies X Course authoring tools X 289 14 Course authoring tools Quest is a comprehensive tool for authoring multimedia e-learning to run on Windows computers. It contains complete templates for pages, lessons, and entire courses. Quest can create ActiveX controls that can be experienced on Windows systems. These controls can be embedded in Web pages, the user interface of application programs, or PowerPoint presentations and Word documents. This makes Quest especially valuable for those creating embedded learning. ToolBook By Click2learn click2learn.com About $2600 USD Click2learn sells two course authoring packages that produce courses that can be tracked using their Aspen Learning Platform or other AICC or SCORM 1.2 compliant LMS. One is ToolBook Instructor, which started out as a CBT tool but has made the transition to the Web. ToolBook Instructor has a very rich scripting language that allows authors to produce simulations as well as highly interactive e-learning lessons. It can produce interactive courseware that runs without plug-ins. Authors can build just about any interactivity using whatever instructional design approach they wish. The second tool from Click2learn is ToolBook Assistant. Assistant provides the means to create standards-compliant, highly interactive lessons and courses—with no programming—using an array of predefined templates that target various training Wiley Publishing, Inc. 290 W Course authoring tools W E-learning Tools and Technologies needs. The two tools have a common file format and can be used together. With Instructor, authors can create custom objects and templates and add them to special catalogs for use in both tools. Trainersoft 8 By Trainersoft Corporation trainersoft.com About $2100 USD Trainersoft 8 is a popular authoring tool for e-learning. Using wizards, novice authors are guided to select the right pre-designed template to meet their training needs— whether it is a quick-start guide or a standard course with multiple lessons. The built-in templates provide the structure for the course along with placeholders and prompts for needed text. Authors can enter text using features similar to those in a word-processor. They can also add such objects as graphics, rich media, a Web browser control, scripting, and test questions. There is also a rudimentary screen capture utility which authors can use to take single or multiple snapshots of the desktop or a running application. Trainersoft 8 organizes content using a book metaphor, where the book is the course, a chapter is a lesson, and a page is a topic. The main navigation mechanism for Wiley Publishing, Inc. E-learning Tools and Technologies X Course authoring tools X 291 14 Course authoring tools authors and learners is the table of contents. Authors can control whether the learner sees this table of content as well as what portions of it are visible. Authors can even compile an index to help learners access specific pages within the course. Trainersoft 8 saves content as HTML or as a self-running Windows program. When saving as HTML, authors have the option of sending test scores to an AICC compliant LMS like Trainersoft’s companion product, Trainersoft Manager 2. Web Course Builder By ReadyGo readygo.com About $500 USD With ReadyGo Web Course Builder, the focus is on simplicity of authoring. Course authors create pages by filling in dialog boxes, not by editing visual images of pages. Web Course Builder uses predefined templates to control layout. Templates are provided for entire courses and for common course components, such as bullet lists, in-depth explanations, tests, surveys, glossaries, and frequently-asked questions (FAQ) pages. Web Course Builder does not include media editors but authors can import any Web-viewable media created externally. PowerPoint users will appreciate its ability to import titles and bullet lists from PowerPoint slides. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 292 W Course authoring tools W E-learning Tools and Technologies Authors can reorganize courses by dragging and dropping icons in an outline view. They can also copy and paste lessons, pages, and other components between courses. Web Course Builder automatically generates a table of contents, navigation buttons, and indexes. It also contains a spell checker and can print a text version of an entire course, chapter, or page. Web Course Builder runs on Windows but can produce courses in HTML and JavaScript that even display in early Netscape 3.0 and Internet Explorer 3.0 browsers on most operating systems. Others This list is just a sample of the array of content authoring tools available. For a list of more tools to evaluate, go to horton.com/tools. You can also search the Internet using phrases like “e-learning authoring tools” or “list e-learning authoring tools” (with and without the hyphen) or a similar combination of terms. ALTERNATIVES TO STANDARD COURSE AUTHORING TOOLS Besides dedicated course authoring tools, there are several alternatives for creating courses. These include combinations of other categories, online help tools, multimedia tools, as well as authoring capabilities built into other categories. Let’s see when you might choose each of these alternatives. Combinations of other tools Instead of using a single program to create courses, many authors combine tools from other categories. Usually these combinations involve a tool for authoring presentations with one for creating tests or activities. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX (macromedia.com) together with its Learning Site and CourseBuilder extensions forms a popular combination for authoring e-learning courses and lessons. Within Dreamweaver, authors can use the Learning Site extension to create a special learning Web site that provides the navigation structure for a lesson. During the site-creation process, the author creates placeholder pages for HTML, rich media, and interactions (from the CourseBuilder extension). The author also selects the navigation model and the course template. Wiley Publishing, Inc. E-learning Tools and Technologies X Course authoring tools X 293 14 Course authoring tools If the author chooses to track tests and activities, the Learning Site extension presents a dialog box to help choose or create a tracking database and set up the necessary connection to the database. Authors can also choose to add an administration component to their learning site to handle registrations and monitor student activity. Because of its capabilities, some people refer to this Learning Site extension as an “LMS-lite.” Other combinations of Web site authoring tools (for presentation) and testing tools (for assessment and interactivity) are possible. Just mix and match from these lists: Web site authoring tool Testing and assessment tool Microsoft FrontPage (microsoft.com) Adobe GoLive (www.adobe.com) NetObjects Fusion (netobjects.com) Macromedia Dreamweaver (macromedia.com) See chapter 15 for details. QuestionMark Perception (questionmark.com) Hot Potatoes (halfbakedsoftware.com) Quiz Rocket (learningware.com) Test Generator (testshop.com) CourseBuilder (for Dreamweaver only) (macromedia.com) See chapter 16 for details Those of you sitting on gigabytes of PowerPoint presentations may want to employ a tool like Presedia Express (presedia.com) that converts PowerPoint slides to a Web- ready Flash presentation and add simple tests as well. (See chapter 18 for more on Presedia). We could continue listing possible combinations for a few more pages, but you get the drift. With a little creativity, you may be able to combine tools to create a suitable authoring environment for you. Help authoring tools Help authoring tools, though not optimized for creating highly interactive presentations, have some very attractive features that qualify them for creating e-learning content—especially e-learning that must be embedded in a software product. They are also well suited for courses that are information-rich and follow a cognitive model of instructional design. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 294 W Course authoring tools W E-learning Tools and Technologies Help is an online document designed to assist users of computer programs. Tools for creating online Help specialize in creating such documents and integrating them into the computer program they serve. Most such tools target Microsoft Windows applications, which have established standard forms and expectations for online help. Typically, Help files contain short topics of practical, procedural advice. In Help files the emphasis is on quick access to individual topics. As a result, these tools contain features that make the content of Help files quick and easy to find and display. They also make it easy for authors to set up sophisticated indexes and rich navigation schemes. Prominent Help authoring tools include RoboHelp from eHelp (ehelp.com), AuthorIT (authorIT.com), and Doc-To-Help from ComponentOne (componentone.com). They range in price from $199 to $900 USD—somewhat less expensive than dedicated course authoring tools. In considering online Help tools, be sure to ask questions such as these: f What file formats can the tool create? Many online Help authoring tools can produce several different forms of online help for use in different generations of Windows programs and non-Windows programs. These include the original WinHelp format, which was compiled from Microsoft’s Rich Text Format (RTF); HTML Help that can be compiled into one file or remain as a cluster of linked files; Help 2.0, which is based on an XML structure; JavaHelp from Sun; and WebHelp from eHelp. f How well does the tool integrate with popular HTML editors? Tools for producing HTML help sometimes let you use your favorite HTML page editor, for example, Dreamweaver or FrontPage, to prepare individual pages. f What project management capabilities does the tool provide? Does it give authors version control and audit trails? Does it provide access control through user and group accounts? Does it incorporate a built-in task scheduler? Because writing Help files is usually a collaborative effort, many Help authoring tools have good project management capabilities that benefit authors of e-learning as well. f Does the tool support multiple output formats? For instance, if you need to publish the same content in a paper tutorial and in online training, does the tool allow you to do both from the same content? Wiley Publishing, Inc. [...]... most e- learning projects—a Web page here, a registration form there Because Web site tools are sold to large markets, their developers have lavished time and money on making them capable, reliable, and easy to use And their prices are also lower than many dedicated e- learning tools For courses conveying information and hard knowledge, Web site tools may be all you need, especially for the presentation... and the goals of your e- learning effort Capabilities needed to create e- learning Authoring is a complex, multi-layered activity Evaluate the tool against We’re going to discuss features needed at three your own requirements Do not settle for a walkthrough of levels: the course, the lesson, and the page Please features given by a sales remember that we are not suggesting that one tool representative Actually... components that registered owners of Dreamweaver can download and install There are extensions for e- learning developers, e- commerce site designers, and overworked site builders who want to make everyday authoring tasks easier For authors of e- learning, extensions are Dreamweaver MX has powerful site available to add testing (CourseBuilder), creation capabilities too It strikes a learning management (Learning. .. site authoring tools As a page editor, Dreamweaver is extremely full featured In addition to injecting the basic HTML elements, Dreamweaver simplifies embedding media and creating tables, Wiley Publishing, Inc E- learning Tools and Technologies Web site authoring tools 311 Dreamweaver lets developers add utilities and advanced capabilities to the program through the use of extensions These are prebuilt... this chapter might well have been, “This book is supposed to be about e- learning technology Why would I be interested in Web site tools? ” Before you fast-forward to the next chapter, give us a few minutes to list reasons why you may want to use Web site authoring tools to create your e- learning E- learning is steeped in Web technologies Tools that implement these technologies are needed at least sporadically... capabilities needed to completely cover this square However, with the database connections built into some of these tools, you can, with enough hard work and cleverness, extend the scope of these tools to cover courses and curricula Web site authoring tools do not work on their own Their purpose is to create Web sites that are, in turn, offered by Web servers To create these Web pages, they rely on media editors... automatically handle the compression, transmission, and decompression of the files to a server? Most tools have some kind of FTP utility that enables the transfer of files to a Web server Some tools, however, bundle all the directories and files into one compressed file, thereby saving time in the upload phase 14 300 Course authoring tools E- learning Tools and Technologies Can authors preview content before publishing... of a generic browser? Can authors enter bibliographic citations and references? Can citations and references be automatically collated to create bibliography or reference pages? Can images have associated references? Does the tool interface with bibliographic programs such as EndNote (endnote.com)? Learners expect to see footnotes and citations when reading a textbook Such references indicate the book... automate repetitive tasks enhances productivity 14 304 Course authoring tools E- learning Tools and Technologies WHAT NOW? To pick authoring tools for e- learning, you need to make decisions and take actions Here are some recommendations for how to proceed If you … Then … Are still designing your e- learning Make a complete list of the capabilities you will need to create the kinds of learning experiences.. .E- learning Tools and Technologies Course authoring tools 295 Multimedia tools Software-development tools Interactive e- learning is software, so why not jump into the deep end of the pool? The same tools that are used to develop other kinds of computer programs and database-driven Web sites can be used to develop e- learning Popular software development tools include: If using a multimedia tool . multi-layered activity. We’re going to discuss features needed at three levels: the course, the lesson, and the page. Please remember that we are not suggesting that one tool should have all these. learners, the expertise of your development team, the concerns of your IT department, and the goals of your e- learning effort. Capabilities needed to create e- learning Authoring is a complex,. best meets your requirements. Here we first take a detailed look at what you need to know before you start evaluating a tool. Then, we delve into even more detail as we discuss the features