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CherylKent's avatar
CherylKent
Community Member
7 months ago

Evidence for elearning authoring packages?

Hello everyone,

wondered if anyone can point me in the direction of any evidence, comparisons, articles discussing elearning, learning activities and authoring packages. I have only been able to find articles that talk about the value or not of elearning progams / modules for specific educational courses / groups. I am more interested in the types of tools that give different functionality for creating learning objects

I am currently using articulate storyline 3, so support ends this year. I'm considering the move to articulate 360 but need to justify the jump in costs. So I'm trying to find any evidence of the value of a complete authoring tool compared to something more simple, with less functionality but cheaper.

Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you.

storyline 360
  • JohnCooper-be3c's avatar
    JohnCooper-be3c
    Community Member
    7 months ago

    @Cheryl Kent

    Hi Cheryl

    This isn't really what you are looking for, but I thought it might be useful when consdering authoring tool strategy.

    Designing e-learning for mobile devices – ‘frame-based’, responsive and scrolling screen design – Profile Learning Technologies

    Although the article addressed the challenges of authoring for mobile devices, it is really about the changes and trends in screen design brought on by an increasing transition to touch screen devices - and, in the future, AR and VR headsets.

    It's an important question as to whether you want to stick with a 'frame-based' authoring tool like Storyline, move to a 'scrolling screen' design (like RISE - included in the Articulate 360 package) and whether you see a role for '360 degree' screen design allowing self-discovery through VR.

    Please let us know how your search progresses - I'm sure there's a lot of us designers who would be interested in your findings.

    Regards, John 

  • CherylKent's avatar
    CherylKent
    Community Member
    7 months ago

    Hello John,

    thank you very much for this - it has certainly added food for thought.

    As a bit of background - I am a librarian  and create elearning objects for our users (healthcare students and professional staff) to help them to develop their library information skills and use our resources (databases etc). eLearning supplements our face-to-face training. I've found that about 80% of our website usage is desktop-based and the mobile access hasn't really changed much over past few years.

    I use storyline3 for the skills based objects - using lots of interaction and quizzes, giving students the opportunity to develop their literature search plan.

    I use MS Sway for the resources - features and benefits with lots of screen-shots and video demos. Some of my colleagues have suggested that the scrolling, scrolling, scrolling is a negative feature.

    I recently looked at ThingLink (the university just got a licence), so this provides 360 images and so on but other than a tour of the library I can't see how to use it for our skills-based learning - or maybe I'm not creative enough.

    Thanks again for your input.

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