The biggest problem facing the industry in the past few years are lack of course authoring tools for e-learning developers and instructional designers.Craig Weiss is an e-learning consultant and the founder of E-learning 24/7. He is a member of American Society of Training and Development, US Distance Learning Association and Australian Institute of Training and Development. More details about Craig Weiss e-learning expert can found in his website.

Sure, you can use the extensive list of tools on the market, but for those who want real power and complexity ala from the days of Authorware, pickings are slim.

a. Celtix - Enables you to create storyboards and scripts. It's free.

b. elearning animgallery - from e-doceo, provides a simple version but also offer more robust features including avatars, adjustment parameters, functions interpolation movements, the effects of camera to give depth, movement of avatars, plus it comes with 5,000 media objects including flash animations, videos isolated, sounds, voice-overs, illustrations (2D and 3D), characters, mascots, interiors and exteriors, objects

c. elearning maker - another product form e-doceo; screenwriting, storyboards, media inserts, selection and moving of elements plus more; a beginner could use some of the features, but a developer has some additional capabilities and flexibilities

d. Flash course development toolkit - provides the source code, features include ability to load your movies, creates a table of contents and provides complete navigation control

e. JeL SIM- simulations requires experience of the Java programming language to create a numerical model of the system/concept being simulated

f. Professional Presenter X - comes with  sim tool, assessment, capture tool, documents to flash tool, etc. Works Windows and Linux, inc. documentary maker and iPhone/iPad/iPod touch developer kit

g. MLOAT - Multimedia Learning Object Authoring Tool.  SCORM compliant learning object generator, customized editing interface, web based media player that works across multiple platforms, video/audio, image slides, text synchronization

h. Simwriter Professional - NexLearn probably makes the best sim tool in the market, but it is extremely expensive - I believe around 9K for one license, features include -ability to export scripts for audio or video recording in .txt, .doc, and .htm formats, implement scripting capability to code custom simulation behaviors, customize properties for every design component to control the look and feel of your simulation

i. Authoring Pro - Developer and International Edition - comes with audio editor, video editor, image editor, screen capture and screen camera

j. Thinking Worlds - offers a free version (lame) and a commercial version (better) - create sims and 3D games publish to iPad (have to purchase the TW Pro + iOS edition), very slick

k. Articulate Storyline - Great product - read my review here - yeah, they pitch it for masses and yeah they can do some things, but this is really for developers and instructional designers

Course Authoring Tools for the masses

Common features include

a. Ability to use PowerPoint

b. Embed video - inc. YouTube

c. Embed audio, images and Flash objects

d. Offer linear and non-linear design, plus table of contents

e. Desktop - still the mass approach in the market

f. Add documents, materials including ability to attach to courses

g. Add lessons - seen in the education versions

h. Assessment tool of some nature - may include survey tool

i. Screen capture

j. SCORM compliance and/or AICC - there are tools out there who support neither - but that is not the norm and there are a few tools out there who also support PENS

k. Multiple learning paths or branching

l. Works with LMSs - exclusion - proprietary based content tools

New features appearing in many tools, regardless if they target developers or the masses

a. Notes of some nature

b. Reusable learning objects and repository

c. Quiz tool comes with random questions and quiz bank

d. Audio recording and editing

Next tier of features - growth is here and it is targeting the masses

a. Ability to output to HD/MP4

b. Offer ebook capability

c. Can send course links via e-mail and even social media

d. Widgets

e. Gamification

f. Personalization - only a handful

What's HOT

a. Avatars

b. Scenario builders

c. Templates

d. Mobile

e. Output to HTML5

What's COLD

a. Widgets

b. Spell checker - sheesh shouldn't this be standard?

c. Screen recorder or screen demo

d. Image editor

e. Video editor

f. Ability to include social media - I'm not talking about YouTube here

g. SaaS - are you kidding me?

h. Multilingual

i. Interactive simulations

Please note that cold simply means that vendors as a whole are not adding these features. It does not mean that they are worthless nor are not features that should be included - they should be!

Best of the Best

a. dominKnow Claro - it just keeps getting better and better

b. Articulate Storyline - Yes, an Articulate product in the running - and no the end of the world is not coming

c. Zenler Studio - A surprise pick. I love the ribbon style approach, the custom branding angle with your player, audio and video narration, SCORM/AICC - perfect for the masses

d. Thinking Cap Studio - Vastly improved - offers features for the masses and the developers

e. iSpring Suite - Supports HTML5 output, audio and video narration, awesome feature set including branded player, SCORM 2004, 1.2 and SCORM support and learning objects

f. Rapid Intake m-Learning Studio - Strong solution for the masses and developers, forward thinking approach, they also offer an online/offline product called m-Learning synch which includes a mobile learning online platform, rather than connecting to your LMS

g. Aura Interactive - Sh!FT Learning - Avatars with the ability to synch voice to them - i.e. they move their lips and it matches with your voice. Gamification, scenario builders, collaboration, audio options include allowing voice actors to upload and crop their audio from anywhere.  Search and replace content, mix and match new modules with existing modules

Bottom Line

The authoring tool vendors will say their products are for everyone. That their products are meeting the demand.

The demand from developers? The demand from the masses?

Or the demand from themselves, the vendors.

Because if it is the latter, than everyone doesn't necessarily mean you.

For more information please visit http://www.elearning247.co/speaking.html

In today’s corporate world, you cannot toss a rock in any direction without someone mentioning SharePoint as the glorious solution for social learning and in many cases a LMS.

But is it all that it is cracked up to be?  The social learning savior or a hero waiting to save the learner in distress?

It depends.

On the Road to Camelot

The first thing to realize is that SharePoint is not an out of the box solution, nor turnkey by any stretch of the imagination. It is a constant evolution of customization, plugins, coding language, etc.  While many companies see this as a non-issue, remember that for many of these companies they exist in the Fortune 500 or Global 2000.

Sure, Sony has found great success with SharePoint, but take a look at the resources available to them. Do you have such resources in-house at your company?

The Dark Forest

SharePoint can be a wonderful solution for the right reqs, but first and foremost, SharePoint is a content management system

That said, you could flip it into anything you want with the right customization and capabilities that in of itself is its true power. But before you head down that path, you may want to consider a few items that are not in the travel brochure.

a. Overload of documents and information – This can happen quickly if your SharePoint – is not constantly managed and being maintained all the time. For social learning, this slew of items – documents, files, etc. can happen quickly.

b. Compatibility with older versions of Microsoft Office, if doesn’t really exist, so unless you have say 2007, you may face some challenges

c. Time – you will have to allocate quite a bit

d. User interface is not great out of the box – so you will need to do customization

e. Governance policy – do you have one in place?

f. Costs – be prepared to spend – you want to train people how to use it? Do you have in-house resources available to solve problems, work on the solution, create new plugins, templates, add new features, etc.?  If not, are you willing to outsource? Do you already have servers available or will you have to purchase a few more?  Do you offer load balance with those servers, because if you have 10,000 or more employees hitting it, you will want it.

g. How will your learners access it? Can they access your social learning platform at home? Do they need VPN? How will that impact the platform, since they access at various speeds, etc.

h. People have brought up concerns regarding metadata, directory connections, etc.

Castle that Way —–>

Besides the potential pitfalls above, many companies still push forward, just as the knights before, hoping that the social learning grail is just around the corner.

They see SharePoint as a social learning environment as the solution, which is fine, but unless you know why you want to implement it, have a game plan or process on what it will accomplish after implementation and a strategy going forward, it will suffer, just as any social learning platform.

Despite the plus 25 types of social media you can implement into your SP social learning platform, many see social learning as social networking.

If I am an end user and your SharePoint social collaborative environment is the same as the real thing, “i.e. Facebook”, and I use Facebook often, why would I want to use the company’s?

Dragon Alert! Dragon Alert!

a. A report by Global 360 found that 60% of SharePoint respondents found the user experience “inadequate”

b. 47% in the same report, said they are building custom apps  

c. A recent survey focusing on Facebook use in the workplace, found that 89% of employees are “stalkers” – which means they were reading other employee’s pages and posts, and not posting themselves – (so, if you are creating a FB like page in your SharePoint, and can’t understand why people are not posting, here’s why)

Lower the Drawbridge, “smack”, Raise the Drawbridge

A SharePoint LMS vendor, told me that they never recommend people purchasing a SharePoint LMS, unless they have previously used SharePoint because of the problems they will face.

It stands to reason then, that unless you have used SharePoint at your company or another company prior to, that you shouldn’t jump head first into SharePoint, especially if you are planning on using it as your social learning or learning management systems.

Yet, people do.  They fail to realize it is required customization. It takes time, costs and resources. It is not a one size fits all nor the social learning holy grail.  Nor is it the learning management system of Avalon (King Arthur reference).

Can it be? Sure, but so can a lot of other solutions that do not require as much.  I’ll take a strong social learning platform by a vendor who has experience in creating a successful solution, over SharePoint – as a social learning platform, any day of the week.

If I want a LMS – then I would go the route of selecting a vendor who has created a LMS specifically for SharePoint, rather than going and building my own – I mean customizing my own, continually.

Bottom Line

SharePoint can be a solid social learning platform, but unless you understand the challenges and potential pitfalls ahead of time, then you might be in for a quite a surprise.

And the surprise, won’t be Merlin at your office door.

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For Profit

Let me be very clear on this. Despite what colleges and universities say about themselves, in the end their goal is to generate revenue. Without money coming in, the inevitable happens:

a. Full time faculty are replaced either with adjunct or just not replaced

b. Courses are removed – no longer available

c. Resources are scaled back

d. Areas such as the library and their books, etc. are downsized, even hours available are reduced

Three huge problems are facing brick and mortar colleges as a whole

a. Spiraling costs to students

b. Reduction in non-traditional students (i.e. 25 or older)

c. In small colleges, reduced numbers of students

How to Succeed

Succeeding involves three key components

a. Business processes

b. Learning approach

c. Marketing

Business Side

On this front, I could easily write a whole posting on it.  As a whole, brick and mortar colleges are absolutely horrendous when it comes to effective business processes. As a result, the impact in achieving success for online learning results in total chaos.

Ways to change

Let’s start with some basics.

a. Strip the cost of in-state versus out of state for students who have no desire to physically attend your school – people are accessing online courses not just within your university but outside as well

b. Reduce the costs for non-traditional students who desire to take a few courses here and there. Adult learners make up a huge market for the “for-profit” universities such as University of Phoenix, so follow the same manner.

c. Offer online degrees – this means offering a complete set of courses including the appropriate credit hours to achieve the degree.  

d. Go with a commercial LMS – whether you focus on one that is geared towards higher education or not, you will need to make sure it comes with e-commerce. Why deal with an open source system that will cost you more than you think, when one that is turnkey will suffice.

e. Include m-learning and focus on vendors who are moving to online/offline synch with tablets. Research shows that college students are heavy users of tablets.

f. Provide digital textbooks. Ditch paper based.

g. Change the way you think. This means cut the red tape and extensively long process to offer online learning management systems.

Learning

In today’s higher education e-learning world, synchronous based learning rules.  Frankly, I believe it is major mistake.  What schools are basically doing is shoving instructor led training online and thinking that will entice students. Yeah it is online, but boring.  In the end it is similar to what occurs in a classroom.

In the group setting, what occurs in the classroom follows suit online. You have a leader and then followers.

Recording of the faculty member and providing it – is one sided. It tends to be too long and honestly boring.

Asynchronous learning

What would you rather prefer?

a. A synchronous based course/class which provides no real engagement or interactivity and is truly one sided – linear?

OR

b. A course that is self-contained, provides a real life scenario or scenarios which can be built upon what they learned – either through their digital materials or a series of information built within the course?

Here are some arguments I surmise on why colleges/universities do not want to go with asynchronous

a. Time – not true. Once you create a series of modules which would constitute a course, you are done. Any modifications can be achieved quickly

b. Lack of tech skills – Every university I have been to or even at the one I taught at, had IT people available, including those dedicated to faculty in a computer lab of some fashion. These folks – the IT ones tend to expand their skill sets. Why limit yourself to a teaching assistant, when you can have someone who knows Adobe for example, and work with you? As for 3rd party authoring tools, if someone knows how to use robust software, they can learn how to create a robust course, even a simulation.   If your university offers instructional technology/design degrees – have those students (juniors or seniors) work with the faculty members to create the courses.

c. Costs - Can you create a great scenario course at a low price point? Sure.  If you want to hire some outside folks to create the courses, depending on where you go, the costs can be higher – but the reward may be worth it.

If you want to include examinations/tests in your online courses,

realize the following:

Students will have all the materials, including textbook at their location – wherever they are taking the exam (as long as it is not in your classroom).  

a. Timed tests are worthless. See above. Yeah it is timed, but materials will be visible.

b. No one cheats. We would all love to believe that honesty dominates academia, but some students will cheat, just as some do in the classroom

c. We track their IP address. Absolutely worthless. I can have Bob come over to take my test for me, on my computer.

d. We require you to have your web cam on at all times. Unless their web cam moves where they move to (and some do), then you have zero idea if Sally is providing the answers on a doc. and handing them off to Steve.

e. We require them to provide their license and social security. Personally, I think it is a very bad idea to provide Soc. Sec. and I wouldn’t do it.  Unless you go with https://, I would be extremely leery of providing you with any information such as license, social security, or other personal.

f. We proctor the exam and provide you with the web cam, etc. – it requires the proctor to constantly look at all the students, and when you have 75 online students, there is no way one person can stare at everyone.

g. We require biometrics – Only a couple of systems offer this – and again offers potential, but it doesn’t stop me from providing it and then having my books, materials and Carolyn helping me.

h. We require you to go to a physical location somewhere and take the exam. What’s the point of having an online course/class?

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