software toolkit for e-learning

I just need to know if i am moving to the right direction.

Hi Ioannis!

Thanks for leaving your comment here in the forums! Great topic! I think the tools you will need in your "e-learning toolkit" really will depend on the project requirements/needs. 

If you need to create an e-learning course that outputs to HTML5 and includes video, animations, graphics and quizzing, you can use Articulate Storyline 2 to accomplish all of this. Storyline 2 also comes with a screen recording tool that you can use to capture screen recordings, which you can then edit, add captions, hints, mouse clicks, etc. so you might not even need Camtasia. You can also use Storyline to create pretty much any of the gamification aspects you want by using variables and triggers. I think getting Powerpoint "just" to use the text animation is unnecessary, and same goes for the crazy talk animator, but again, it will all come down to your specific project requirements and what you need to include in the e-learning course...

Hope this helps! 

Nicole

The missaunderstanding i am probably fell in has to do with the definition of a course.

what is a course? 

A)it is a video tutorial or video lesson or a series of slides which explains some theory or demostrates a skill?

or

B) a webpage that probably contains all the above using a friendly lay out? 

I thought that by using storyline someone is able to accomplish the A part of the above. So he would probably need a webpage to publish. But that is not true as i understand by reading Nicole's answer.

I saw storyline but not much. I saw slides - powepont like- that u can add interactivity features by triggers and variables. 

I understood that i need a webpage to add those slides in. I saw the html output but i thought that it is just a easy way to embed the slides into your web. 

Was i totaly wrong? 

Hi Ioannis,

You have asked a similar question a few times now in different threads.  Several folks (myself included) have tried to explain to the best of our ability and you seem committed to the notion of building "web pages" for learning.  That's totally fine of course, and the pros of cons of that approach have already been shared.

So I hope I am not out of line by suggesting that if you are still trying to pursue a webpage strategy you might find more relevant information for that on a forum dedicated to webpage creation.  Note: Some folks here do indeed dabble on that side, but most of this community is instead focused on creating end-to-end elearning via an authoring tool that can export to multiple output formats.

I want you and your learners to be successful, which is truly the only reason I am making the suggestion that you may wish to broaden the input you are receiving to include more website development focused communities. Truly hope this helps and good luck with the project!

Hallo Bob S. Thank u for answering. And thank u for the concerning about my learners. i asure you i am not commited to anything about e-learning right now. At least intentionally. I am just a little bit lost. And i am trying to figure it out. That is why i am posting these days. 

I am asking because i am trying to understand that stategies you ve mentioned. And i am asking here because i am really interesting in storyline. I just want to be sure what i can and what i can not do with it in order to make some decisions

You would really help me if you could answer the questions of my previous post. I just checked my other posts and i did not find any question that is similar with the questions in that post. I am not saying that you are wrong. It is probably because you see the similarity due to your experience in the field and i just can not see the conection. Yet.

Ioannis, part of the issue here seems to be that because your background is in web development, you're approaching e-learning as if it's a webpage.

You asked if a course is video tutorials or a webpage. My answer, like Bob's, is that both of those are fully passive examples. Neither one of those includes any opportunities to interact or practice skills. That might be enough for what you're doing. If you're just trying to make people superficially aware of something, a webpage where they read about it probably is enough. If you want them to improve skills or change their behavior, you need interactivity, practice, and assessment.

Rather than starting with the tools, start with the goal of the learning. What are you trying to accomplish? Who is your audience? What problem will you solve? How do you know this problem can be solved with training and not some other solution? Maybe you just need a pretty PDF people can use as a reference and you don't even need e-learning.

Once you know more about the problem, your company should hire an instructional designer, at least as a consultant if you don't have the budget for a full time person. You will not be able to write these courses yourself, even if you're able to do the technical development side. An ID can help you further analyze the need so you can choose the right tools and delivery. An ID can also plan the curriculum and design the storyboards.

If you need to be the ID yourself, please go back to the emails I sent you and start reading books from the list I provided.

You are great. thanks a lot.

Something else regarding the termology

what is a course? 

A)it is a video tutorial or video lesson or a series of slides which explains some theory or demostrates a skill?

or

B) a webpage that probably contains all the above using a friendly lay out? 

The storyline can do A, B, or both?

Again, a ineffective, passive course could be either A) video tutorials or a B) webpage.

An effective course also includes interactivity, practice, and assessment. Storyline can do that.

Ioannis,

I always learn through analogies. Since your first threads I've been struggling to come up with one that will help bridge the gap in understanding. The best I can come up with is this...

************************

Consider the goal of publishing a great story. One that delights, informs and captivates.

Now you are a book publisher and printing house.  You know about paper weights, typesetting, binding and more. So you think of it in terms of "how many pages will it be", "is it paperback or hardcover and "all I need to do is create some chapter templates and then fill in some words and pictures".

Elearning designers don't really care if it will be paperback, or a coffee table book.... or if it will even be a book!!!!!  We care about the plot, the characters, the pacing and all of the other things that go into making a compelling story. If that story  gets published as a book, movie screenplay, or podcast script, then fine; but the format is secondary.

So.... the methods (and tools) you use to create a great story have a different focus than those used for publishing a book in a defined format. Both may wind up creating written pages, but they are not the same.

************************

Hope this helps!

Thank you all. The issue here is that i have to find out both how to create a course that has interactive elements and how it would be published (technical info) and third where this could be done(lms).

It is obvious that i have some reading to do.

Thank you for the patient you showed both Bob S and Christy

Before you learn how to create and publish interactive courses, you need to understand how people learn and how technology can help people learn. Hopefully some of the books I pointed you towards will help you with that foundation step that you need before you can do the rest.

Thank you Christy. I have already started reading the material you pointed. Addiotionally i am a teacher for 15 years both to pupils and adults (2 degrees). And i am teaching technology. I am mentioning the above to point out that i have a decent starting point.

At the risk of going around in circles, what you mention above is the exact reason it was suggested on the other threads that you use an authoring tool like Storyline.

With such a tool, you are for the most part freed of having to worry about many/most of the technical pieces.  Instead, and to Christy's excellent points,  you can focus on creating great learning that meets the needs of your students and simply let the authoring tool handle the technicalities of creating the output.

THAT is the real beauty of such a tool..... you can create elearning where learning is the focus, not webpage creation.  

Yes, eventually you will have to decide how you host the finished content created in Storyline  (LMS or something else). But Storyline will let you easily and quickly create the interactive content , and allow you to simply publish and re-publish it in different formats as needed. 

If you are just starting out in e-learning, an all-in-one tool like Storyline really is lifesaver.... and almost always a better choice than trying to piece things together separately.

Yes. I see that now. I think it is the right tool. 

Allow me a final question

The design of the courses will be gamification friendly. Points, Badges, stars and so on. Additionaly there will be a talking avatar as a peer or an expert that will help learner through his/her experience.

A design like the one i just descriped is a matter of LMS or a matter of course builder? Could i manage all these just by using storyline?

Especially about the talking avatar i am considering of using another tool that creates animation with lip-sync - export it as a video and embed it into storyline. Is it a good idea? 

Some research has shown zero improvement in learner outcomes by adding an animated avatar rather than a static one. You're jumping ahead to technology without investigating why you're doing it and how to do so effectively. I would strongly urge you, again, to think about your goals and what you're trying to accomplish rather than getting sidetracked by flashy elements that will use up your time and budget but not change your results.

https://www.diigo.com/text_view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonehundredfortywords.com%2F2011%2F11%2F10%2Fanimated-vs-static-learning-agents-my-m-ed-capstone-research

Good question.  As a general rule you can think of it like this...

• If it happens within the course, the authoring tool handles it.
• If it happens outside the course, or across multiple learners/courses, then the LMS must handle it.

So in your case, keeping track of scores and badges across multiple users is the job of the LMS. 

Conversely, since avatars  do not need to communicate across courses/learners, it is handled at the course builder level. Simple ones can often be created in the authoring tool itself, but if you want fancier/animated etc then create it outboard and bring it into the authoring tool for inclusion and packaging.

Think of a course authoring tool such as Storyline as a "swiss army knife"....  lots of tools in one bundle that can do 90%+ of what you typically need. But if you want that last 10% customization then you look for specialty tools. My suggestion....  get Storyline and start playing around with it to see all the great things it can do before moving onto custom things like animated avatars etc. 

Hope this helps.