What’s In Your Course Design Toolkit? #35

E-Learning Toolkit #35: Challenge | Recap

In a recent workshop someone asked a question about my favorite tools and resources. I replied that I would pull some forum conversations together for her where folks shared their favorite tools. Easy, right?

What do you use, Mr. David?” she asked. Evidently this wasn’t going to be a simple handoff. She explained that what she wanted was a personal recommendation of tools from me. And I get that.

As members of this community, you guys are looked at as trusted sources. You come together in this community but each of you has your own trusted network that you look to you as experts. Anyone can do a search for “Free design tools” or “free writing tools” and find thousands of recommendations. But to the person who looks to you as a trusted source, the only list that matters is the list you share.

Curation is personal. And that’s what this week’s challenge is all about.

Challenge of the week

This week your challenge is to share your favorite, free tools that make your course design easier.

Answer the following questions for each tool you share:

  1. What’s your favorite free tool?
  2. Why is it your favorite?

I know some of you will use this challenge to build out some really neat interactions and that’s great. But you don’t have to. You can skate through this challenge by sharing a short list of your favorite tools and how you use them.

Use the comments below to include your tools or post the list on your own blog. If you post on your blog, be sure to include a link to your post in the comments below.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • Color pickers and schemes
  • Image editors (online or desktop)
  • Free storyboarding tools
  • Utilities and production tools
  • Lorem Ipsum text generators
  • Writing and editing tools

Last week’s challenge

Before you begin this week’s challenge, take a look at the instructional design activities your fellow community members shared in last week’s challenge:

More about the e-learning  challenges:

The weekly challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. We’ll feature your work and provide feedback if you request it.

Wishing you a productive week, E-Learning Heroes!

Even if you’re using a trial version of Studio ’13 or Storyline, you can absolutely publish your challenge files. Just sign up for a fully functional, free 30-day trial, and have at it. And remember to post your questions and comments in the forums; we're here to help. For more e-learning tips, examples, and downloads, follow us on Twitter.

76 Comments
Kimberly Valliere

Having at least 30 tabs open and pressing the wrong back button is NOT your friend. Third time is a charm I hear...let's try this again. I can't wait to try all of these fantastic resources out...and get them bookmarked with diigo (social bookmarking) and pinned on pinterest. http://www.noteandpoint.com | http://www.speakerdeck.com | http://www.templatemonster.com | http://www.slideguru.com | http://www.webdesignerdepot.com I often need a design jumping off point before I can get started. I use these for design inspiration (especially for PPT, but certainly not limited to that). http://www.losttype.com I LOVE fonts and typically use dafont first, but losttype hasn't let me down either. http://www.zoom.us GREAT site for video meetings that allow up to 25 attendees (all runni... Expand

Will Findlay
Jennifer Valley
tracy stuntz
Ron Starc
Maggie Cowan

Late entry, I know! I'm going back through challenges to re-energize my creativity. For course development, my main tools are Microsoft Office products (Word, PowerPoint), Adobe Photoshop, and Articulate Storyline. However, I do use some online tools as well. The most powerful free tool that I utilize is Audacity. It's a great tool for recording and editing audio and I find it fairly simple to use since I'm just trying to eliminate background noise from narration. Voice Base (https://app.voicebase.com) is a decent free audio transcript tool for when I need to pull content from an existing video. Lipsum.com is the Lorem Ipson text generator that I use for placeholder text in prototypes. Graphicstock.com and Getty Images are my main resource for stock images. For color pal... Expand